Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
1 Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
For years I’ve listened to non-believers state they cannot believe mankind began with Adam and Eve. The account in Genesis is simply too far fetched to be credible. My question is… what is the alternative? Evolution? While the idea of a supernatural being creating a man and a woman, putting them in a garden and instructing them to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” seems hard to grasp for some, once I thought about it, I had a real hard time wrapping my head around any alternative. Think about it.
Lets talk about genus. A genus is a scientific classification. A quick search online yields this definition: “a principal taxonomic category that ranks above species and below family…” Now here’s the thing about genus – different genera cannot interbreed. Yes, you can cross a horse with a donkey and produce a mule but mules cannot reproduce to breed more mules. It stops there. Interbreeding within a species is possible, thus we have terriers and dobermans, but they are the same genus.
How does man fit into this? All humans are Homos. The genus is Homo. Modern humans are classified as Homo Sapiens to distinguish us from previous species. The question is where did the genus “Homo” derive from? According to my understanding of evolution theory, all life evolved from a single-celled entity. Every new genus would have to evolve from a current genus. How would that work… exactly? Mutation is the answer I’ve always heard. So let’s jump the ladder from that “first life” and go directly to man, the Homo genus.
What genus did the Homo genus evolve from? How would that have happened? Because when it comes right down to it, the process would likely be the same no matter the genus, lets just say we came from the genus Simia or apes. How would that work? Consider the mutation idea. Let’s say a female in a group of apes produced the first Homo baby. Wonderful. A new genus is born. For the new genus to reproduce it would have to mate with another of the same genus. Okay, so lets just say somehow a female in this same group of apes gave birth to another Homo baby. One of these babies was male and the other female. For the sake of simplicity, lets suppose they both had the same parents. Yes, I know, incest is taboo, but it happens. Besides, I’m sure they wouldn’t know any better.
So here you have the first human Homos. Male and female. Now, I suppose it is possible that the same Mom and Dad ape produced more mutant offspring. Maybe they had a whole bunch of mutant kids. Who am I to judge? Now for this to happen, each mutant baby would have to have exactly the same genetic makeup of the new genus. Fraternal twins maybe? It cannot be maternal twins as these are always the same gender. To produce fraternal twins, two eggs would need to be fertilized by two sperm. Both the eggs and the sperm would have to contain the same mutation that produced the mutant. This alone seems like a pretty tall order.
What is the alternative in this scenario? Well, maybe Daddy ape had the mutant gene and he spread it around the group. Okay, so that is possible. Again, this mutant gene would have to be dominant and it would have to impart the essence of the new genus. Otherwise this mutant gene would have to spontaneously erupt in multiple locations and somehow these Homos would have to find each other to reproduce. Now that stretches the most active of imaginations.
Let’s just go with the mutant Daddy gene idea for the moment. Daddy is prolific and he’s making Homo babies like crazy. Let’s say he’s got twenty kids. Just for kicks, let’s suppose only one is a boy and 19 are girls. So the boy has this built-in harem and he goes to town. (I’m supposing because only the girls can give birth so this would be most productive for the purpose of expanding the genus.) It wouldn’t take long before the new genus would be well established. Great. Where are they? Huh?
If such a scenario happened, there would likely be significant evidence of the event. Moreover, if mutant Daddy could accomplish this then it is likely there would be other “mutant Daddies”. The problem with this is each new genus would be a different genus. Otherwise how could several different carriers pass on the same mutant gene? It is not likely.
The other problem would be in order for a new genus to reproduce, one would need both a male and at least one female to accomplish the task. How different is this scenario that that of Adam and Eve? To me, not very. But there is yet another question that needs answering.
According to Biologyonline, in 2018 the Catalogue of Life quoted 173,363 accepted genus names for both extant and extinct species. Okay, fine. How did they come into existence? If one subscribes to the mutant theory, then, since the beginning of life on earth, genera would have had to evolve at least 173,362 times (other tallies come up with different totals). This rather suggest new genera would evolve on a fairly regular basis. Personally, I’ve never heard a whisper of a single new genus being documented as ever happening. Ever.
Maybe there is another theory on all these different genera came about. I do not see where it matters as nobody is even facing the elephant in the room: where are all the new genera? Has evolution stopped entirely? Why? How?
Let’s revisit Adam and Eve, shall we? In light of all of the acrobatic twists and turns evolutionary theory must subject itself to in order to simply get to where it is today, the story of a supernatural being creating life on earth, including the first couple, doesn’t seem all that hard to grasp to me. Bluntly put, it seems very straightforward. Ah! But then you are forced to accept a superior being! You say. Well…
Why don’t we simply extend evolutionary theory just one step beyond man. After all if evolution has not simply ceased then it is only natural to accept that our Homo genus is not the end. Would it not then be inevitable that a being superior to man will eventually evolve? How far could evolution reach? Could it produce a being so advanced, we would have to call it supernatural?
Now for some simple math. The earth is said to have been formed 4.5 billion years ago. Some estimate the first life formed on earth 3.77 billion years ago but others have moved that up to 4.41 billion years. I suspect because I’m not the first one to venture down this road and they are running scared as they run the numbers. You see, according to the Smithsonian, Homo Sapiens came into being about 300,000 years ago. That is the current species. I have yet to find when the genus Homo came into being so for tickles and grins, lets go with the 300,000 number. Now I cheated. I used the 4.5 billion number for the total number of years and divided that by 300,000 as a period of time for one genus to evolve. That works out to 15,000. What is 15,000? Well, if a new genus (not species, mind you) evolved every 300,000 years from the beginning of the formation of the earth then we would have a total of 15,000 genera by now. Well, wait just a gol-darned minute! First of all nobody ever said new genera would evolve like clockwork. True. Besides lower level genera would likely evolve faster! Also true. Granted, I’ve never worked out any kind of a timeline to see how it might work. I’ve stuck to the simple math because it satisfies my suspicion that the time crunch makes the whole concept of evolution not feasible. Again, even when allowing for accelerated development for less evolved genera, one major question remains to be answered.
Where are the new genera? Why hasn’t mankind seen even ONE new genus of any kind evolve… ever?
For me, the more I examine evolution, the more questions I ask, the more convinced I am of God’s creation. It is simply far more logically plausible than man’s theories.
If I were seeing this post for the first time, I know what would be on my mind. It would be that 300,000 years of Homo Sapiens. Hmmm. Adam and Eve only goes back about 6,000 years. Let’s talk about that.
I will stipulate to the scientific evidence of Homo existence extending far beyond the biblical 6,000 years. I’ll simply move forward on the assumption those figures are accurate, though it would not surprise me if strong indications of major problems were uncovered. As far as I’m concerned, it does not matter. The first verse of Genesis, accurately understood, is sufficient for me.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
The King James Version is useful because it italicizes a lot of added words. For the purpose of this post, I added the italics for was because my software does not copy and paste this as is. Notice the first “was” in verse two is NOT in italics but the second “was” is italicized. Why? First understand there is no verb “to be” (is, are, was, were) in the Hebrew. There IS however a word for “become”. Simply put the first “was” represents an actual Hebrew word – the verb “to become” while the second “was” was added.
Thus this first is more correctly rendered
Genesis 2 And the earth became without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
In other words, God did not CREATE the earth without form and void, it became that way. Why? I don’t know. What I do know is this indicates a passage of time between the original creation and when the earth became null and void. It is reasonable to me that during this period of time was when dinosaurs roamed the earth and earlier versions of man existed. Scripture picks up beginning with the events in Genesis 2b “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
Further evidence of this is found in Genesis 1:28 where He tells Adam and Eve to replenish the earth. Replenish means to fill again, suggesting it was filled before it became “void and without form”.
Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Again, this is far more plausible than what evolution theories offer. Even science has identified five “top” extinction events since the earth was first formed. Other extinction events are also indicated. While scripture does not explain the whats and the whys of the previous history of the earth, I certainly don’t want to be the one to tell God Almighty of His “mistake”. Surly an Almighty and All Knowing God has His reasons for what He does and does not do.
So one can conclude life in earth did exist before Adam and Eve and the events of Genesis 1:11-27. What about Homo Sapiens that existed before Adam? Well, here is where things get interesting. Would it surprise you to learn that scientists who study these things are not at all in agreement? According to LiveScience.com
““There’s a H. sapiens fossil from Ethiopia that’s about 195,000 years old, and it has the basic features of modern humans,” Stringer told Live Science. “From 195,000 years onwards, we find fossils we can call H. sapiens reasonably accurately.”” (Bold added by me)
Did you notice how slippery their language is? Language such as “Basic features” and “reasonably accurately”? The bottom line is they don’t really know. Thus it is entirely reasonable to suggest that these earlier “Homo Sapiens”, while possibly, even probably the same genus, are different in species. I say they are “probably” Homo Sapiens however… “Scientists do not agree on an exact definition of what constitutes the genus Homo, according to a 2015 review published in Science.” By the way, this same article also says the oldest Homo fossil so far is said to be 2.8 million years old, so my own “genera calculation” above is way off and not in the evolutionists favor!
Oh. That’s disturbing. So what constitutes the entire genus Homo is in question but they can “definitively” say what a Homo Sapien is? Well, as I said before… no, they cannot.
So why do I stipulate to science even if those scientists aren’t all that sure about their own scientific findings? For me, the science doesn’t change anything – not because of “faith” but because of actual plausibility. Yes, faith does play a part. The word “faith” means belief. I believe scripture because time and time again, scripture has proven true, even when I don’t completely understand it. I also believe in gravity because what we know about gravity has proven true time and time again, even when I don’t completely understand it. Science indicates that life, including some form of what we call “human” life existed before Adam. Science can ascertain certain things about this life, including the “humans” possessed a certain amount of intelligence and exhibited certain social behaviors. Why put the word “human” in quotes? I do this because nobody knows for sure exactly what they were like, just as we do not know why they became extinct. Were they actually human or did they simply have some aspects that resembled humans? I doubt if mankind will ever find an answer to that unless we crack the time barrier.
It can not only be said that “we don’t know what we don’t know”, but we cannot even be sure of what we think we know. What I can be confident in is God knows.
God knows what happened before Adam and Eve. He knows how it happened and why it happened. He knows we would discover the fossils and artifacts left behind. He even knows the true science behind it all and the mistakes our scientists are making. The “why” behind it all needs to be left to His wisdom. It is all here for a reason. I see no cause to go wandering off in search of answers we may never be able to find, especially considering we may not even be asking the right questions.
The scriptures we have been given are clear enough and plausible. They are far more plausible than anything offered up by man. In fact, science has again and again proven these scriptures to be accurate. If fact, an increasing number of scientists look at the universe in awe as they begin to understand how perfectly arraigned it is. So much so that if a single minuscule aspect was not “just so” then the entire universe would collapse.
Seriously, is it that hard to accept that God created the heavens and the earth, that He placed all the genera on the earth, including the first man? How much harder is it to accept than the idea that life first came into being 4.1 billion years ago and evolved from a single cell to the massive variety of plants and animals living here today, as well as those that became extinct along the way?