I thought it might be fun to provide an addendum, because there is a story behind my little post.
I changed my mind about PS, over a period of several months. My endorsement of @swamidass’ book was tepid at best, and my initial stance toward the book and its arguments was not very friendly. I have denounced the motivation for the book in pretty vivid terms. And in fact my opinions about that goal have not changed–I think that taking the whole Eden story as anything other than a fictional fable is ridiculous. And those who have read (perhaps through gritted teeth) my opinions about Christianity know that I am a thoroughgoing apostate, not merely an atheist or skeptic. Hence my intro in which I list all the reasons that PS (and especially this forum) are not often my cup of herbal tea. In short, I came to PS with skepticism, suspicion, and even hostility.
But you see, I was wrong about some pretty important facets of PS. For one, the prime directive of PS is not to make converts or even mostly to make Christians more comfortable with their myths. I’m sure the Christians here would be overjoyed to make a convert or two and I am certain they all want their fellow believers to move away from dangerous commitments to obvious falsehoods. But that isn’t the main goal, and I think this is starting to become clearer (look at the kinds of conversations that we’re having and how they compare to those just a few months ago). More importantly, I see a culture of transparency and patience. Transparency about lots of things, but especially about errors and error correction. And patience with the inevitable challenges of managing a forum that includes plenty of ignorant people bringing the tedious baggage of science denial into conversations with real scientists, but also patience with grouchy scientists who should take more time with the Headspace app before responding to confused faux skeptics. (Yeah, it’s me.)
I would never want to hang around a discussion group about genetics and the garden of Eden, nor would anyone else want that. That’s just not what this thing is about. It took me months to figure this out. If you’re reading this and you’re still wondering about that, I hope you’ll give it some time. IMO, if Joshua and the rest of the team can convince me, then they will probably convince you, no matter how much you share my disdain for the gods and their books.