Evolution and Adam's age

[Dunban]

If evolution is true, then could someone explain why scripture says Adam and his progeny lived for over 900 years? Is this a myth or does it mean something else?

 

[ChetSinger]

If evolution is true, then could someone explain why scripture says Adam and his progeny lived for over 900 years? Is this a myth or does it mean something else?

Hello Dunban! I take it literally. When did human lifespans begin to decline? It was right after the Flood, when all of subsequent humanity would be descended from a single man (Noah) and this three sons. So whatever genetic flaw(s) Noah had would be passed on to his sons and then carried by the entire human race.

Genesis 10 says that his sons were the first to have reduced lifespans. In only a handful of generations their lives were limited to about as long as ours. There have been various explanations why (vapor canopy, etc.), but I lean toward the genetic one.

 

[Gottservant]

Before the flood, there was a canopy of ice above the earth.

This canopy enclosed vapour in the air and shielded men from the sun.

Without the sun and plenty of hydration, man did not age, but grew.

 

[Dunban]

Hello Dunban! I take it literally. When did human lifespans begin to decline? It was right after the Flood, when all of subsequent humanity would be descended from a single man (Noah) and this three sons. So whatever genetic flaw(s) Noah had would be passed on to his sons and then carried by the entire human race.

Genesis 10 says that his sons were the first to have reduced lifespans. In only a handful of generations their lives were limited to about as long as ours. There have been various explanations why (vapor canopy, etc.), but I lean toward the genetic one.

Abraham lived, I think, 170+ years which I find somewhat strange.

What type of flaw do you suppose Noah had?

 

[Dunban]

Before the flood, there was a canopy of ice above the earth.

This canopy enclosed vapour in the air and shielded men from the sun.

Without the sun and plenty of hydration, man did not age, but grew.

What scientific support is there for this theory? I've not heard one scientist say such a thing. Could you cite your claims please?

 

[Aman777]

If evolution is true, then could someone explain why scripture says Adam and his progeny lived for over 900 years? Is this a myth or does it mean something else?

Dear Dunban, Adam lived for 930 years AFTER he and Eve were bornagain. Adam lived for Billions of years BEFORE He was born Spriitually. Genesis 2:4-7 shows that Adam was made the 3rd Day, the SAME Day as the Big Bang of our Cosmos, which was 13.7 Billion years ago. Eve was NOT made until the present 6th Day, but BOTH were "created in God's Image" AFTER Cain killed Abel. Genesis 5:1-2

In Love,
Aman

 

[miamited]

Hi Dunban,

If you want my understanding, I believe Adam lived 930 real years upon the earth and each year was just the same as any year we count today. I am firmly convicted that the years accounted to each of his descendants thereafter, all the way to the exodus into Egypt were those same kinds of years.

As for those who have answered that there was some major difference in the earth or the atmosphere that might have caused those extended years, I don't know and the Scriptures don't give me any evidence from which I can gain any sure knowledge of that issue. All I know and can be certain of from the Scriptures is that Adam lived to be 930 years old.

God bless you.
In Christ, Ted

 

[gluadys]

If evolution is true, then could someone explain why scripture says Adam and his progeny lived for over 900 years? Is this a myth or does it mean something else?

It may well mean something else. One discovery from archaeology is that ancient near east culture attributed honorary ages to people of importance. And generally the farther in the past they were, the greater the age. So ancient honoured ancestors were recorded as having had very long life-spans.

The biblical ages are actually rather modest. Some king-lists from other ancient cultures list life-spans up into the 10,000's of years.

We can't be sure what the biblical authors intended, but given the commonality of culture, it is a plausible explanation.

 

[ChetSinger]

Abraham lived, I think, 170+ years which I find somewhat strange.

What type of flaw do you suppose Noah had?

I think Abraham's age is just part of the continuum of ever-shortening ages (below). I think you could almost graph a hyperbolic line through these lifespans. By David's time lifespans were about 70-80 years, or about as long as ours.

950 - Noah
600 - Shem
433 - Shelah
464 - Eber
239 - Peleg
239 - Reu
230 - Serug
148 - Nahor
205 - Terah
175 - Abraham
180 - Isaac

I don't know what kind of flaw might have been passed on by Noah because I don't know exactly why our lifespans seem so fixed. And I think we still don't know exactly why we age, or exactly what we can do to delay aging.

But consider this: with help from the tree of life Adam wouldn't have aged at all.

Here's an article from creation.com on the subject:

Decreased lifespans: Have we been looking in the right place?

Barring accidental death, one-celled organisms are potentially ‘immortal’. A bacterial cell reproduces by dividing into two where there was one, those two then become four, and so on. Why then do multi-celled organisms die? Individual human cells in tissue culture divide some 50 times and then stop -some sort of pre-programmed genetic limit is reached. Human tumour cells, on the other hand, can be propagated indefinitely by division -the DNA mechanism for preprogrammed cessation of division appears to be lacking or damaged in such cancer cells.

In multicellular organisms, once damaged and worn cells can no longer replace themselves, death is only a matter of time as the function of whole organ systems deteriorates. So even without accidents or disease, there is a programmed ‘upper limit’ on our age, which appears to be 120 years or so as previously stated.

I suggest that our ancestors simply possessed genes for greater longevity which caused this ‘genetic limit’ to human ages to be set at a higher level in the past.

Suggestive evidence in support of this is the fact that in some other organisms (for example, fruitflies), it has been shown that changes in average lifespans can be bred into or out of populations. Most of us also know of individual family lines in which many successive generations all seem to live to very ripe old ages, with apparently delayed senescence relative to the norm. Reports of entire populations (for example, the Hunzas) living to 100+ far more frequently than is the case in our society (in spite of indulgence in tobacco and alcohol) has caused many to hunt for their dietary secrets. However, genetics would seem to provide an obvious answer.

If this suggestion has merit as the major (if not the sole) cause of greater pre-Flood ages, then the obvious question is how some of these longevity genes were lost. The human population went through a severe genetic bottleneck at the time of the Flood—only eight individuals. The phenomenon of ‘genetic drift’ is well-known to be able to account for ‘random’ selectively neutral changes in gene frequencies (including the loss or ‘extinction’ of genes from a population) which may be quite rapid. Also, loss of genes is far more likely in a small population.

 

[RedRover]

If evolution is true, then could someone explain why scripture says Adam and his progeny lived for over 900 years?

Science has no way of knowing. They only assume that the life span was the same then as it is now by looking at the skeletons they have found. They do say there is a difference when man settled down into cities and began to be a food producer. For one thing there was more disease. I actually did a study once on the cause of death for any pre Adam skeletons they have found. Everyone one of them that I studied were murdered. They found a arrow head in them or their skull was smashed. It was not until after Adam that people began to die from "natural" causes. For example: "tests have shown that Cheddar Man suffered a violent death at the age of about 23 in 7150 B.C" Was Cheddar man really only 23? Or did he just appear to be 23 by today's standards.

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[RedRover]

I don't know exactly why our lifespans seem so fixed.

Genesis 6

3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

 

[frogman2x]

If evolution is true, then could someone explain why scripture says Adam and his progeny lived for over 900 years? Is this a myth or does it mean something else?

There is a theory that before the flood, theer was a water camopy over the earth that kept out the ultra violed rays. This water canopy was part of the waters that flooded the earth. When the anopy was gon the ultra violet rays decreased many life in some way.

You can notice a distince drop in how long men lived after the flood compared to how long they lived before the flood.

Check the ages of those mentioned in chapter 11 of Genesis.

kermit