How do creationists and overzealous, religious people who hold the bible dear explain how Adam and Eve’s kids didn’t commit incest and we’re not all inbred because according to the bible there were only two people at the start.
- Many people believe in God creating without rejecting the findings of science. And many religious people are zealous not for ignorance but for kindness.
According to the others:
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Incest wasn’t forbidden until later.
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Adam and Eve had all the alleles for all the genes there are (except for the ones the Devil slipped in later, like those people have). Never mind this is genetically impossible; with God all things are possible.
Elements of sarcasm in the above post are purely intentional.
I’ve been told that it’s because Adam and Eve were perfect to begin with, and as the generations have gone on after the fall, imperfections have cropped up. In other words, in Adam and Eve’s time, there were no genetic repercussions to incestuous unions. It’s only over time that man’s genetic nature has strayed from the perfection it had back then.
Forget incest and consider this:
Eve was made from Adam’s rib, which makes her to be a genetically modified clone of Adam.
And so…
Adam had sex with his own clone!
So where did she get the extra X chromosome to be a woman? Is that the first evolutionary event?
- ::: g, d, & r ::: *
If you think that’s something, what about Cain’s wife? I mean she appeared out of thin air and never even got a name!
I’ve heard an interesting semi-literal interpretation of the first few chapters of Genesis; it goes something along the lines of Adam and Eve being ‘samples’ from a larger set - created humanity consisting of a whole bunch of folks, but (almost like an auditor would) only one representative couple are examined in detail.
I don’t subscribe to this view myself, but I’ve heard it.
They did commit incest; it was a kindness of G-d that, in order to allow the human race to perpetuate itself, he didn’t declare it sinful until later.
Mangetout, what you heard actually may be on the right track.
The bible is a conglomeration of manuscripts that purport to set forth the history of the Hebrew people. It describes their lineage from the creation. God created Adam in a place called Eden. God then created the Garden of Eden to the east and moved Adam there. Eve was created in the Garden of Eden.
The bible does not address whether God created other people - it focuses on Adam and Eve as the direct ancestors of the Hebrews.
When Adam and Eve violated God’s command, Adam was sent back to the land from whence he came (west of the Garden). When Cain slew Abel, Cain was banished from Eden and went to live in Nod - to the East of Eden - where he knew his wife - effectively removing him from Hebrew lineage.
I’ve got it! Women are mutants!
Adam and Eve were way before the Hebrews. Abraham was the beginning of the Hebrews and actually the twelve tribes came from Joseph and his brothers.
According to your version how do you then fit in the fact that everyone died in the flood, except for Noah’s three sons? That erased all the divisions that you can dream up coming from Adam and Eve.
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[sup]That is literally speaking.[/sup][/ul]
When Cain slew his brother Abel, the Lord banned him from farming and condemned him to be a “restless wanderer on the earth.”
To me this suggests that while Adam and Eve were God’s first human creations, there were not his last. This passage could be implying that God continued to directly populate other lands on the earth.
It’s a bizarre story, and IMHO not to be taken literally, but rather as the mythical expression of how the human race came to be the way it was, in Hebrew concepts.
However, I do not rule out literal truths painted in figurative form here – remember that our own Eve was produced from male body parts, just like her namesake. 
All of the inter familial unions weren’t called into question until West Virginia, Kentucky, and Arkansas brought such behavior to the forefront of public awareness. 
I am looking at chapter 3 of Secret Origins of the Bible by Tim Callahan for an easy answer, but there isn’t one, because the story of Adam & Eve, Abel, Cain, and Seth are so jumbled from old Sumerian stories that it’s impossible to sort it all out.
But comparing them to other myths, they obviously are just creation myths that were intended to explain where people came from, length of lifespan, etc.
Those Sumerian myths were probably much more logical and poetic than the mish-mash the Bible is.
I don’t envy Fundamentalists their leaps over giant logic gaps to interperet things to suit their needs.
I love the shirts at Landoverbaptist.com that quote literal Bible stuff. Those are a scream.
I’m neither a creationist nor religious, but I can tell you that if God is anything like he’s portrayed in the bible, he was able to arrange things so they turned out like they did.
Walloon, I am probably really literal on the Bible or whatever, but that passage can’t lead you to believe that God populated the rest of the earth by Himself. Don’t forget that Adam and Eve were told to “be fruitful” or something like that. Cain and Abel weren’t the only children of those 2. Plus if God created other people, I’m sure that he would’ve told Moses to write that down when Genesis was written. Plus, the age of Cain wasn’t stated, so he may have been 200 years old. I’m sure Adam was getting busy with Eve more than once during those many years.
well i believe God created men and women through out the world, i dont believe adam and eve populated total planet.
God only said he created them first, didnt say he didnt create more in other parts, and can u imagine the size the bible would be if all of Gods information was in that book, man we wouldnt be able to lift it. He tells us on a need to know basis
Just an observation, but why do people who take the Bible literally have no problem accepting that the parables of Jesus are, well, parables . Made-up stories to illustrate a point.
They don’t make Jesus a liar, just because an unnamed “man” didn’t actually give his servants some coins, etc… (to pick one at random). (Actually, DO they make Jesus a liar? There’s a debate!)
Could the Old Testament tales of Adam, Noah and so on be… parables? Allegories to illustrate a point, and therefore not to be taken literally? In which case, the OP is moot.