Over the years I've heard now & then about the possibility that a human like race lived prior to Adam, or even in conjunction with Adam and this explains the huge difference in races amongst other things.
I'd like to hear the thoughts of others if you would...
Was there a race of beings on earth prior to Adam and humans?
What do you believe and why? - Please provide scripture if you can..
By those who groups who speak of a "Pre-Adamic race"--what they mean by such is hokum.
All people today are "in Adam", regardless of ethnicity or skin color.
Now scientifically speaking the hominid line has evolved over millions of years, and there have been numerous hominid species, with some living side-by-side with others.
Homo erectus was eventually replaced by Homo sapiens, though the two lived side by side for quite some time.
Neanderthals, of which there is some disagreement whether they are to be classified as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis or Homo neanderthaensis seems to exist; it is now known that modern Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens sapiens) and Neanderthals did breed, and thus many today have Neanderthal DNA.
So in that sense, sure we could speak of hominids "before Adam", where Adam is understood as the first spiritually cognizant hominid from which we are all descended, understanding the narrative of Genesis 2 as being a theological text, not a strictly "historical" one.
But, again, those who tend to speak of a "pre-Adamic race" are usually various "race theorists" who adhere to unorthodox theologies, usually in order to try and make one "race" of man the "pure Adamic race" (usually white people) and everyone else somehow "sub-human". This was common in the 19th century, and in the early part of the 20th century.
Besides the obvious problems with this is that it presumes that "races" are somehow concrete realities of humanity. But there are no concrete, distinct "races", instead there is a gradient of peoples. It is more-or-less social convenience to speak of "white people" or "black people" or "Asians". But nobody is a "pure race" of anything, we are the sum of our ancestry, and our various characteristics (e.g. skin color) are expressed through the gradient of humanity across the globe. In other words, people groups from any given location are going to more closely resemble near-neighbor people groups. And things like skin color has largely been determined by the adaptation of people groups based on climate--people groups farther from the equator receive less UV-light and thus produce less of the UV-protecting pigment melanin in the skin; thus people further from the equator have lighter skin while people nearer to the equator have darker skin. Such melanin mutations are also the reason for eye color and hair color mutations (blue/green eyes are a result of a lack of melanin in the eye; whereas blonde and red hair are also the result of a lack of melanin in the hair).
A good example might be to look at Europe. Begin with Scandinavia and start moving south until you get to the Mediteranean, move south from southern Italy and Sicily and then North Africa. Then move south of the Sahara etc.
It's a gradient, distinct, concrete human "races" more-or-less are a matter of social convenience, not because there is actually such a thing as a "white race" or a "black race" or a "yellow race" etc.
-CryptoLutheran