IANAS, but I’m taking some classes in bio-anthropology and paleontology. Mass suicide is actually part of a legitimate theory as to why dinosaurs went extinct. Some scientists have noted that the fall of the dinosaurs coincided with the rise of flowering plants (many of which were poisonous) and hypothesized that eating the plants caused changes in certain species’ brains, causing them to go into frenzies and commit mass suicide (whole herds stampeding off cliffs, into the ocean etc.)
I think my favorite would have to be the “theory” that dinosaur bones are found on Earth because God used chunks of other planets when he made the Earth, and those other planets had life on them already. So, dinosaurs are actually dead aliens. Uh-huh. Riiiiight!
Legit to whom? I majored in paleontology at UCB, and this particular theory was never mentioned. Well, actually, I take that back…it was mentioned as a “non viable” theory. Flowering plants were around for millions of years before dinosaurs went extinct, and dinosaurs went extinct at the same time as many other organisms, at the end of the Cretaceous.
It may be a theory, but I wouldn’t call it “legit”.
I’ve heard someone say that satan created dinosaur bones to deceive us into believing there is no God. Another variation of this is that scientists are constantly making bones out of plastic to keep the dinosaur myth going. :rolleyes: How embarrassing.
FTR, I believe in God and that He created everything by means of evolution. So I believe in Creation by means of Evolution, why do so many other Christians embarrass the rest of us so?
I am not a scientist, but I believe that her claim is basically reasonable. As I understand it, the reason that inbreeding is bad is that there are a whole ton of really nasty recessive diseases/conditions floating around, all of them really really rare. But there are so many of them that each of us has the gene for quite a few of them. If we go out and mate with any random person, chances are incredibly small that they will also have the gene for one of these conditions, and even if they do, there’s only 1 chance in 4 that any one of our kids will develop it. But if I mate with someone related to me, the chances of them having any of them go way way way up.
So, one could postulate that Adam and Eve did not have any of these nasty genes. Thus, they could inbreed with impunity. (Whether 6000 years would be nearly enough time for two people to give birth to the incredible genetic diversity that is the human race is another question, of course).
She’s giving bible beaters a bad name then, and should study a little more because even I can refute your question and I’m not what I consider a practicing Christian any more.
Eve gives birth to Cain and Able, just them. Then, when they’re men, Cain kills Able. God then allows Adam and Eve to have a third son, Seth (gen 4-25) because Able was unjustly taken from them. More to the point, however, when God decides to punish Cain by exiling him, Cain protests:
“(gen. 4-13) And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.(4-14) Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that **every one **that findeth me shall slay me.”
Though the bible doesn’t explicitly say there were other god-created people, there must have been. Or who else would he encounter in his exile? Not his parents, and any future siblings would be about 2 decades away from tracking him down. My theory is further sustaniated by this: " (gen 4-16) And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.(Gen 4-17) And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch." So obviously he’s moving to an already populated place.
Ironically enough, this is as hard to convince people who support a literal interpetation of the bible(we are all decended from Adam and Eve) as it is to convince people who use this story to refute the bible’s truthfullness. Go figure.
As much as I’ve enjoyed this little pile-on disguised as a “poll”, it just isn’t very fair to the poor Creationists who can’t state their defenses(such as they are) here.