Intellectual question about Adam and Eve...?

Question

My son is seven years old and has had a interest in Jesus Christ and religion and has started asking some very interesting questions, some i could answer and some i couldn't, So i enrolled him in sunday school (which is something HE wanted to do.) Being Catholic myself (but not very religious) encouraged him to go. I myself never recieved Confirmation and always wanted to, so to set a good example for my son (and myself) i enrolled in the RCIA. My son came up to me and asked me a very intellectual question on Adam and Eve, here it is: "IF ADAM AND EVE WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE ON EARTH WHERE DID CAVE-MAN COME FROM??" I was stumped!! Any help?? Thanks!!

I have told him the truth, and im not asking about the geico commercials or about the bible....I'M ASKING... If Adam and Eve were the first people where did the cave men come from.... Please don't write to me about telling him the truth andnot to take the bible literally, you have your views and i have mine, and mine are that the bible is true. Thanks!! : )

I'm sorry i CAN'T pick the best answer there are just TOO MANY good ones, so i'm going to leave this one for voting!! Thank you to everyone who answered i think i have somewhat of an idea now... Thanks again!!

Answer 1

I asked that too. Never got an answer.

Answer 2

Your son has asked a very valid question. The creation story when it addresses mankind is two fold. There is the creation of mankind on earth first. Then there is the creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden after they sinned and sent to live among the rest of mankind.
Evolutionist explains that the current level of humans developed over many millions of years. From tree dwellers to many sub species and interrelated sub species. primates as the accepted term. Cave men or Cro-Magnon man being one of our relative along with Neanderthal man.
Tell him even among evolutionist the jury is still out because a link between any of the other primates and man has not been found.
If you can understand this for what its worth the position that evolutionist take is a very strong and on the surface valid. But the creation story in Genesis is less about creation history and more about a rebellious mankind. How we got here is not important. That we have rebelled against God is the true story, not where we were created.

Answer 3

Adam and Eve sinned. They disobeyed God.
As a result of that sin they were punished. Part of that punishment was banishment from the Garden of Eden.
They were also punished by having to till the ground for food and provide their own protection from the earth itself.
In this punishment the earth, too, was cursed. It would put forth briars and weeds. In the long long story of man it is not inconceivable that some of the decendants of Adam and Eve chose to live in caves.
It has been revealed over and over again (although ignored by the evolutionists) that the specimens set forth as 'cave men' or pre-man were, in fact, faked by the people who 'revealed' them to the world.
Men who lived in caves were the same type of man who lives now.
'Cavemen' are fictional.

Answer 4

The existence of cavemen in underdeveloped human forms presumes the truth of evolution, that man developed from smaller, simpler life forms to become what man is today.
The Bible, and many Christians as a result, do not accept evolution as truth. Adam and Eve, as the first humans, were made in God's image and were a creation set apart from mere animals.
Best wishes in the path both you and your son are on to discover spiritual truth. Let the Bible be the starting point of any discovery.

Answer 5

Well it depends on whether you want to teach him that cave-men had souls or not. The Catholic Church supports evolution as part of God's plan but says there is a point when people started to have souls- I guess that would be Adam and Eve.

Answer 6

Apparently u have a very smart kid, Ironically i asked the same question when i was 15 yrs old, and after alot of research and analyzing some of the scientific documents i reached to the conclusion that science is wrong about the theory of evolution, as for the very 1st time from a very long time scientists started to question this theory and its reliability after they discovered alot of evidence that defy this theory altogether!
If only they would depend on God's books, they would save alot of money and effort.

tell ur son, there was never a caveman, that humans were created with the knowledge needed to survive on earth, the religious stories even revealed to us that angel Gabriel used to teach Adam how to fish, how to mate, how to cook and how to use fire!!!!

Answer 7

The Caveman is a theory of evolutionist. The Christian belief of creation simply excludes the evolutionary theories. The Bible gives us a preserved written record of the beginning of humans in Genisis 1:26-29. It is not theory like cavemen.

There are many different Chrisitan books on science that you can find for your son that support his beliefs in Christianity. There are some great resources at www.reasons.org.

Answer 8

Cave man never existed in the popular sense of the term.
Some people did live in caves, but only as an interim measure ....until the tent was complete.
Some of God's prophets lived in caves when under persecution. Elijah ....1 Kings 17.
However, 'caveman' in the evolutionary sense is an invented exaggeration.

Answer 9

Romy you seem like a very intelligent woman and a caring mother. Please take the advice you see from some of these nutbags with a grain of salt.

Your son is obviously very curious and intelligent and will certainly maintain his curiousity for the world and his own existance. All you can do as a parent is give him options. If he grows up thinking that it is anti-social to question the church then his learning abilities in other subjects down the road might be effected as well.

Believe me his sunday school would be angry with him if he were to ask such a confrontational question. In fact the sunday school would likely punish him or tell him not to think for himself. This is not the healthy path for your child, he will likely figure out own his own the truth about religion and how it is a fairy tale of our ancestors used for explaining the unexplainable. It was written by human beings who are no more intelligent than you or I and that is why they have run into many logical problems such as the one your son has remarkably pointed out at such a young age.

There is hope for atheists in the future afterall

Answer 10

The closest we have to cave men are some descendents of Adam and Eve's didn't believe in modern technology (building a house). So they decided to live in caves.

Answer 11

Romy,

I have wondered the same......and why God created the dinosouars, etc.

My guess is that the cave men were humanoids.....but not humans with a soul.

Using the Bible and the dates and ages of people delineated therein, it has been determined that Adam & Eve existed on Earth about 6,000 years ago. Consider that the first approximate 2,000 years up until Abraham represented man’s direct interaction with Our Heavenly Father. The next 2,000 years represented man’s awaiting the Messiah and man’s direct interaction with Jesus. The next 2,000 years represent man’s direct interaction with the Holy Spirit from Pentecost until the end of time (e.g. charisms).

The final period is the Era of Peace, which corresponds to the day of Sabbath or rest taken by the Father in creation. Furthermore, the Era of Peace is an antitype of the Garden of Eden, and as such will be far superior to Eden.

Consider what some of the Church Fathers taught:

St. Irenaeus

"For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be concluded. And for this reason the Scripture says: "Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all their adornment. And God brought to a conclusion upon the sixth day the works that He had made; and God rested upon the seventh day from all His works." This is an account of the things formerly created, as also it is a prophecy of what is to come. For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years; and in six days created things were completed: it is evident, therefore, that they will come to an end at the sixth thousand year." (Cf. Adversus haereses, Book V, Chap. XXVIII)

.

Lactantius

"God completed the world and this admirable work of nature in the space of six days, as is contained in the secrets of Holy Scripture, and consecrated the seventh day, on which He had rested from His works. But this is the Sabbath-day, which in the language of the Hebrews received its name from the number, whence the seventh is the legitimate and complete number. For there are seven days, by the revolutions of which in order the circles of years are made up; and there are seven stars which do not set, and seven luminaries which are called planets, whose differing and unequal movements are believed to cause the varieties of circumstances and times.

Therefore, since all the works of God were completed in six days, the world must continue in its present state through six ages, that is, six thousand years. For the great day of God is limited by a circle of a thousand years, as the prophet shows, who says "In Thy sight, O Lord, a thousand years are as one day." And as God laboured during those six days in creating such great works, so His religion and truth must labour during these six thousand years, while wickedness prevails and bears rule. And again, since God, having finished His works, rested the seventh day and blessed it, at the end of the six thousandth year all wickedness must be abolished from the earth, and righteousness reign for a thousand years; and there must be tranquillity and rest from the labours which the world now has long endured. " (Lactantius, Divine Institutes, Book VII Of a Happy Life - Ch 14)


http://www.call2holiness.org/EraofPeace/EraofPeace.htm


.