Discussion on 'Were there any people before Adam and Eve?'

(6) On October 12, 2008 at 6:48 pm Dick Harfield [421] said:

The following discussion comments, taken from several contributions (on both sides of the debate) removed from the main page:

(1) The following discussion supports a'NO' post -

· In terms of technological development a number of things need to be remembered. Firstly Adam and of course his offspring were no grunting cave men. Adam named the animal kinds (obviously not every single species) on the afternoon he was created. People also lived considerably longer at that time, and so could work at an invention for longer and build on their mistakes, much like a number of different generations have done so in more recent times. There are also examples of technology being lost. We still don't know exactly how the pyramids were built. The ancient Mayans were also highly advanced.

(2) The following is a debate -

· Regarding When Man Was Made: According to the chronological account in Genesis 1 man was clearly made on day 6 after the animals. Day 5, verses 20-23 contains the creation of sea creatures and birds. Day 6 is the creation of land creatures and then man. Sometimes the misunderstanding can occur when it is not realized that the day designations are placed after the events of the day and not before.

It is thus totally incorrect to say "God plainly and clearly states that animals were made on Day 5. Man is an animal." The sciences of palaeontology and archaeology do not necessarily contradict the Bible record when the evidence is correctly evaluated. Incorrectly interpreting the Bible to make it fit with fallible human endeavor will never work.

(3) The following discussion supports a 'NO' post -

· What the Bible says about Adam and Eve being the first people is quite plain. There is nothing erroneous about people following something which is repeatedly supported by factual evidence. Science which is based on false presuppositions can never arrive at objective truth.

(4) The following discussion supports a 'YES' post -

It is also clear that within a couple of generations we are in the IRON AGE. Not the stone or bronze ages, but the IRON AGE. It is impossible to mine, transport and otherwise handle the ore needed to work with iron without thousands of slaves, and the necessary infrastructure - equipment for smelting, molds and so on, and the financial resources necessary for transporting, marketing and distributing products.

Cain's city would require advanced knowledge of civil and military engineering, architecture, stone masonry and carpentry, road building and a host of other skills, not to mention vast supplies of food and water to sustain the laborers diverted from farming and other food production.

(5) On October 07, 2008 at 8:03 pm PeteNco [312] said:

The days of creation could indeed be millions of years and they also could me millionths of a second or anything in between. However, we have been told, in an account written on earth, in human language, which couldn't be any plainer, that the days, with evening and morning, were exactly the same as today. The Hebrew word yom can indeed mean an indefinite period of time. It never does when qualified by evening and morning.

As uncomfortable as it is for some, there is no need to modify the length of the days in Genesis 1. Bible interpreters who do not believe the account in Genesis 1 also acknowledge this to be the original intended meaning. The only reason to modify the days is to make them fit into a non-biblical framework. It also creates other difficulties in relation to the sabbath. God would then be requiring His people to rest for a thousand years, or even a million every sabbath. A little difficult.

(4) On October 07, 2008 at 07:49 am Richards lawrence [0] said:

People may have different opinions about the creation of the universe.We cannot definetly say that God created the world in a flash,as if it were magic. It could be a gradual process. Now our current understanding for a day is 24hrs based on length of day and night. When the world was created there was the was no day and night. So the day could be 24hrs or more say a million years.

If you notice the length of day for different planets are different.A day is the length of time that it takes a planet to rotate on its axis (360°). A day on Earth takes almost 24 hours.

The planet with the longest day is Venus; a day on Venus takes 243 Earth days. (A day on Venus is longer than its year; a year on Venus takes only 224.7 Earth days).

The planet with the shortest day is Jupiter; a day on Jupiter only takes 9.8 Earth hours!

Now these are some acceptable facts.Therefore there is a chance for evolution. Now if were made in a single day the would be no flexibility of thoughts or behaviour. Everything in the world is made based on certain principles. Be it gravity or movement of wind. If there were no principle there would never be stability. It took us 1700 years (A.D) to understand gravity another 200 years to use wind for transport.It is because we understand these principles we are able to discover new things. So,to understand what God has done we may take another 2000yrs.

You see even intelligence has evolved which is gradual. So existence of man before adam and is true.

(3) On September 19, 2008 at 01:04 am Michel Paul [0] said:

In Genesis 1:27 it is explained that from the earth God created mankind male and female he created them. This description is of no resemblance of the formation of Adam and the making of his women.

Adam's story begins in the Garden of Eden were, from a single being God will form a couple "Adam and a women." Later she will bare the name Eve.

Adam and the woman Eve became the couple by which God will multiply Himself in the flesh. Comparatively to the terrestrial man who have been created male and female, therefore two beings; the woman Eve, was taken of the man, thus both are the same complete being, the same flesh, (Humans).

Gen 5: 1-2, gives something more to think and question about. Why does it appear such a repetition of events in which Adam and Eve would have come about?

At the time of Adam's "formation" , people of the earth (mankind) were already here on earth. Although created with a need of spirituality, mankind has never tolerated the divine presence on Earth has to say, they never tolerated Adam’s presence and of all his descendants. Adam is the only son of God; the children of Adam are thus children of God by re-production. Yes there were people before Adam and Eve.

Mankind recognizes in Adam the God's Family, but refuses this concept, according to them the divine family came in second place, after them. Although mankind received dominion over the earth, he must subjugate all creation to the Creator God. However since its arrival we can see that mankind has failed to his mission.

Unfortunately, mankind sees Adam's family as a rival, a stranger, on their terrestrial territory. The terrestrial man refuses to believe in a God because to them God came after. Mankind's family and that of Adam's (the divine man), will always be in opposition. On several occasions, during human history, mankind would try by several manners, to annihilate, worse I may add, to destroy the totality of this family.

Thus, God creates a spiritual body of flesh, in order to inhabit it. So He will be able to reproduce himself trough humans and finally fully experiment physical life. For six thousand years, will he have to live incredible human experiments, with an aim of becoming the Prince of peace, take charge of divine matters on earth, re-established the Kingdom of God, and finally govern over the whole universe.

Assurely Adam is the only son of God he is thus the physical father of Human kind. Human beings are thus by reproduction the children of the Son of God an extension of God in the flesh. Adam is the only being which has the life in him. He will live in the flesh until the day of the re-establishment of the Kingdom of God where for eternity; He will return to His divine glory and finally will be crowned King of kings.

(2) On August 08, 2008 at 03:52 am Deb [1190] said:

The first section of this post also appears in the answer because it answers the question. It was also moved here with the rest of the comment because the rest does not answer the question and the first part is needed for full understanding - Deb

One could interpret the story of Adam and Eve (the first man and woman) as being the first to know good from evil (eating from the tree of knowledge between good and evil being a symbol of this).

However, moral behavior, even altruism to the point of self-sacrifice can be seen in a large number of mammal species and even birds.

The myth of the Tree of Knowledge was originally a Semitic myth adopted by ancient Hebrews that was meant to explain the domineering nature of the agricultural, expansionist Hebrews to the static, subsistence-farming Semites.

(1) On August 07, 2008 at 10:25 pm Dick Harfield [421] said:

The following comments moved from the main page:

"Answer

There are essentially two models, with various sub-plots, which answer this question.

Firstly, the creation account from the Bible records that Adam and Eve constitute the first and only humans created 'in the beginning' as part of almighty God's original creation ex nihilo. In the case of the people of course, already created elements were used as constituent parts of both Adam and Eve.

Secondly, under a different model, which is also used to either re-interpret the Bible itself, or to propose a completely different system, Adam and Eve were not the first people. Under this model, which has very scant and conflicting 'evidence' there are various proposed people existing before Adam and Eve.

In either case, ignoring the evidence, or lack of evidence, cannot make either of these true or untrue. If there were millions, indeed billions of creatures evolving into the first humans, then the extreme rarity of anything which can be used as alleged evidence is surprising. As also are the missing human remains. In the light of modern genetic knowledge of mutation rates in the human genome, it is also surprising that we can exist at all after the alleged time period.

Those who believe the first model to be an accurate description of 'the world that is' see no conflict between what has actually been discovered, including known historical time-frames, and the Bible account of Adam and Eve being the first humans. Thus there is no reason to postulate the existence of any people before Adam and Eve. Some may see a need to do so, as well as to reinterpret the biblical account, but the evidence does not demand it."

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