Were Adam and Eve a lie?

This morning I read a conversation on Facebook between two people of different viewpoints. Let's call them Jay and Don.  The discussion wasn't heated, although the reader knew that these two people would never agree, and would only debate.  Jay asked Don, "Do you believe in a real Adam and Eve?  Or do you see these two conflicting creation stories as divine love stories developed centuries apart by primitive people to do the best they could to understand God with the knowledge they had and to teach their children about God and God's purposes?"

Don answered that he did believe in a real Adam and Eve. (I wasn't surprised, based on the rest of the conversation).  He went on to say, "I must say that I find it amusing you think people serving a god that says not to lie, use a lie to teach their kids about said god."

I don't want to use this post to debate whether Adam and Eve were real (although my beliefs fall more in line with the second option in the original question).  What surprised me about the conversation is that Don would say that to not believe in a "real" Adam and Eve was to believe and teach a lie.  While I might not believe that Adam and Eve were real people, I do believe that the story is totally and completely true.  The story is not about the existence of Adam and Eve - it's about the truth that God created the world and all that is in it, including us.  The story is no more a lie than a parable of Jesus would be.  No one would think to argue (although maybe I'm wrong) whether the characters in the parable about the Prodigal sons were "real" or not.  The story is so true that it drips with reality and divine revelation.  So it is with the creation story.

I thank God for people like Rev. Chuck Echols, who taught me to examine the contents of the cart - for this is the message, and this is where the truth is found - rather than the cart itself.