9. Adam and Eve are not our ancestors-1

It was a dramatic evening faced by James. It was the most challenging case in the life of James. He had never faced such a serious criminal case in his life. James was inside his room in DD’s home. He was staring at himself looking at a mirror. ‘How do I look? Six feet 3 inches tall, with hair that is never combed, sharp nose, long neck. What’s the use in finding my physical features? I have to find SOS’, thought James.

Akshaya called him for dinner. Dinner was Chapatti with gravy made of mushroom. It was the favorite food of James. Rudran joined them. The three had their dinner together. Being a home with atheistic belief they had didn’t follow the customs that usually follow death in southern part of India. James told them all his findings in the commissioner office.

James asked, “Rudh. I didn’t read the book written by dad. If you have a copy of the book can I borrow it from you?”

Rudran said, “Yes, I will give it to you after Dinner”

After dinner, James borrowed the book from Rudran. He went to his room. His room had a very big cot in which two persons can sleep comfortably. But James was lying alone and was started to read the book.

He initially scanned the Index, the chapter that caught his attention was Adam and Eve are not our ancestors. Being a Christian he has read the bible completely. But as he grew he became an atheist. This topic was very interesting the index said it was in page number two hundred and eighty one. He moved to that page and started reading the chapter. It read:

Adam and Eve are not our ancestors, the title of this chapter itself sounds controversial! But you would agree with me once you finish reading this chapter.

The story of Adam and Eve is told in the book of Genesis, chapters 1, 2 and 3, with some additional elements in chapters 4 and 5.

In Genesis 1 God (called Elohim) creates humans "male and female" in His image, and gives them dominion over the living things He has created, and commands them to "be fruitful and multiply."

Genesis 2 opens with God (called Yahweh Elohim) fashioning a man from the dust and blowing life into his nostrils. God plants a garden (the Garden of Eden) and sets the man there, "to work it and watch over it," permitting him to eat of all the trees in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil, "for on the day you eat of it you shall surely die." Then God creates the animals, attempting to find a help-mate for the man; but none of the animals are satisfactory, and so God causes the man to sleep, and creates a woman from his rib. The man names her "Woman" (Heb. ishshah), "for this one was taken from a man" (Heb. ish). "On account of this a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his woman." Genesis 2 ends with the note that the man and woman were naked, and were not ashamed.

Genesis 3 introduces the Snake, "slier than every beast of the field." The snake tempts the woman to eat from the forbidden tree, telling her that it will not lead to death; she succumbs, and gives the fruit to the man, who eats also, "and the eyes of the two of them were opened." Aware now of their nakedness, they make coverings of fig leaves, and hide from the sight of God (still called Yahweh Elohim). God, perceiving that they have broken His command, curses them with hard labour and with pain in childbirth, and banishes them from His garden, setting a cherub at the gate to bar their way to the Tree of Life, "lest he put out his hand ... and eat, and live forever."

Genesis 4 and 5 give the story of Adam and Eve's family after they leave the garden: they have three children, Cain, Abel and Seth, as well as other sons and daughters, and Adam's lifespan is 930 years. ("The woman" is given the name Eve in the closing verses of Genesis 3, "because she was the mother of all living"; Adam gets his name when the initial indefinite article is dropped, changing "ha-adam", the man, to Adam.)

This story of Adam and Eve looks flawless if you read it as just a story. If we see this story as history of mankind, it is unacceptable. Why is it not acceptable?

After Adam and Eve had children, how did they proceed onto the third generation? The children must have slept with each other, or their own parents. How do you explain this to an inquisitive child without condoning incest? Incest was the order of the day, and would have been required for two or three generations.

The main problem is not morals, it can be argued that just because it is immoral does not mean that it didn't happen. The main problem is biological. Interbreeding two families causes severe retardation, mutation and infertility. This happens to isolated Human population even when there are more than two families. The problem increases with severity the more the inbreeding occurs.

"...full-sibling or parent-child incest results in about 17% child mortality and 25% child disability, for a combined result of about 42% nonviable offspring"

-Donald Brown, 'Human Universals'

The phenomenon of nonviable offspring from breeding between closely related family members is not limited to Humans, but to most life, especially amongst mammals and multicellular organisms:

"A study of 38 captive mammalian species found a cross-species average of around 33% offspring mortality resulting from closely incestuous matings"

-Donald Brown, 'Human Universals'

Due to the non viable offspring that result from incest, which gets worse with each generation, the Adam and Eve story cannot be the literal whole truth. When a Christian next time relies on the urban myth of "Christian Family Values" then wonder how they would explain to someone the big question of "What happened after the Flood?" The only moral escape route is to admit that the Adam and Eve story is a metaphor. The only biologically correct explanation known is that we evolved slowly from lower animals so that incest was never a problem.

This is not the only problem with the Adam and Eve story. The moral of the story itself is not good.

James stopped reading. Even being an Atheist, he has never thought about all this. ‘How would Rudh win this case?’, thought James and continued reading.