Expert: Marilyn - 8/27/2009

Question
Marilyn, here's one that stumped me:

How does one respond to the evolutionists' claim that there has been insufficient time and that there is too much genetic diversity, especially in the HLA genes, for the human race to have descended from a single pair of human beings?

Would love your take...

Todd

Answer
Howdy Todd,

Are you talking about judging how long human beings have been around by counting generations in Biblical genealogies?

"Ab" is the Hebrew word for father which is defined as, "father, grandfather, forefather, ancestor." The Bible might not necessarily be naming the "father," as in this is the person who caused little Freddy to be conceived in a genealogy. "Father" might name the person who is little Freddy's ancestor. Abraham is the ultimate human ancestor, the father of all who believe, Romans 4, he's got a rather large family by now. The Bible's idea of "father" doesn't necessarily match up with ours 100% of the time; can't count the age of humanity by biblical genealogies.

The geological record places the advent of homo sapiens at around 200,000 years ago. I have to go with that figure because God doesn't lie.

I'm not a young earth proponent, though I believe in a literal interpretation of Genesis 1.

The word translated "day" in Genesis 1 also means, "a 24 hour period, the daylight hours or an era." Further, the words "evening and morning" can also be translated "disorder to order." So, if one plugs in these words instead of "day" and "evening and morning," one will get, "disorder to order, the first era" and so forth. Since the sun doesn't even begin to shine until day 4 we can't be talking about a "day" defined by 24 hours anyway! It is the "rising" and "setting" of the sun which gives us the very concept of what we normally consider a "day."

When looking at the Bible as it butts up against science this is the criteria I use:
1) The Bible is true
2) God cannot lie
3) God, the Law Giver is Logical & Rational. He created His universe to operate according to laws in a logical, rational manner.
4) Evidence (geological, biological, etc.) found in creation is true (God cannot lie).
5) As Creator, God is the First & Greatest Scientist.  

Scientist: noun, a person who has expert knowledge of one or more of the natural or physical sciences. Science is defined as: noun, 1) the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. 2) a systematically organized body of knowledge on any subject. — ORIGIN Latin scientia, from scire ‘know’.

6) When science and the Bible seem not to agree one of the following is occurring:

a. The scientific conclusion is incorrect, incomplete or has been incorrectly interpreted.
b. The Bible has been incorrectly interpreted.

Why did God create Neanderthals, homo erectus etc.? I don't know. But I don't believe they are progenitors of homo sapiens. I believe they begin and end with themselves.

However, Genesis 1:24 says, "And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds..." To me this verse implies a limited evolution. For instance, from the wolf humans have bred an amazing variety of dogs. Left alone, allowed to breed at will, dogs will return to a more wolf-like state--i.e. dogs have not really stopped being wolves. Dogs are according to their kind. Given the striking similarities of the other hominids, one could argue that God did use a limited form of evolution to bring homo sapiens into existence. We are remarkably after that "kind." If one argues this, then the pivotal moment when what is basically a hominid animal becomes a human being is that moment when God breathes into Adam the breath of life.

Gerald Schroeder in his book "The Science of God" argues that this is indeed exactly what God did.  Genesis 1:26 says (I use the NIV unless otherwise indicated), "Then God said, "Let us make man in Our Image, in Our Likeness and let them rule..." The word translated "Image" is "selem" which means "sculpture or shaped image." The word translated "likeness" is "demut" which means "similar." But then in verse 27 the Bible says, "So God created man in His Own Image..." The word translated "created" is "bara," "made from nothing."

Later in Genesis 2:7 we read, "And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being." A more literal translation of that verse would be, "And YHWH Elohim yatsar (made from previously existing material) the adamah (man made from dirt) and breathed into his nostrils the chayeem (breath of lives, which includes the capacity to begat souls and bodies) and man became TO another speaking spirit, changed in form from his previous state."

I think these versions of the creation of man are one in the same event told from different perspectives. In Genesis 2 God adds YHWH, the Name He gives Himself when Moses speaks with Him at the burning bush, "I AM." This Name indicates that He is the first thing, without Him nothing can exist, the Self-Existent One Who Reveals Himself, upon Him all things are predicated.  But one could argue that God took a pre-existing hominid and breathed into it the chayeem and it became to another speaking spirit in the Image of God, this would not violate the "after their own kind" in respect to the material body.

We have to face the facts that our bodies are material things that function like other mammals on the planet. Though our bodies may look like God looks, He's described as having a face, hands, a waist etc., the fact that we're formed from dirt while God is a Spirit means that though we're created in His Image, it's not a physical image. That means the things that make us different from animals are from that wonderful chayeem--the breath of life. Regardless of whether Adam and Eve were the first to have the homo sapiens body or whether God breathing the breath of life into Adam altered his physical body transforming it into the homo sapiens body as well as imparting to him that intangible God-likeness, the end result is the same: we are God's creation after His Image, in His likeness.

The question is asked, "Where did Cain find a wife?" If God used existing hominids and transformed them by breathing into Adam and then taking Eve from his side, Cain could marry what would have basically been an animal that seemed human. His offspring would have been human because he carried the chayeem given him from his father. In this case, genetic variation would have entered in from these animal hominids.

I would say that God breathed into Adam all the variation needed. In any case, Homo sapiens have been around for 200,000 years. Obviously that's plenty of time, especially with God running the show. It's evolutionists who have a real problem with not enough time for everything they want to attribute to their god, Chance, to have occurred. Some have had to come around and admit there simply hasn't been enough time for chance to create the astonishing variety of life on planet earth so they add in the idea that life was planted here by some long forgotten aliens. Aliens!? Never mind, where did God come from, where did life-planting aliens come from and who created them? Evolutionary theory takes a LOT of faith.

Sincerely,

Marilyn