in the begining there were adam and eve and if i remember my bible correctly they had two sons cain and able. so were did the rest of us come from? did cain and able have sex with there mother to create children or did adam and eve keep having children until they had a few girls then brother and sisters had sex with each other until there was a decent population of people? but if thats the case then does that make incest okay? and if it does then how come people can't commit insest today? i mean it was okay with god back then.
2007-06-04 05:43:25 · 20 answers · asked by mystic 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
so let me get this straight there were lots of people but for what ever reason adam and eve were speical and were the only ones aloud in the garden but when they screwed up they were kicked out to live amoung the rejected.
i don't get it
well i guess that's why i don't believe in the bible, great stories but holds no facts.
2007-06-04 06:06:47 · update #1
Some will argue that there were other humans around and that god only mentioned Adam & Eve by name. But if we go a bit further forward to the flood, only Noah's family remained after that (as specifically stated in the bible). They MUST have had incestuous breeding (which as GLH pointed out, could not possibly have worked).
2007-06-04 05:49:38 · answer #1 · answered by Dharma Nature 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It didn't, not in the Biblical sense anyway. If the entire population started with only two people, Adam and Eve, then it would not be possible to have the wide genetic variation that we see in humans today. Furthermore as it has been calculated that on average every person's DNA contains at least two mutations or flaws which, when combined in their children, would cause death in the womb or early infancy, then the incest inplied by the biblical description would have resulted in the rapid extinction of the human race.
Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA (which is always inherited from the mother) and Y-Chromosomal DNA (which always comes from the father) does indeed show that humans are descended from just one man and just one woman:-
"Mitochondrial Eve" lived about 140,000 years ago and all living humans are descended from her
"Y-Chromosomal Adam" lived about 60,000 years ago and again all living humans are descended from him.
This demonstrates that there were two "bottlenecks" in the human population although does not imply incest in anything like the same way as the Bible because many other humans would have been around at the time and their lines died out later over time. It is also obvious that the real life "Adam and Eve" never met, being separated by approximately 80,000 years.
2007-06-04 05:46:40 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
Actually, if you read further into Genesis (if I recall...could be next chapter...I don't remember), you will find that Cain and Abel met with some other mysterious folk who they married. Where these other people came from, I have no clue...of course, I never looked further into the bible. The only reason I know this is because I had to find the answer for a friend. I believe that not all specific details are in the bible. So, there are alot of things we really don't know about out of the bible. I believe whatever God really wanted us to know is in there. I believe what Jesus taught is what is the most important part to "get".
2007-06-04 05:53:26 · answer #3 · answered by hearts_and_thoughts_2003 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5 Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.
Gen 5:3-5 (NIV)
Think about it, not only did Adam and Eve have "many other sons and daughters", there was no disease. Death was unheard of-except for Able, and the gene pool was clean.
Besides that, science tells us that all humans (red and yellow, black and white) came from one woman. See the DNA research project done by University of California, Berkeley Biochemist Alan Wilson and Mark Stoneking way back in the 80's. Their work was published in an article in Newsweek 01-11-1988 entitled" The Search For Adam And Eve". That ended the argument.
EDIT: The project obtained mitochondrial DNA from 147 different cultures (all races) from all around the world. They then mapped out a family history linking all modern humans back to a single female.
UCAL Berkeley is not a Baptist Bible college, and Dr.s Wilson and Stoneking are not Christians.
2007-06-04 05:58:38 · answer #4 · answered by johnnywalker 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Adam and Eve had lots of sons and daughters and lived for hundreds of years. Cain, Abel and Seth are the only ones named but the Bible is clear that Eve was the mother of all living. Incest was ok at that time because people were so close to being perfect but as imperfection has compounded thoughout the centuries, it has become dangerous for the offspring and therefore God made it a law and warning for us. Everything God does and says is for our benefit.
2007-06-04 05:55:32 · answer #5 · answered by Sparkle1 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Genesis 5:4 says Adam and Eve had more sons and alot more daughters.
That would provide the mechanics.
Although having sex with your sister is consider a bit ugly today, please keep in mind, Cain, or Seth could have been 40 years old, already left home and returned to see a girl of 18.
His sister 'yes', but a stranger to him.
Also, God has tolerated a number of practices with which He does not really agree.
2007-06-04 05:50:57 · answer #6 · answered by Uncle Thesis 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
i do no longer think of the Bible ever particularly states the way it went down yet i could think of that the brothers and sisters had intercourse with one yet another. i understand it sounds discusting yet thats the way it passed off. And God made it to the place their little ones weren't mutated. I advise regardless of each and every thing he created Adam and Eve and each thing else in existence, so why does not he have the potential to make the youngsters no longer be mutated.
2016-11-04 22:19:53 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
What a good question. I remember in school listening to my science teacher say we evolved from apes and I thought he was crazy because thats not what the bible says. Sorry no answer here but it will be interesting to see what others have to say about this one.
2007-06-04 05:52:54 · answer #8 · answered by Christie G 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Good luck getting a straight answer. Most likely, creationists will either avoid the question all together, create a magic situation, or else just say that god works in mysterious ways.
Of course, none of those are an answer.
2007-06-04 05:48:03 · answer #9 · answered by Peter D 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Actually there were other men and women in the world. Cain went to another city and started a family according to Genesis.
2007-06-04 05:51:34 · answer #10 · answered by hrld_sleeper 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋