Dr. Denis Alexander, who is the Director of the Faraday
Institute for Science and Religion at Cambridge University, is
an eminently qualified molecular biologist with a very odd
combination of theological beliefs. In a recent article in The
Guardian (December 23, 2011) entitled, "Evolution, Christmas and
the Atonement", he rejected belief in a literal Adam and Eve and
an historical Fall, on the grounds that it was totally
incompatible with scientific discoveries over the last few
decades, which clearly indicate that “we last shared a common
ancestor with the chimps about 5-6 million years ago, and humans
have been gradually emerging through a series of hominid
intermediates ever since.” Dr. Alexander had no time for belief
in an immaterial soul, either: in his view, it is our complex
brains that endow us with free will. [Dr. Alexander cites Philo
and Origen as justification for his theological beliefs. But do
these writers support his theories. The author shows this is not
the case. Below the position of Orig