Did Adam And Eve Exist? Genetic Clocks Sharpen The Origins Debate -- By: Nathaniel Jeanson
Journal: Christian Apologetics Journal
Volume: CAJ 12:2 (Fall 2014)
Article: Did Adam And Eve Exist? Genetic Clocks Sharpen The Origins Debate
Author: Nathaniel Jeanson
JBMW 20:1 (Spring 2015) p. 27
Did Adam And Eve Exist?
Genetic Clocks Sharpen The Origins Debate
Nathaniel Jeanson, Ph.D. (Harvard), is Adjunct Professor at SES. He is the Deputy Director for Life Sciences Research at the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) where he and his team are currently investigating the true origin of species. A regular contributor to ICR’s monthly magazine Acts & Facts, he has contributed to the book Creation Basics & Beyond and is the author of The Lost Treasures of Genesis.
Is the existence of a literal Adam and Eve plausible in light of modern science? If not, could Christianity survive?
For believers, the historical existence of Adam and Eve is more than an academic discussion about Genesis; it is a gospel issue that strikes at the core of the key message of Christianity. For example, the apostle Paul grounds his defense of the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement on the historicity of the Fall of Adam. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19). If one “man” did not literally exist and did not literally sin, can one “Man” literally save? Remove a literal Adam, and you have removed a core tenet of the gospel.
JBMW 20:1 (Spring 2015) p. 28
This gospel has been under attack for many years by evolutionary claims. Darwin proposed “descent with modification” as the general mechanism for the evolutionary origin of species, and he applied it without exception to the origin of humans. According to Darwin, this means that humans arose by the process of natural selection and can trace their ancestry back to an ape–like ancestor.
For many years, evolutionists have tried to scientifically bolster this case indirectly. From radiometric dating data of archaeological sites, evolutionists have traced human origins back in time, far beyond the biblical date of six to ten thousand years. Digging deeper in the fossil record, evolutionists have found remains of species that they say blend the features of humans and apes: Australopithecus, Ardipithecus, Homo habilus, Homo erectus, and Neanderthals. These “transitional forms” are found in layers dated at hundreds of thousands to millions of years, and the earliest of these fossils are found in Africa.
Unfortunately for evolutionists, none of these fields ever directly interrogated Darwin’s central thesis—the common ancestry of humans, primates, and all life on earth. At best, the findings above provided constraints on the explanation for human origins, but none of them directly answered the question of ancestry. ...
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