Question about Adam, Eve and Genesis, I would like some explanations from religious people.?

Question

Now first I would like to say that in no way am I attempting to make you question yourself, I only want to have this explained to me logically the way you see it through your religion. I have debated with many people about this and I have never recieved a satisfactory or believable answer. So please do not take offence and do your best to answer my questions.
If Adam and Eve were the only man and woman then where did their sons find wives that werent related to them, as in their sisters?? If they married thier sisters then that is incest, that being said does that imply that incest is acceptable in the eyes of god? Also in Genesis it is stated that god made all the beasts of the land and water and that Adam named them all, mentioning cattle I believe but if this was the beginning wouldnt it have been dinosaurs? Why is there no mention of creatures so fantastic as dinosaurs if the bible is historically accurate? How do you explain the conflicts with proven scientific facts?

PS just so you know I am a spiritual agnostic, I dont go to church I never have, not that I put others down for doing so I am merely trying to see how people who believe the bible explain these issues.

The conflict with proven scientific fact that I am referring to specifically is that of population bottleneck. Science has shown that it is not possible to create the diversity needed for a large healthy population from such a small gene pool of only 2 individuals. Also knowing as we do the effects of incest in every animal on this planet (except beavers) how would it be possible that we are not all deformed today if we started from incest so long ago??

Answer 1

First, let me attempt to answer your question concerning brothers and sisters marrying each other in the beginning. That is true, for example after Cain slew Able, the Bible says "Cain knew his wife," meaning that made or experienced the physcial act of love, and they were brother and sister, although it gives not reference to how many years has passed from the creation of all things, with that we don't know how many relations they were actually apart from one another.
Still, this is the way the world was populated, another example Abraham married Sarah who was his sister, they had the same father, but different mothers. There are also other instances of family members marrying one another during the time of the Old Testament, and during some portion of the New Testament unto the rising of Christ from the grave, for after His resurrection the New Testament took precedence. With that in mind, there is the saying that the Old Testament prophesies while the New Testmament forefills. Also, when we talk of the Old Testament we are dealing with the Letter of the law, whereas in the New Testament we deal with the Spirit of the Law. When we come this time, the present age we do not and should not engage in marriage or the sexual experience with blood members of our families, but we should have a mate who is of the same spiriutal beliefs that we are, so that we will not be "Unequally Yoked." Even though in certain part of the Middle East family members still marry one another, it is said, they do for the purpose of keeping their bloodline pure.
As far as the time frame that disnosaurs roamed the earth from my belief and I can only give reference to what I believe, that place during time before mankind was actually created, when the earth was still full of darkness which would be set in the book of Genesis the 1st Chapter versus 1-2, while the earth was still in an unfinished state, at the 3rd verse where God says "Let there be light," is when Jesus whose name in heaven is the "Word of God," and "Who is the Light of the World" came forth and created all things as we know they are today.
The Bible details that 1 day (24 hours) of our time is a 1000 years and a 1000 years is one day to God, so the world had been here for a while, but again, in an unfinished state as for as our time frame is concerned before the creation of man actually took place, exactly how long I do not know. Again, all things are by faith.

Answer 2

What color were Julius Caesar's eyes? What art work did he have in his house? These are all observable questions, do you have an answer?

God who existed before created everything that you and I can observe. In other words, God exist in our world as well as a world we cannot observe.

Science is theories regarding facts, where facts are observations made by men (note plural) independent of location (observed knowledge). It is based on Aristotelian two value logic: It is or it is not. There are no science facts about God. Nor is the bible a history or science book.

The bible is a religious book that documents God's word (revealed knowledge) as spoken by the prophets. It is a book for the believer, not a conversion manual. What it states it is we know.

Now to your questions:
1. If Adam and Eve were the only man and woman then where did their sons find wives that weren’t related to them, as in their sisters?
[We don't know that detail isn't given to us.]
2. If they married their sisters then that is incest, that being said does that imply that incest is acceptable in the eyes of god?
[Again we don't know, God didn’t tell us.]
3. Also in Genesis it is stated that god made all the beasts of the land and water and that Adam named them all, mentioning cattle I believe but if this was the beginning wouldn’t it have been dinosaurs?
Genesis 1.1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. [the observable Universe]
Genesis 1.2 2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. [The footnote a the word become can be used instead of was (this is closer to the Hebrew word.) The earth became chaos and vacent....]
What this means is that God created the observable word and later he intervened. (God never stated a gender—I will use he/him/his from now on)
Genesis 2:19-20 simply says that God created something and he let man name it. Dinosaurs were never discussed. Did they exist before or after God intervened, we do not know.
4.Why is there no mention of creatures so fantastic as dinosaurs if the bible is historically accurate?
No. The bible is a religious book. The bible refers to the other history/science books. The bible contains reveal knowledge not found in any history or science book.
5. How do you explain the conflicts with proven scientific facts?
As indicated, facts are observation. Theories (which may change over time) explains the facts. The bible has no facts. In fact, it does even prove the existence of God: the bible assumes it.

Now my answer:
We live with two belief systems: Revelation and science, or simply put, God reveals and man observes. You can not use revealed knowledge as theories in science, since reveal knowledge is not factual, but the words of the prophets whom you may believe or may not believe. Moreover, you can not use the scientific method to prove anything about revealed knowledge, science requires facts and there are no scientific facts.

Beliefs are not rational, and neither are you. What you believe is yours. You have two belief systems, and your question has nothing to do with biblical content. You want to use one belief system to define the other. I have carefully answered you questions based on what the bible has revealed. You can ask all the question you want, make all the claims about the answers you receive, but in truth, you are justifying your doubt (or disbelief). Remember the bible is a resource for the believer, not a conversion manual o change your beliefs..

Answer 3

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the earth. This does not state when God created the earth just that it was created. Now to answer some of the questions you have asked are 1 Adam and Eve were not the first people on earth God created male and female on the sixth day on the eight day God formed Adam from the dust of the ground. Adam and Eve were created to have a blood line Christ would ultimately come thru. Yes God did accept incest for a time to increase this blood line. Adam named the animals of the farm because he was made to be a tiller of the ground. Dinosaurs were alive during the first earth age their will be 3 total earth ages. These maybe answers you have never heard before so if you like a more in-depth study of these answer look up Shepherds Chapel on the web and order the study tapes of the first 6 chapters of Genesis.

Answer 4

There are a lot of questions posted here, but I would like to address the dinosaur question. In the Bible there is a creature mentioned called Leviathan which is found in Job 3:8, 41:1, Psalm 74:14, and Isaiah 27:1. It was believed to be a sea creature and some believe it to be a dinosaur type of creature.
I appreciate your honesty and opening remarks about not wanting to offend. I look at the Bible in this way. It is a book of 66 books written by 40 different authors. These authors were of different cultures and from different time periods, yet if you read the bible in it's entirety you find a beginning, middle, and end with one common thread and theme. The Bible was meant to be read as one entire book not a verse picked out here and there.

Answer 5

You are probably new to this forum since these questions get asked 100 times a day. For one, yes Adam and Eve's children married relatives, sisters or cousins...There was no law against it at the time and therefore was not sin until people were made aware of it when the Law was given down to Moses. The book of Job mentions creatures that sound a lot like dinosaurs to me. But even so, the Bible does not give a list of every creature there was. There are no scientific FACTS that conflict with the Bible but several theories.

Answer 6

well to start the bible is not a natures observation book. No the animals are not all named because the bible is designed for a reason... it's designed to lead men to God.

from answers in genesis author ken ham

The time factor
Day Six of Creation Week began at evening (Genesis 1:31), and so consisted of about 12 hours of darkness followed by about 12 hours of daylight. There is no reason why God could not have made the land animals, and Adam too, during the darkness period of Day Six, so that at first light there they all were!

If, however, God used the daylight period, there is no reason to suppose that His creative acts in making the animals and Adam took any longer than the instant for Him to command these events to happen.1 So either way it need not have taken any time at all beyond first light on Day Six for all the land animals and Adam to have come into existence.

Adam therefore had most of the daylight hours of Day Six in which to complete his task. Note that this task did not include his searching out the animal, because Genesis 2:19 tells us that God ‘brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them’. Presumably this was in some sort of reasonably orderly procession.

Cain’s brothers and sisters
Cain was the first child of Adam and Eve recorded in Scripture (Genesis 4:1). His brothers, Abel (Genesis 4:2) and Seth (Genesis 4:25), were part of the first generation of children ever born on this Earth.

Even though only these three males are mentioned by name, Adam and Eve had other children. In Genesis 5:4 a statement sums up the life of Adam and Eve—‘And the days of Adam after he had fathered Seth were eight hundred years. And he fathered sons and daughters.’ This does not say when they were born. Many could have been born in the 130 years (Genesis 5:3) before Seth was born.

During their lives, Adam and Eve had a number of male and female children. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that, ‘The number of Adam’s children, as says the old tradition, was thirty-three sons and twenty-three daughters.’11

The Bible does not tell us how many children were born to Adam and Eve. However, considering their long life spans (Adam lived for 930 years—Genesis 5:5), it would seem reasonable to suggest there were many! Remember, they were commanded to ‘Be fruitful, and multiply’ (Genesis 1:28).

Answer 7

How about taking it not as a literal story but as a faith story? And, what about taking into account that there are, in fact, two creation stories? Here is an essay I wrote a few years back. Take a look.

I do not take the two
stories literally nor do I think they are meant to be
used as a scientific explanation of how creation
happened. I believe them to be faith stories.
Stories to show a personality triat of God or stories
to explain why something is the way it is (ie the
earthly consequences of sins). I do not think they
are made to say "this is how the world is made".

The first one was written in the time that Israel was
being taken over by the Kingdom of Babylon. They were
indeed in a time of chaos. It was a time of war, of
horror, of just complete confusion, and indeed, chaos.
God is not a God of Chaos. Instead, He is orderly,
He is on-time, He is in control, and He certainly
isn't confusing. Though we may get confused
sometimes, God isn't the one that confused us. At
this time, the Hebrew people were used to being near
their Holy Place, the temple, Jerusalem, and each
other. For the first time in a long time, they
weren't near home, or one another, or their temple.
How could they continue their rituals? How could they
worship? Things had to change and things had to be
done quickly. This was the same time many of the
books in the Hebrew Bible were beginning to be written
done because people were seperated and couldn't rely
so heavily on one another to remember the words of
God.

To the Hebrew people, there were two things that were
the same as chaos. Both darkness and water is the
representation of chaos. They could not control
either one of them. That is what existed in the first
creation story before God came in and made things
orderly. They were in a time of chaos and needed to
be reminded that God is a God of order and can make
order out of the most chaotic times. The story is
made in a very, very orderly fashion. It's got order.
The first days are the creation of the lands, and the
next are the animals that populate those lands (air,
water, earth). The big difference in this one and
inthe second is that the male and female are created
together. Also, the MAIN point of all the creation
story in this instance isn't until the very end.
There is the whole purpose behind the Sabbath. There
were three things that the Hebrew people had that gave
them their identity. 1) Circumcision, 2) The food
laws, and 3) The Sabbath. When they were seperated in
the exile from one another, from the temple, and from
Israel even, they needed a reminder about what made
them different. One of the MAIN things was that
Sabbath. Everyone else had a work week that didn't
end. There was not a Sabbath or a weekend. They
needed that reminder to stand strong and be different
before God. Stand out and stand apart. That is the
idea of being a holy and priestly nation as they were
called to be. Holy meaning set apart and priestly
meaning "go between". They were the set apart
mediator. That is a fantastic calling. More than
anything, they needed a reminder that they indeed were
different and God can make order out of ANYTHING.

In the second story, it is much more intimate. The
writing style is different. It's more like a story
told around the campfire. And, more than likely, it
was. It's a story about marriage, and abou the
consequences of our sins. Sins have earthly
consequences. Some will say they are things that God
does on purpose, but that is a different topic for
another day. It is a story about why we marry, about
how it started. It uses two characters to show how it
came about. The order of the creation is different
and the author here uses a different more personal
tone. Our God is a personal God. He walks in the
cool of the day. He is with us. He is indeed here
with us. He isn't far away watching us from a
distance. We can call upon Him and be in His presence
now. Again, I do not think it is an explanation of
the how of creation. But, it certainly shows the who.
Both of the stories accomplish that.

In short, I don't know how God did it. If the science
world is right, then so be it. Besides, I cannot deny
the stories of the cavemen or the skeletons of horses
with 5 toes. I cannot say that we have animals now
that we didn't have millions of years ago and vice
versa. I do not know if the string theory is right,
or the big bang theory or anything else out there.
But, I do know WHO did it. I know the being BEHIND
the process and I know who STARTED it and put it all
into motion. That is my God, the creator. The how
doesn't matter to me.

If you need anything else, email me. [e-mail] This is one of my favorite subjects.

Amanda

Answer 8

Well, incest wasn't a sin until God called it a sin, which was with Moses and in Leviticus, all those Laws are listed. Before that, incest wasn't a sin, so that is where all the children came from. The women aren't mentioned in Genesis, because in Hebrew culture, the name of the man was passed on, so it was recognized as more important. They had sisters, which they had sex with, and had children. If you look in the Apocrypha, and other Deuterocanonical books, it will tell you the names, Cain married Luluwa, and Seth married Aklia. For the other one, there are mentions in the Bible of creatures similar to dinasours. Dragons and such.

Answer 9

Science and spirituality are two different beasts, that serve two different masters: logic and faith. I don't think either one disproves the other, but they do often seem irreconcilable. That said:
the way I see it, yes, Adam and Eve's children (if A and E really were the first people one earth) did inter-marry. The bible is full of things which are OKAY given the circumstances, but sinful given other circumstances. I don't think incest is a sin, anyway, it is just strange and will give you screwed up children.
Also, science tells us that dinosaurs lived millions of years before people, so it makes sense that they lived well before Adam and Eve were on the earth. I guess Adam didn't get to name those.

Answer 10

First of all I don't think anyone can prove that Adam's sons married their sisters. It would be really nice to hear some Christians say they don't know just once. As far as incest goes, at that time the human race was still relatively healthy and inbreeding could have produced some healthy children. Incest became a sin because the human race aged and it was no longer healthy to inbreed with brothers or first cousins, etc. until it became absolutely forbidden. Although I think we still did a pretty good job of producing many weak intellects.