The Bible and the Population?

[syntex72]

It started with Adam and Eve who were the first humans and they had many children. Their children started to breed with each other, incestuously, and created several settlements of people. Then these inbreed children of Adam and Eve became wicked and God killed all but 8 people (Genesis chapters 6-8, Noah, his wife, Noah's three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth), and their wives were on the ark. Therefore, there were eight people on the ark.)

So these eight highly inbreed people then started to breed and their children inbreed. Then from these eight people genetic pool, which is really just two peoples (Adam and Eves,) we have 8 billion people?

So Ok God made “Adam and Eve, but then got Pissed Killed them and made Noah, his three sons and their four wives.

This all seems a bit strange to me?

[DGayle]

God sure had a fetish for genocide.

[anjulibai]

Genocide and incest.

[FundieWatcher]

One person I talked to believed that God made more people before and after the flood. So Adam and Eve were the first but more were created in the same way they were.(The Bible just didn't mention them)

It is possible that everyone on Earth has one common ancestor though. Science really doesn't know yet.

[2xx1xy1JD]

Here's some interesting reading for science geeks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve

So yes, we do appear to be all descended from the same woman. No, she was not the only woman alive at the time.

There is also some evidence of inter-species breeding, with some people today having a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA. (I know, I know - some of you are saying "well, that explains [insert name of your BIL, boss or random idiot on your life]!)

FWIW, population bottlenecks occur, and a degree of incest is fairly common if you go back into genetic history. With a much smaller population, cousin marriages were not rare.

[Rachel333]

They also believe that back then genes hadn't been corrupted by sin to the degree that they are now, so incest didn't cause the same problems with genetic diseases that it does now.

[Evilbad]

thanks for that link, it's really fascinating.

[Georgiana]

I was watching a documentary on human evolution, and there actually was a period when the Homo Sapiens population in Africa dwindled down to an alarmingly few individuals and teetered on the brink of extinction. Humanity looked doomed. Then, something crazy starts to happen in the historical record. "Human" behaviors show up. Evidence of abstract thought and the beginnings of language. Interaction, prediction, and manipulation of the environment in a way that is more Man than Ape.

The population recovers. We are now Cro Magnons, and for the first time, we are able to push into Europe (migration having been previously and easily blocked by the Neanderthals).

Turns out that having a small population for a (relatively) short time is evolutionary beneficial and can speed up evolution. The environmental changes in Africa during that time wiped out all but the strongest early humans. Therefore, only the VERY strongest and smartest members of the species were surviving and reproducing, allowing each generation to get progressively stronger as only the very best adapted members were able to pass down their genes.

It took like 16 generations of insane interbreeding to get the Habsburgs...and even still, not all members of the later generations showed ill effects.

Incest increases the chances that faulty genes will be passed down, but it does not guarantee it. And if you are in an environment where members who inherit faulty genes will be unable to survive anyway (which was largely the case in early Biblical times), the population as a whole may not suffer for it.

[julie paradox]

I've found that it's just so much easier to cope if you look upon Genesis (and to some extent Exodus) as Creation Myths in the same way as the Greek myths. I don't lknow for certain, but I suspect most of the Classical Greeks didn't literally believe everything you find in Graves, and I don't suppose Eli and Samuel literally believed everything in Genesis either.

[August]

Here's some interesting reading for science geeks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve

So yes, we do appear to be all descended from the same woman. No, she was not the only woman alive at the time.

There is also some evidence of inter-species breeding, with some people today having a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA. (I know, I know - some of you are saying "well, that explains [insert name of your BIL, boss or random idiot on your life]!)

FWIW, population bottlenecks occur, and a degree of incest is fairly common if you go back into genetic history. With a much smaller population, cousin marriages were not rare.

Not just neanderthals, but denisovans, too. And I'd assume that if we found DNA from Homo habilis or some of the other offshoot species we'd find evidence of interbreeding with them, too.

[2xx1xy1JD]

I've found that it's just so much easier to cope if you look upon Genesis (and to some extent Exodus) as Creation Myths in the same way as the Greek myths. I don't lknow for certain, but I suspect most of the Classical Greeks didn't literally believe everything you find in Graves, and I don't suppose Eli and Samuel literally believed everything in Genesis either.

Exactly. I also wonder if it is just more understood in older cultures with a strong oral tradition that stories are a means of transmitting truths about life and moral tales, more than a way of doing precise record-keeping and science lessons. That's part of the reason that a fundamentalist approach to Bible reading never made much sense to me.

The fact that some woman thousands of years ago ate a piece of fruit doesn't sound like a big deal, and certain doesn't sound like a reason for bad things today. It makes more sense on a symbolic level - as humans, we dream of a Garden of Eden, with no worries or responsibilities. The reality, though, is that we've evolved and no longer operate on animal instinct. Unlike animals, our brains developed and we have an awareness of good and evil and the ability to choose, that animals do not possess. That ability allows for both human greatness and human sin. The increased brain power also allowed for humans to actually cultivate crops, instead of merely gathering. In our state of increased awareness, as human, we will have struggles. We will be hungry, but we will need to work hard to eat. We will want to create new things and conquer new places and feel that we are God-like, but we are ultimately mortal and will die.

[BobTheWalrus]

Even the actual eating of the fruit is symbolic of the fact that she is disobeying God. Whether or not one believes there was a literal Eve and a literal fruit or not, you're right in saying that it's not exactly the act that was the problem, but what it represents.

[roddma]

Where did Cain find a wife if Adam and Eve were the only two people aorund?

[Maggie Mae]

Where did Cain find a wife if Adam and Eve were the only two people aorund?

I thought they weren't the only people around? Something about the Caanities?

[Rachel333]

The Bible mentions that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters, so Cain would have married one of his sisters.

[smittykins]

I remember reading a long time ago(maybe in a children's Bible or one of those "Bible Story" books you used to see in doctor's offices)that *of course* Cain married one of his sisters, that's all he had to choose from! Once the earth was sufficiently populated, God made it a sin to marry your sibling.

[Imrlgoddess]

Question...

Where do the fundies get the idea that the world is not over populated or as per Madame Duggar: the entirety of it could fit in New York?

Is there a magical biblical calculation? Or do they just not believe in real world statistics...?