How can one believe?

[Michalina58]

How can one believe in Adam and Eve being the first REAL humans on earth ? (it contradicts scientific view, which can not just be ignored)

And also, that human race descended from this original pair of two human beings (monogenism) when it clearly contradicts scientific view(polygenism) that is supported by a great deal of evidence. (and also can not just be ignored)

Please explain. Thank you.

 

[St_Francis]

There are three ways of looking at this: First, that God did it, and we won’t be able to exactly know how. God could have inserted Adam and Eve into the evolutionary process, for example, or simply started a new line altogether.

Another one is that mitochondrial Eve is Eve, and the “y-chromosomal Adam” is actually Noah. I just think it’s very interesting that the science works out this way

A third is that the other lines were wiped out. This is kind of complicated to explain, but there should be graphs explaining it here and there.

The way is works is that Eve and several other human women have children, so there are several mitochondrial lines. However, the other lines are wiped out, leaving us only with the Eve line.

 

[Sparkythedog]

Mitochondrial Eve is a way of describing the genetic relationship of all living women. It’s a mathematical model not a single person. The mitochondrial Eve that all women living today was, herself, related to a mitochondrial Eve in her past. And so on.

The same goes for Y chromosome Adam.

 

[808Catholic]

How can one believe in Adam and Eve being the first REAL humans on earth ? (it contradicts scientific view, which can not just be ignored)

And also, that human race descended from this original pair of two human beings (monogenism) when it clearly contradicts scientific view(polygenism) that is supported by a great deal of evidence. (and also can not just be ignored)

Please explain. Thank you.

Please share your view on how life evolved on earth. Did it spontaneously happen and result in thousands of species we see today?

 

[caitlinm]

How can one believe in Adam and Eve being the first REAL humans on earth ? (it contradicts scientific view, which can not just be ignored)

And also, that human race descended from this original pair of two human beings (monogenism) when it clearly contradicts scientific view(polygenism) that is supported by a great deal of evidence. (and also can not just be ignored)

Please explain. Thank you.

Hi, Michalina. I know some people on forums do not like others to respond with links but this is really the best website I have seen regarding the issue and many others. biologos.org/ This website was created by christian biologists who aim to show others that God and science can, and do, coexist despite claims from “radical” christians and scientists. There are articles on Adam and Eve and the different theories to their existence. The website holds to the idea that Adam and Eve are FIGURATIVE, or at least were not the literal first people. Hope this helps!

 

[St_Francis]

Mitochondrial Eve is a way of describing the genetic relationship of all living women. It’s a mathematical model not a single person. The mitochondrial Eve that all women living today was, herself, related to a mitochondrial Eve in her past. And so on.

The same goes for Y chromosome Adam.

M-Eve is the woman from whom all women today are descended… this fits the polygenetic theory that we descended from a group of people because then *one *of those people would have been Eve (and another Adam). The lines of all the other of the polygenetic group died out.

 

[Michalina58]

Please share your view on how life evolved on earth. Did it spontaneously happen and result in thousands of species we see today?

The question of how life evolved on earth (end possibly elsewhere in the universe) Is the question of science; it is the question science is trying to and should try to answer . Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that The Roman Catholic Church also says that the question of “How” the universe/life(biological life not human soul) began should be answered by science.
I believe in theistic evolution due to scientific evidence that should not and can not be ignored.

St. Thomas’ warning: “one should not try to defend the Christian faith with arguments that are so patently opposed to reason that the faith is made to look ridiculous… irrisio infidelium, the scorn of the unbelievers.”

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world. A world in which both can flourish… (Physics, Philosophy, and Theology: A Common Quest for Understanding, 1988)

 

[Ben_Shipman]

Just think I should warn you… you’re really not supposed to talk about evolution on the Philosophy forum.

 

[You]

How can one believe in Adam and Eve being the first REAL humans on earth ? (it contradicts scientific view, which can not just be ignored)

And also, that human race descended from this original pair of two human beings (monogenism) when it clearly contradicts scientific view(polygenism) that is supported by a great deal of evidence. (and also can not just be ignored)

Please explain. Thank you.

How would we identify ourselves? Are we apes or Humans? So the first human ancestors were the first humans.
Is there any such thing in existence as an ape-man, a creature half instinctive animal and half free human?

 

[Eric_Hyom]

How would we identify ourselves? Are we apes or Humans? So the first human ancestors were the first humans.
Is there any such thing in existence as an ape-man, a creature half instinctive animal and half free human?

However life came to be, It needed God to make it happen, live is just too complex, and evolution would need a guiding hand.

 

[Michael19682]

How can one believe in Adam and Eve being the first REAL humans on earth ? (it contradicts scientific view, which can not just be ignored)

And also, that human race descended from this original pair of two human beings (monogenism) when it clearly contradicts scientific view(polygenism) that is supported by a great deal of evidence. (and also can not just be ignored)

Please explain. Thank you.

Where a person is on their faith journey often determines what beliefs they question.
It also determines what they believe in.
Beliefs are encoded neurally.
Anything might be believed if it is told with enough persuasion.
If Adam and Eve had special significance for early religious people,
it is possible IMO that this belief would be passed on to their children.
If it became so obvious as to the ***actual meaning ***of this belief,
no one would question it and expect to get an answer that could satisfy
ardent enthusiasts of other theories. Hence there are two (or more) camps.
I personally belief it is possible, and teetering on the edge of sentimentality
and the need for meaning, I do believe it.
In fact, the older and wiser I get
the more I believe it.
Science may provide an alternative answer, but such an answer is designed by God for a
different purpose, ISTM.

 

[Back2Church]

How can one believe in Adam and Eve being the first REAL humans on earth ? (it contradicts scientific view, which can not just be ignored)

And also, that human race descended from this original pair of two human beings (monogenism) when it clearly contradicts scientific view(polygenism) that is supported by a great deal of evidence. (and also can not just be ignored)

Please explain. Thank you.

The way I have always figured is that at some point in the evolutionary process, God imbued the first soul into a human.

The single cell organisms that were the first forms of life on earth didn’t have human souls, yet we have them now. A soul wouldn’t be a feature of natural evolution, so we have to assume that God chose a specific point in our evolution to “breath life” into us.

Adam and Eve were the first two humans with souls and because of this they did not merely reproduce, like other animals, but they procreated offspring that also had souls. So you can view this as a special bloodline. Even if there were more homosapiens that were at the same level of natural evolution that this special bloodline intermingled with, it does not change the fact that we can all trace our lineage back to Adam and Eve.

 

[fisherman_carl]

The question of how life evolved on earth (end possibly elsewhere in the universe) Is the question of science; it is the question science is trying to and should try to answer . Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that The Roman Catholic Church also says that the question of “How” the universe/life(biological life not human soul) began should be answered by science.)

I don’t think it would say that only science could tell us how the universe came about. That would be putting blind faith in science alone. Only that it would be open to scientific discovery. Since truth does not contradict truth. The question of how should be answered in the context of who, namely God. If science could go back to understanding the universe in terms of God’s creation just think how much progress we could make.

 

[Wyrd]

Parabel

 

[Faith1960]

There are three ways of looking at this: First, that God did it, and we won’t be able to exactly know how. God could have inserted Adam and Eve into the evolutionary process, for example, or simply started a new line altogether.
.

Meaning that there were beings, many more than two, but God infused souls in two of them, being Adam and Eve?

 

[Faith1960]

M-Eve is the woman from whom all women today are descended… this fits the polygenetic theory that we descended from a group of people because then *one *of those people would have been Eve (and another Adam). The lines of all the other of the polygenetic group died out.

We are forbidden to believe polygenism.