How does a creationist explain this?

[777]

I saw a Frontline episode on the Dover High School fight for intelligent design (creationism) vs. evolution and many questions came to me that I would like a creationist to answer ...

How does a proponent of creationism explain the racial diversity of human beings if we all came to being from a sudden creation of one couple (Adam, Eve)? Should we all not be pretty much the same race then? Or, would the creationists at least concede that in 4000 years' time there was some sort of evolution to explain adaptation to different climates (skin color etc..)?
Or how is this explained?

How is it biologically possible for all humans (unrelated to each other) to come about from one couple? Interbreeding between sisters and brothers and close relatives is very detrimental and mostly fatal as has been shown time and again in incest cases today.

and a silly question - Why did/do the artists even today paint Adam and Eve with belly buttons if they were not born the normal way? They should not have belly buttons, right?

These questions are not here to prove or disprove existence of God.
Just simply questions out of curiosity ... how do you consolidate faith and reason and science all at the same time and make sense out of it , too?

Thanks

 

[RetiredGySgt]

I saw a Frontline episode on the Dover High School fight for intelligent design (creationism) vs. evolution and many questions came to me that I would like a creationist to answer ...

How does a proponent of creationism explain the racial diversity of human beings if we all came to being from a sudden creation of one couple (Adam, Eve)? Should we all not be pretty much the same race then? Or, would the creationists at least concede that in 4000 years' time there was some sort of evolution to explain adaptation to different climates (skin color etc..)?
Or how is this explained?

How is it biologically possible for all humans (unrelated to each other) to come about from one couple? Interbreeding between sisters and brothers and close relatives is very detrimental and mostly fatal as has been shown time and again in incest cases today.

and a silly question - Why did/do the artists even today paint Adam and Eve with belly buttons if they were not born the normal way? They should not have belly buttons, right?

These questions are not here to prove or disprove existence of God.
Just simply questions out of curiosity ... how do you consolidate faith and reason and science all at the same time and make sense out of it , too?

Thanks

First , when Cain was cast out he went elsewhere and married. There were other Humans. Answering several of your questions all with one answer.

Why and where did they come from? Obviously they were created in some fashion by God. Now are you likely to get that explaination from most Jews, Christians or Muslims? Not likely I suspect.

As for evolution, the only part that might contradict the belief God created man is that MAN evolved from apes. Of course since there is no actual evidence to support that claim....

Further even if ever proven it does not invalidate anything in the Bible anyway, since as I said, other people existed on earth after Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden.

 

[maineman]

do you consider the possibility that Genesis, rather than being a piece of journalism factually recounting the story of two real people in a real garden who had a run-in with a real snake, might instead be a piece of fictional literature and an allegory that tries to explain man's inherent sinful nature that is inescapable and that has been with him since the very beginning?

I mean, really....if there were all those other people roaming around OUTSIDE the garden, why would God have to rip a rib out of Adam's side just to make eve? Why couldn't he have just plucked up one of those other ladies from outside the garden and brouht her INside as an infant?

 

[mattskramer]

do you consider the possibility that Genesis, rather than being a piece of journalism factually recounting the story of two real people in a real garden who had a run-in with a real snake, might instead be a piece of fictional literature and an allegory that tries to explain man's inherent sinful nature that is inescapable and that has been with him since the very beginning?

I mean, really....if there were all those other people roaming around OUTSIDE the garden, why would God have to rip a rib out of Adam's side just to make eve? Why couldn't he have just plucked up one of those other ladies from outside the garden and brouht her INside as an infant?

That is an excellent point and a couter to the fundamentalists (literalists). Where did Cian’s wife come from? How did the human race come to be how it is today without incest done by the first family?

 

[RetiredGySgt]

do you consider the possibility that Genesis, rather than being a piece of journalism factually recounting the story of two real people in a real garden who had a run-in with a real snake, might instead be a piece of fictional literature and an allegory that tries to explain man's inherent sinful nature that is inescapable and that has been with him since the very beginning?

I mean, really....if there were all those other people roaming around OUTSIDE the garden, why would God have to rip a rib out of Adam's side just to make eve? Why couldn't he have just plucked up one of those other ladies from outside the garden and brouht her INside as an infant?

Of course it is possible. It is also possible that the Catholic Church chooses to hide the biblical books that may or may not answer said questions.

It is clear other people existed some time after Adam and Eve. Only a fool tries to pretend otherwise.

 

[Shogun]

Why couldn't the god of christianty also have created humanity elsewhere anyway? For all we know he is to christians and jews what baal was to babylonians. Perhaps he just likes a little variety and conflict between his pantheon of religions acts as the mechanism for the evolution of the human spirit. Perhaps the bible is just one facet in his master plan to evolve human kind into a similar entity as himself. He created angels first but their lack of soul makes them less than his human creation. Perhaps life is his forge and we are his iron ingot being shaped in some grand experiment that is greater than our perspective under our accepted dogma.

after all... christians, jews and muslims ALL pray to the same GOD.... Perhaps this same thing is why there were other humans around for adam and eve's litter to wed..

 

[jillian]

do you consider the possibility that Genesis, rather than being a piece of journalism factually recounting the story of two real people in a real garden who had a run-in with a real snake, might instead be a piece of fictional literature and an allegory that tries to explain man's inherent sinful nature that is inescapable and that has been with him since the very beginning?

That's how we view it.

 

[Dr Grump]

Gods were used to explain the unexplainable. Science is catching up and will soon overtake. I'm hoping in about 200-300 years time logic will have fully overtaken and all religions will be looked upon in the same light we now look upon Greeks, Romans, Africans, Mayan, Egyptians and their gods. Mythological, but quaint nevertheless. Of course, the only problem with this, is that there will be a void left with regard to spirituality...

 

[jillian]

Gods were used to explain the unexplainable. Science is catching up and will soon overtake. I'm hoping in about 200-300 years time logic will have fully overtaken and all religions will be looked upon in the same light we now look upon Greeks, Romans, Africans, Mayan, Egyptians and their gods. Mythological, but quaint nevertheless. Of course, the only problem with this, is that there will be a void left with regard to spirituality...

Might be. But I think people DO need spirituality. It's an interesting issue, though. Without religion per se, how do people fill the spiritual void? Maybe it becomes like Einstein's theory on religion as being more a wonder at the complexity of the universe.

 

[AllieBaba]

Science has pretty much come around to accept the concept that we all evolved from the same stock.

The secret is to stop trying to force the concept of God into what your understanding of science is. We have an incomplete understanding of science. We have an incomplete understanding of God. And there is no man on earth who will ever be able to completely understand both, or even just one. It is arrogant to assume, therefore, that if you can't explain it, that is, in and of itself, the explanation or justification for ruling out the veracity of one or the other views.

So it's a matter of opening your mind, and instead of looking for reasons to discredit, start really looking at what you have in front of you, and come to grips with the fact that nobody has all the answers, and nobody ever will.

 

[CharlestonChad]

As for evolution, the only part that might contradict the belief God created man is that MAN evolved from apes. Of course since there is no actual evidence to support that claim....

We actually have a lot of evidence linking humans to apes.

Further even if ever proven it does not invalidate anything in the Bible anyway, since as I said, other people existed on earth after Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden.

I agree. I don't think humans evolving from monkeys disproves the bible, but I think it shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the bible is not a literal text.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

We actually have a lot of evidence linking humans to apes.



I agree. I don't think humans evolving from monkeys disproves the bible, but I think it shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the bible is not a literal text.

Parts of it are obviously not literal. Parts of it are in fact historical.

 

[Dr Grump]

Parts of it are obviously not literal. Parts of it are in fact historical.

So what is the truth?

 

[CharlestonChad]

Parts of it are obviously not literal. Parts of it are in fact historical.

Only a few centuries ago, everything in the bible was historical...

 

[onedomino]

Might be. But I think people DO need spirituality. It's an interesting issue, though. Without religion per se, how do people fill the spiritual void? Maybe it becomes like Einstein's theory on religion as being more a wonder at the complexity of the universe.

Einstein believed in God. When faced with the apparently intrinsic unpredictability of quantum mechanics Einstein exclaimed: "God does not play dice with the Universe." As Grump faces his uncertainty he might reflect on the fact that many of the most brilliant humans to ever live were firm believers in God: Kepler, Galileo, St Augustine, Newton, Leibniz, Spinoza, Kant, Euler, Einstein.

 

[Dr Grump]

Einstein believed in God. When faced with the apparently intrinsic unpredictability of quantum mechanics Einstein exclaimed: "God does not play dice with the Universe." As Grump faces his uncertainty he might reflect on the fact that many of the most brilliant humans to ever live were firm believers in God: Kepler, Galileo, St Augustine, Newton, Leibniz, Spinoza, Kant, Euler, Einstein.

A lot of brilliant humans don't believe in a god. Quite a few of those mentioned by you were alive in times when science was not at the forefront as it is now. It would be interesting to get their POV if they were alive today. And Grump has no uncertainty about there being no god. I am absolutely positive there is no higher being (in the godly sense)..there might be some higher civilisations out there in space, but a god? No..and even if there was some celestial body, it does not necessary mean it would be a god as understood by Christians, Jews, Muslims etc

 

[Shogun]

Einstein believed in God. When faced with the apparently intrinsic unpredictability of quantum mechanics Einstein exclaimed: "God does not play dice with the Universe." As Grump faces his uncertainty he might reflect on the fact that many of the most brilliant humans to ever live were firm believers in God: Kepler, Galileo, St Augustine, Newton, Leibniz, Spinoza, Kant, Euler, Einstein.

some of them were also believers in phrenolgy too.. Some of them even believed in the four humours of the body! Leaching and VAMPIRES. Sea monsters and magic....

Socrates believed in GODS too. What does that prove, exactly?

 

[mattskramer]

some of them were also believers in phrenolgy too.. Some of them even believed in the four humours of the body! Leaching and VAMPIRES. Sea monsters and magic....

Socrates believed in GODS too. What does that prove, exactly?

Good catch. That is the basic way that one counters those who fall in the trap of appealing to authority. I like to play the game sometimes too. Here are some famous (or infamous) people with atheistic statements:

http://www.wonderfulatheistsofcfl.org/Quotes.htm

 

[AllieBaba]

Only a few centuries ago, everything in the bible was historical...

The Bible is still historical, and the more we learn, the more evidence we have to support it.

Hawkings also believes in God.

 

[Shogun]

The koran is historical too then if your standard is merely that the text mentions actual historic places. Hell, Most Greek drama must be a spring of valid supernatural observation too!

wow. the bible mentions rome. profound.


I'll take Carl Segan anyday.