Human Ancestors?

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I understand that the Catholic Church teaches that every person alive or who has ever lived is descended from two and exactly two individuals at the outset of human history, that is to say, Adam and Eve, or the “First Parents.” Is this correct? If so, is it crucial? Why?
 
Yes. This is the correct teaching.

Here is Catholic Dogma:


  1. *] The first man was created by God. (De fide.)
    *] The whole human race stems from one single human pair. (Sent. certa.)
    *] Man consists of two essential parts–a material body and a spiritual soul. (De fide.)
    *] The rational soul is per se the essential form of the body. (De fide.)
    *] Every human being possesses an individual soul. (De fide.)
    *] Every individual soul was immediately created out of nothing by God. (Sent. Certa.)
    *] A creature has the capacity to receive supernatural gifts. (Sent. communis.)
    *] The Supernatural presupposes Nature. (Sent communis.)
    *] God has conferred on man a supernatural Destiny. (De fide.)
    *] Our first parents, before the Fall, were endowed with sanctifying grace. (De fide.)
    *] The donum rectitudinis or integritatis in the narrower sense, i.e., the freedom from irregular desire. (Sent. fidei proxima.)
    *] The donum immortalitatis, i.e.,bodily immortality. (De fide.)
    *] The donum impassibilitatis, i.e., the freedom from suffering. (Sent. communis.)
    *] The donum scientiae, i.e., a knowledge of natural and supernatural truths infused by God. (Sent. communis.)
    *] Adam received sanctifying grace not merely for himself, but for all his posterity. (Sent. certa.)
    *] Our first parents in paradise sinned grievously through transgression of the Divine probationary commandment. (De fide.)
    *] Through the sin our first parents lost sanctifying grace and provoked the anger and the indignation of God. (De fide.)
    *] Our first parents became subject to death and to the dominion of the Devil. (De fide.) D788.
    *] Adam’s sin is transmitted to his posterity, not by imitation, but by descent. (De fide.)
    *] Original Sin consists in the deprivation of grace caused by the free act of sin committed by the head of the race. (Sent. communis.)
    *] Original sin is transmitted by natural generation. (De fide.)
    *] In the state of original sin man is deprived of sanctifying grace and all that this implies, as well as of the preternatural gifts of integrity. (De fide in regard to Sanctifying Grace and the Donum Immortalitatus. D788 et seq.)
    *] Souls who depart this life in the state of original sin are excluded from the Beatific Vision of God. (De fide.)
 
JimmyJake said:
I understand that the Catholic Church teaches that every person alive or who has ever lived is descended from two and exactly two individuals at the outset of human history, that is to say, Adam and Eve, or the “First Parents.” Is this correct? If so, is it crucial? Why?
Click to expand...
And from Noah to.
 
Yes, actually everybody on earth did descend from an Adam and Eve of sorts, Mitochondrial Adam and Eve. If you go back far enough were all one family!
 
JimmyJake said:
I understand that the Catholic Church teaches that every person alive or who has ever lived is descended from two and exactly two individuals at the outset of human history, that is to say, Adam and Eve, or the “First Parents.” Is this correct? If so, is it crucial? Why?
Click to expand...
Not only crucial, it is true. Or, because it is true it is crucial.

Now, to clarify, there were other societies when Adam and Eve left the garden, the bible makes that clear, however, Adam and Eve are two specific people who were the first with eternal souls and moral culpability. The church doesn’t teach a whole lot on what the other settlements they encountered were…
 
buffalo said:
Yes. This is the correct teaching.

Here is Catholic Dogma:
Click to expand...
Buffalo, thanks for posting that link. What an awesome website!

And just to add to the reference material for the discussion on this thread, here is Catholic Answers summary of the Church’s teachings on the matter:

catholic.com/library/Adam_Eve_and_Evolution.asp

And from this article, I will go ahead and post the following quote:

It is equally impermissible to dismiss the story of Adam and Eve and the fall (Gen. 2–3) as a fiction. A question often raised in this context is whether the human race descended from an original pair of two human beings (a teaching known as monogenism) or a pool of early human couples (a teaching known as polygenism).

In this regard, Pope Pius XII stated: “When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parents of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now, it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the teaching authority of the Church proposed with regard to original sin which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam in which through generation is passed onto all and is in everyone as his own” (Humani Generis 37).

The story of the creation and fall of man is a true one, even if not written entirely according to modern literary techniques. The Catechism states, “The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents” (CCC 390).
 
Anian said:
Yes, actually everybody on earth did descend from an Adam and Eve of sorts, Mitochondrial Adam and Eve. If you go back far enough were all one family!
Click to expand...
All humans alive on earth today did in actuality descend from a single couple. Since we are all descended from Mitochondrial Eve hence we must all also be descended from her parents.

The difference with the literal Bible story is that there were many other humans alive on Earth at the same time from whom we are also descended. It does explain where Cain’s wife came from quite neatly though.

rossum
 
Thanks to all for the responses.

Could be interesting to circle back and think about ‘mitochondrial’ Eve (and Adam), but I don’t think they are what Catholic doctrine has in mind.

Similarly, I don’t think that Church teaching allows for the possibility that Adam and Eve had human ancestors, or that other societies existed concurrently. Or they wouldn’t have been human, would they? Isn’t Catholic doctrine that Adam and Eve were THE two first humans, directly created?

If there were other people on Earth at the time, not descended from Adam and Eve, then Original Sin would not apply to them? Or they would have been non-human?

It seems that the doctrine of two First Parents is essential for the Catholic teachings of Original Sin and the need for Redemption to be coherent. “…for Sin entered the world by one man, …” Or am I off base?
 
Basic Catholic teaching regarding Adam and Eve is found in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, ISBN: 1-57455-109-4
Paragraphs 355-421.

The good news of Jesus Christ follows in Paragraph 422, etc.

One can put the word paragraph and its number in the Catechism’s search bar in link www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm
Entering topics, like Adam, is also very useful.

When you enter a paragraph number, like “paragraph 355”, and then click on the opening line,
CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 355 you will see the following under the paragraph:

»
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JimmyJake said:
If there were other people on Earth at the time, not descended from Adam and Eve, then Original Sin would not apply to them? Or they would have been non-human?
Click to expand...
If you define “human” as “a human body with a human soul” then they would not have been human. They would have had the human body but not a human soul.

rossum
 
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