Adam and Eve fallacy..??

[Ilium]

Okay, maybe this has been pointed out and maybe this hasn't. But if God made Adam and Eve alone and no others, and put them in the garden of Eden, once again, alone then how are there different races of men on this planet?? Seriously, if you think about it it's not that hard to figure out that this would mean that there would be only one race, and Adam and Eve's children would have had to practice incest. Why? Because Adam and Eve had two sons Cain and Abel and (seven?) daughters. The only way humanity could have multiplied would be the most logical variant, an brother or sister having sex with a brother or sister.

Apparently, incest is forbidden by God himself, but that would've been the only tool by which our species could have become as prominent as they are now. People in my theology classes (required since I ironically go to a Catholic school) think that the Adam and Eve story of the Bible is literal, but yet this is the one thing they can not answer. Why are there so many different races and why aren't our children horribly deformed when they're born?? Since that's apparently what happens in an incestual relationship and conception.

 

[Bushido216]

That's irrelevant. The last bottleneck was Noah's time. Are we all descended from Noah, then?

 

[Ilium]

I was just pointing the fact out. And if you take the typical creationist view of what happened in the Noah era of time, apparently we ARE all offspring of Noah, which would mean there would still be only one race.

 

[f U z ! o N]

interesting concept

 

[neverforsaken]

there are no "races" of man. we all share the exact same genetic blue prints. but our skin color and other physical characteristics adapt to their environments.

 

[L'Anatra]

I was just pointing the fact out. And if you take the typical creationist view of what happened in the Noah era of time, apparently we ARE all offspring of Noah, which would mean there would still be only one race.

It's called mutation, Ilium.

Mutation provides the variation for evolution to take place and for the differences that currently exist throughout the Homo sapiens species, whether there were two or one thousand of us when we appeared.

(Now, as far as the creationists go, some of them don't believe beneficial mutations occur at all...)

 

[Ilium]

Not really. Our skins don't adapt in short time spans, and I realize there are really no races of men. Our skin colors may have come from long-term exposure, but with the Noah story, that gives about 2,000 years for humanity to re-evolve and repopulate the earth. Seeing how I doubt humanity could cross oceans in that amount of time. Why do I say only 2,000 years?? Because by at least 2,000 years after the supposed Great Flood, there had already been recorded black and yellow skinned man. Not alot of time for any sort of widespread evolution to take place.

 

[L'Anatra]

Not really. Our skins don't adapt in short time spans, and I realize there are really no races of men. Our skin colors may have come from long-term exposure, but with the Noah story, that gives about 2,000 years for humanity to re-evolve and repopulate the earth. Seeing how I doubt humanity could cross oceans in that amount of time. Why do I say only 2,000 years?? Because by at least 2,000 years after the supposed Great Flood, there had already been recorded black and yellow skinned man. Not alot of time for any sort of widespread evolution to take place.

You're right, two thousand years is not enough time. Just another chink in the tattered armor of the young-earth creationists.

 

[tocis]

It's always the same old story, isn't it?

Creationist: "Evolution is impossible!"
Scientist: "So how did we get here, as a race?"
Cre: "We all descended from Adam and Eve!"
Sci: "Why then are we so different today? Where does all that variation come from?"
Cre: "It developed over time!"
Sci: "You are aware of the fact that you just claimed the 'impossible' evolution to be real, aren't you?"
Cre: *turns pale*
Sci: *grins sardonically*

 

[HRE]

there are no "races" of man. we all share the exact same genetic blue prints. but our skin color and other physical characteristics adapt to their environments.

So are you suggesting that if a caucasion baby is raised in Africa, he will appear African?

 

[Ilium]

So are you suggesting that if a caucasion baby is raised in Africa, he will appear African?

That was my point exactly, you can't suddenly say that in the Great Flood part of the Creation scheme that we re-evolved and repopulated the earth in the course of about 2,000 years. It's not possible for such a differentiating evolution to take place.

 

[Dale]

On the races, a Bible study teacher of mine suggested that there was more than one Garden of Eden. There could have been many of them, with pair of people with slightly different physical characteristics.

I can't say that I really believe this, but it is the most sensible attempt to develop a Creationist scenario that could be taken seriously that I have heard.

 

[gluadys]

On the races, a Bible study teacher of mine suggested that there was more than one Garden of Eden. There could have been many of them, with pair of people with slightly different physical characteristics.

I can't say that I really believe this, but it is the most sensible attempt to develop a Creationist scenario that could be taken seriously that I have heard.

A number of 19th century scientists considered seriously the possibility that different human "races" were due to different acts of creation. The great Louis Agassiz was one person who believed this, though he did no research on that question. He is better known for his work on fossil fish and on glaciation.

The concept was often used to justify racism and slavery.

Did your bible study teacher have any explanation for how separately created species could be inter-fertile?

 

[gunglepus]

It's called mutation, Ilium.

Mutation provides the variation for evolution to take place and for the differences that currently exist throughout the Homo sapiens species, whether there were two or one thousand of us when we appeared.

Actually from gene studies there was no bottleneck. The founding population of homo sapiens was at least 1000 individuals.

 

[Galethog]

there are no "races" of man. we all share the exact same genetic blue prints. but our skin color and other physical characteristics adapt to their environments.

Not exactly.

WASHINGTON - The first effort to map variations in the human DNA code reveals patterns in three ancestral populations — European, African and Chinese — that go back thousands of years, scientists reported Thursday. They said the trend could lead to medical treatments tailored for your specific genetic background, but they also worried that it could spawn a 21st-century style of racial discrimination.

 

[BeamMeUpScotty]

On the races, a Bible study teacher of mine suggested that there was more than one Garden of Eden. There could have been many of them, with pair of people with slightly different physical characteristics.

I can't say that I really believe this, but it is the most sensible attempt to develop a Creationist scenario that could be taken seriously that I have heard.

Source? Biblical or otherwise?