# How do creationists explain away prehistoric humans? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 1, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522 "2017-04-01T18:58:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/41 "2017-04-03T03:36:53Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > The Bible is full of continuity errors. It starts off with a huge one in Genesis itself. Adam and Eve, allegedly the first people on Earth, have sons. The sons grow up and, after Cain kills Abel, (talk about sibling rivalry - he just wiped out 1/4 of the human race due to a jealousy tantrum) he goes off and finds…a wife? > > That last bit obviously doesn’t fit with the rest of the creation story. It is so blatantly illogical that the authors couldn’t have missed it. One explanation I have heard is that Adam and Eve also had unnamed daughters that married their brothers as if that makes it any better. That explanation doesn’t work either because Genesis implies that those good ole boys had to leave their family to find their wives somewhere else. > > Nope, Genesis freely acknowledges that there were other people around even during the creation story. Maybe the authors thought they were godless people that could be still be used for procreation of the true human race but it never says. That’s one of my favorite questions to ask - where did Cain’s wife come from? It’s right up there with two others that I love: 1. According to Genesis, God said “Let there be light” and then started creating on day one. But he didn’t create the sun, which is the source of light, until day four. What’s up with that? 2. According to Isaiah, God made the sun move backwards in the sky. And according to Joshua, God made the sun stand still. There were other civilizations on Earth that were far more advanced than the Hebrews in regards to astronomy, history, etc. Why didn’t a single one of them happen to notice these things happening? ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/42 "2017-04-03T10:42:29Z")
My father, now 90 and retired for some time, was a professor of archaeology at a religious college and a semi-famous creationist. I can’t remember every crazy thing he said and believed, but he could argue just about anybody under the table, because that was his job and he worked at it full time (and he didn’t fight fair). He believes he was chosen by God and that God controls his thoughts. Therefore, whatever enters his mind is right. Doubting is a sin. It doesn’t bother him to contradict himself. He has no idea that he’s doing it. He believes that every word of the Bible is literally true. The earth was created 5777 years ago. All species were created at the same time. Some have disappeared, but no new species have appeared. There is no such thing as evolution. Carbon dating is unreliable. He loves dinosaurs and believes that dinos and humans coexisted. I’ve never heard him express an opinion about “prehistoric” humans, but I’m sure he has one, probably either that they weren’t human or that they were an isolated bunch who suffered from some disease. Humans are not smart enough to understand God’s plan. We’ll understand it all by and by. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/43 "2017-04-03T12:06:00Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Yeah, except, you know, it should have taken Adam about 2 seconds to figure out what to name it. “What’s this thing? Huh, what does it eat? OK, an idea is coming to me…” But how many animals are named for what they eat? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/44 "2017-04-03T12:24:41Z")
eschereal: > [@](#): > > No, Adam and Eve were not the first people on earth. God creates man and woman together, side-by-side, in his own image, in chapter one. Then, in chapter two, he creates Adam and tears out part of Adam to create Eve. Chapter two is an elaboration on a specific portion of chapter one. I call your attention to verse 2:4: > [@](#): > > This is the account of the heavens and the earth **when they were created** , when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. In other words, the following details took place DURING the creation story recounted above. No additional people around at the time. elfkin 4777: > [@](#): > > God has to have created other people besides Adam and Eve or Cain wouldn’t have worried about being harmed by other people once he got banished for killing his brother. He wouldn’t have worried if the only other people on earth were his parents. Future offspring of his parents. > [@](#): > > And of course, Nod apparently already existed as a place too. It was not necessarily named at that time. That was a name the land had acquired by the time the Bible was written down, which was by Moses. Genesis chapter 2 also mentions the lands of Kush and Ashur, both of which were later names, founded by grandchildren of Noah. Clothahump: > [@](#): > > That’s one of my favorite questions to ask - where did Cain’s wife come from? It’s right up there with two others that I love: She was his sister (or, more accurately, one of his sisters, or more than one. There is a Midrash says that there were three girls born alongside Cain and Abel, and in fact, Cain and Abel’s argument that led to the murder revolved around who would get to wed the spare sister). Adam and Eve had many sons and daughters in addition to the three sons that were actually named. (see Genesis 5:4). > [@](#): > > 1. According to Genesis, God said “Let there be light” and then started creating on day one. But he didn’t create the sun, which is the source of light, until day four. What’s up with that? He created light on the first day, but didn’t yet confine it to the sun, moon and stars. On the fourth day, he confined the light to vessels in order to create an orderly cycle of years, months and seasons. (according to Genesis 1:14, that was the primary purpose of the lights in the heavens) > [@](#): > > 1. According to Isaiah, God made the sun move backwards in the sky. And according to Joshua, God made the sun stand still. There were other civilizations on Earth that were far more advanced than the Hebrews in regards to astronomy, history, etc. Why didn’t a single one of them happen to notice these things happening? Two possibilities: Either it was not a genuine stoppage/reversal of Earth’s rotation, but a localized illusion of unusual solar movement, or, it happened, but since the phenomenon was only significant to the Hebrews, they’re the only ones who wrote it down. Let’s face it - what history did ancient civilizations record, except for wars and the activities of their kings? For the Hebrews, these events happened during a war, and as a miracle done for a king, respectively. For other civilizations, if they witnessed them at all, it wasn’t in a context that was generally recorded. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/45 "2017-04-03T12:33:33Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > I once helped a teacher that needed some research done about a lesson on the theory of the [Mitochondrial Eve](http://news.rice.edu/2010/08/17/mother-of-all-humans-lived-200000-years-ago/). > > [Mother of all humans lived 200,000 years ago](http://news.rice.edu/2010/08/17/mother-of-all-humans-lived-200000-years-ago/#sthash.mMK7XTuf.dpuf) > Not much of a problem for scientists, it is interesting that that age is close for the time many think that humans began to use fire in a reliable and constant way. That’s too late for “reliable and constant” use of fire. That date would be more like 500,000 years ago (or earlier). It also follows by noting that both modern humans and Neanderthals used fire regularly, so it is likely their common ancestor did, too. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/46 "2017-04-03T12:33:56Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Yeah, except, you know, it should have taken Adam about 2 seconds to figure out what to name it. “What’s this thing? Huh, what does it eat? OK, an idea is coming to me…” Adam spoke English? Modern English even? C’mon dude, someone speaking current English 6000 years ago is even more unlikely that a virgin getting pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/47 "2017-04-03T14:42:20Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > That’s too late for “reliable and constant” use of fire. That date would be more like 500,000 years ago (or earlier). It also follows by noting that both modern humans and Neanderthals used fire regularly, so it is likely their common ancestor did, too. When I referred to “reliable and constant” I was thinking about being able to create it too, so I should had clarified. Very early examples do point at fire being used more than a million years ago. But as many researchers do acknowledge, those early examples were few and are not likely to be of creatures that could make it reliably and constantly. Controlling it for a time was more likely, but most of the fire used could had come from natural sources (lightning started forest fires or volcanoes) and then hominids learned to keep it going for long periods of time. IOW, it was one reason too for the development of early societies that likely had to organize to keep a fire fire going. Over time, early humans figured out how to also create fire and the “secret” of that and the way to organize the upkeep of it became to be know in almost all places between 700,000 years ago and 120,000 years ago. [http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/371/1696/20150164](http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/371/1696/20150164) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/48 "2017-04-03T15:03:59Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > She was his sister (or, more accurately, one of his sisters, or more than one. There is a Midrash says that there were three girls born alongside Cain and Abel, and in fact, Cain and Abel’s argument that led to the murder revolved around who would get to wed the spare sister). Adam and Eve had many sons and daughters in addition to the three sons that were actually named. (see Genesis 5:4). > > He created light on the first day, but didn’t yet confine it to the sun, moon and stars. On the fourth day, he confined the light to vessels in order to create an orderly cycle of years, months and seasons. (according to Genesis 1:14, that was the primary purpose of the lights in the heavens) > > Two possibilities: Either it was not a genuine stoppage/reversal of Earth’s rotation, but a localized illusion of unusual solar movement, or, it happened, but since the phenomenon was only significant to the Hebrews, they’re the only ones who wrote it down. Let’s face it - what history did ancient civilizations record, except for wars and the activities of their kings? For the Hebrews, these events happened during a war, and as a miracle done for a king, respectively. For other civilizations, if they witnessed them at all, it wasn’t in a context that was generally recorded. Way back in the 60’s Marvel Comics found a unique way to deal with reader’s complaints about continuity glitches and outright mistakes made in their comic books: They awarded a “No-Prize”(a decorated envelope that contained nothing) to the reader that gave the best explanation/excuse for each glitch. I used to think that Marvel had originated this idea…until I encountered religious scholarship. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/49 "2017-04-03T15:20:33Z")
I don’t see a problem. The Bible never provides specific dates. We know Exodus fits during the reign of the Pharaohs. Genesis is much further back in time. I’m not sure why religious scholars claim only a few thousand years of human existence. That’s obviously wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/50 "2017-04-03T15:38:15Z")
Genesis isn’t even internally consistent. Which did God create first, humans or animals? Genesis 1 says that animals came first, while in Genesis 2, the animals are created as potential partners for Adam, which he vetoes one by one. And even if God created light in general before the vessels to contain it, he was also doing things on days before he created day. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/51 "2017-04-03T15:56:37Z")
aceplace57: > [@](#): > > I’m not sure why religious scholars claim only a few thousand years of human existence. That’s obviously wrong. How do you figure? If Adam was indeed the first human, then the generational timelines in Genesis chapters 5 and 11 are very clear on how many years elapsed between the creation of Adam - i.e., the dawn of human existence - and the birth of Abraham. Scattered verses after that point (because the stories are more detailed, so there isn’t a single chapter spanning numerous generations) nail down the time frame between that point all the way to the Babylonian destruction of the first Holy Temple. There’s some historical dispute between traditionalists and secular historians over when exactly that last event occurred, but that dispute is about a mere 168 years, not about tens (or hundreds) of thousands of years. Chronos: > [@](#): > > Genesis isn’t even internally consistent. Which did God create first, humans or animals? Genesis 1 says that animals came first, while in Genesis 2, the animals are created as potential partners for Adam, which he vetoes one by one. I could swear we’d been through this before on this board, but maybe not recently. Animals were created first. The verse at Genesis 2:19, it means that G-d HAD CREATED the animals (i.e., past perfect tense), not that he just then created them, after Adam. > [@](#): > > And even if God created light in general before the vessels to contain it, he was also doing things on days before he created day. No, he created day on the first day as well - see Genesis 1:5. There was, at that point, a distinction of light vs darkness, and times assigned to each - it just wasn’t based on Earth’s rotation, the way it came to be after G-d created the sun on the fourth day. It was based on something we, who are used to the sun as our guide to time, simply can’t readily relate to. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/52 "2017-04-03T16:13:59Z")
I was raised in the ultra-conservative Church of Christ, and they always just disregarded any scientific evidence for evolution, including prehistoric humans. Everything is secondary to the Holy Bible, which can never be wrong about anything. That being said, there were some Church people who, like me, were interested in paleontology and anthropology. One guy that I talked to in the 1980s, before I stopped going to church altogether, said that he accepted that there were other critters in the past that looked even more like us than the current “great apes”, like australopithecus, etc. But he figured that God still created Adam as a modern homo sapiens, and all other species were just animals with no human souls. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/53 "2017-04-03T17:16:25Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > eschereal: > > Chapter two is an elaboration on a specific portion of chapter one. I call your attention to verse 2:4: > > In other words, the following details took place DURING the creation story recounted above. No additional people around at the time. It is still a shit editing hack. In 1:27, it creates man and woman at the same time, on the sixth day; in 2:7, it creates Adam, and somewhere around 2:22, it creates Eve, both apparently on the eighth day. Because of flaws like this, the bible has been responsible for the conversion of more atheists than any other book. It was more effective as a holy book before Johann G. made it widely accessible to lots of people, when it only lived in churches and rich folks’ homes. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/54 "2017-04-03T18:35:29Z")
Fine. So ignore what it actually says at 2:4, because calling it an “editing hack” fits your preconceived notions of being contradictory. I’ll save my digital breath for someone who’s actually interested. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/55 "2017-04-03T19:18:06Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Fine. So ignore what it actually says at 2:4, because calling it an “editing hack” fits your preconceived notions of being contradictory. > > I’ll save my digital breath for someone who’s actually interested. There is a difference between being interested, and accepting your interpretation without question. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/56 "2017-04-03T19:37:26Z")
I’m interested. > [@cmkeller](#): > > The verse at Genesis 2:19, it means that G-d HAD CREATED the animals (i.e., past perfect tense) How do you know that verse is the past perfect tense? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/57 "2017-04-03T19:39:03Z")
I’m not saying he should BELIEVE in the Bible without question, but when the subject is how Bible-believers explain something, then when a verse in the Bible clearly reconciles what without it would be a contradiction, it ill befits the discussion to write it off as an “editing hack.” Bible believers believe what they read in the Bible. If the verse is right there in black and white, that explains how their belief isn’t irrational due to what would otherwise be a contradiction. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/58 "2017-04-03T19:53:53Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > I’m not saying he should BELIEVE in the Bible without question, but when the subject is how Bible-believers explain something, then when a verse in the Bible clearly reconciles what without it would be a contradiction, it ill befits the discussion to write it off as an “editing hack.” Bible believers believe what they read in the Bible. If the verse is right there in black and white, that explains how their belief isn’t irrational due to what would otherwise be a contradiction. Maybe, just _maybe_ this “reconciliation” is so clear to you because it removes a stumbling block from what you want the Bible to be? If it was that clear, there wouldn’t be any controversy. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/59 "2017-04-03T20:00:57Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > If the verse is right there in black and white, that explains how their belief isn’t irrational due to what would otherwise be a contradiction. Was this a response to me? If so, it doesn’t really answer the question. If not, can you answer the question? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522/60 "2017-04-03T20:06:55Z")
Genesis One: > [@](#): > > **11** And God saith, `Let the earth yield tender grass, herb sowing seed, fruit-tree (whose seed [is] in itself) making fruit after its kind, on the earth:’ and it is so. > **12** And the earth bringeth forth tender grass, herb sowing seed after its kind, and tree making fruit (whose seed [is] in itself) after its kind; and God seeth that [it is] good; > **13** and there is an evening, and there is a morning – day third. Genesis Two: > [@](#): > > **3** And God blesseth the seventh day, and sanctifieth it, for in it He hath ceased from all His work which God had prepared for making. > **4** These [are] births of the heavens and of the earth in their being prepared, in the day of Jehovah God’s making earth and heavens; > **5** and no shrub of the field is yet in the earth, and no herb of the field yet sprouteth, for Jehovah God hath not rained upon the earth, and a man there is not to serve the ground Someone needs to get their story straight. This would never fly in court. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-creationists-explain-away-prehistoric-humans/783522.md?page=4)