Hey Jace,
Wow - you ask a lot of questions! Good ones too! If you want a more thorough answer on any one of these, then we should do them one at a time. But here is a brief response to each.
1. Do you believe the Creation Story to be literally true? If so, what are your thoughts on the two differing versions presented in chapters 1 and 2?
Yes, I believe the story to be literally true.
Having said that, I think there are literary elements that may be literal events/items described with metaphorical referents and there may be metaphorical elements with literal referants as well. "Day" could be seen as metaphorical language denoting a literal span of time. The Tree of Knowledge is a literal tree but certainly with a metaphorical referent. Some would interpret "day" literally. I really don't know and I think the conversation misses the point. Genesis isn't about "when" and "how." It's about "who, what, and why." Anyway, I see room for discussion on interpretting the date issue. Most of the arguments assume that time is constant, which it isn't.
I do not see anything incongruent between the two versions in chapter 1 and 2. Rather, I see the same story from two different perspectives. Chapter 2 is, from the beginning focused upon the creation of mankind. Chapter 1 seems to have a bigger picture view. We have four different gospels offering four different perspectives on the same story about Jesus as well.
2. Do you find the description of Eve in chapter 2 as a "helper" as opposed to a "partner" to be misogynistic simply because of the culture in which it was written or do you believe God views women as less than men?
I do not find "helper" to in any way imply inferiority in women. If anything, it implies insufficiency in man, for it was not good for man to be alone. My own experience as a man demonstrates this! But I think even this interpretation is off base. Originally, God created Man as male and female. The two were one. It appears that this is the state that was somehow less than good. God then separated male and female. Now part of mankind is male and the other part, distinct from the male, is female. Both together are the full expression of God's image. It is "good" that God's image being fully expressed on the earth requires relationship. Man dominating Woman is a curse. It is not part of the original design for things at all.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ” (Genesis 1:27–28, ESV)
I think it's important to note in the above that God commissioned male and female together to fill the earth, subdue it, and to have dominion. God's design from the beginning is for co-laboring.
3. Was man created in God's image, save for the wisdom to differentiate the "knowledge of good and evil", or does God not know the difference between good and evil?
No. The Tree of Life does not leave you without knowledge. It is the Tree of Knowledge that leaves you without life. The issue is: what is my source? Here we have two literal trees but with a very metaphorical use and referent. Life is about being rightly aligned with God as source. Knowledge is about being disconnected from God as source, plugging in to self as source instead.
4. Why is nudity now shameful after eating the fruit of knowledge?
Instead of being primarily God-concsious, man became self-conscious. Shame touches more than nudity. It produced fear, for they ran and hid. It produced an awareness of nakedness and a need to hide. My suspicion is, based on Psalm 8, that prior to the Fall both Adam and Eve were clothed in Glory, this being lost when sin entered.
5. Why was the serpent cursed for telling the truth?
He wasn't. He was cursed for lying. "Did God really say?" Well, yes...in fact he did say. "God just knows that in the day you eat of it, you will be like him..." Well, in fact, they were already like God - made in the very image and likeness of God.
6. Why did God make Adam and Eve some new clothes? Was he now ashamed of their nudity? Did he not mind it when they were oblivious?
The fig leaves were probably quite insufficient!
God covered them, not because he was ashamed, but because they were. It was mercy. That God would shed blood in order to cover shame is a powerful picture of redemption.
7. Why did God remove them from the Garden and curse all of humanity to a life of labor culminating in death when, in his omnipotent omniscience He knew full well what they would do?
This question simply doesn't go far enough. It's not just - why would God make man if he knew man would sin and be separated from God's holiness? It's also - why would God make man when he knew he himself would die on the cross in order to restore that relationship? Sin separates us from God. It kills. God redeems.
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