Prehistoric times can be difficult to decipher and understand. Without a written record that we can understand, mankind is left with the option of using the evidence they find to try and reconstruct what actually happened. The problem is that the same evidence can lead to many different conclusions. This problem is amplified when people have preconceived ideas, before looking at the evidence. Those ideas will tend to push them towards finding ways of using the evidence to support their ideas, rather than looking to see what ideas the evidence suggests.
This is a large part of why there is such a huge discrepancy between what evolutionists say about the origins of man and what biblical creationists say about it. Evolutionists claim that humans are nothing more than an accidental product of evolution; millions of small mutations taking us from single-cell-organisms to who we are today. Even those single-cell-organisms required millions of accidental changes to cause the “primordial soup,” that was the oceans, to create that simple life. Biblical creationists, on the other hand, believe that a supreme being, whom they call “God,” “Jehovah,” or “Yahweh,” created humans, like all other forms of life, deliberately.
Those who believe in biblical creation do so because of the evidence written in the Christian Bible and the Jewish Tanakh (the Tanakh is included as the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. In the first two chapters of the first book, Genesis, an account of this creation is given. This book, along with four other books of the Bible, were given to Moses by Jehovah God.
What’s in the Biblical Account?
The biblical account of creation starts by delineating God’s activities during the six days of creation. There is some disagreement amongst scholars as to whether that refers to six 24-hour periods, as we know days or whether it refers to six periods of time, which could each be many thousands of years long. The sun didn’t appear in that process until the fourth day (Gen 1:14), adding to the confusion.
But there is no confusion as to when the first human was created; that occurred on the sixth day and is mentioned in verse 26-27:
Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Later, in chapter 2, it appears that there is a more detailed accounting of this act of creation, with God creating Adam (man) first and then creating Eve (woman), having taken a rib out of Adam to do so.
According to Jewish tradition; this second account isn’t a more detailed explanation, but rather a continuation of the story. When God created man in chapter one, the verses above state that He did so “in His own image.” Ok, so what’s the image of God?
God doesn’t have a body; He’s a spirit. The only body we see in scripture that is attributed to God, is the body of Jesus Christ, who is known as His Son. Based on that, we can say that when God created Adam in chapter 1, he created the spirit of Adam. This is then placed in the body that He created for Adam in chapter 2.
When we look at chapter 2, we see that God first created a body for Adam, and “breathed” the spirit He had created into it, giving it life.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Again, we have a potential point of confusion. As we saw in chapter 1, verse 27, God created “male and female,” yet at this point there is only one body, which is understood to be a male body, by the reference to God forming “man out of the dust of the ground.” So, where does woman come in?
Skipping over a few things, we find that God said, in verse 18: “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” The following verse talk about God creating animals and Adam naming them, with verse 20 ending in the words: “But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.” Those words “comparable to him” are key, as they show that none of the animals were a worthy companion for Adam, he needed a human companion. So, God made him one.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He (God) took one of his (Adam’s) ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. – Genesis 2:21-22
One might wonder why God took a rib out of Adam, so that he could make a woman. After all, He made Adam’s body out of the dust of the ground. Couldn’t He have done so again?
The word that is translated in verse 21 as “rib” is the Hebrew word “minnay,” which refers to taking something out of something else. It can also refer to taking something out of the side of something else, which the translators of the Bible took to mean a rib. But the real point wasn’t that it was a specific bone, but rather that it was part of Adam. The definition can just as correctly be translated as “part of the essence of.” With that understanding, we can say that God took the feminine characteristics out of Adam and placed them in a feminine body, which Adam, the first one created, named Eve. These were the first two people.
But What About the Fossil Record?
Many people have trouble accepting this accounting, saying that it doesn’t agree with science, meaning that it doesn’t agree with evolutionary theory. Their biggest struggle with accepting it, is that it doesn’t agree with what is referred to as the fossil record.
The fossil record is one of the most important pieces of evidence that scientists use to try and understand the times before history was recorded in written language. Currently, there are over 6,000 different fossil “individuals” residing in various museums and research centers around the world. That number is increasing, as more and more fossils are uncovered.
From that huge quantity of evidence, only a few fossils are used to create the chain of human evolution. Some are not used because they have been identified as the same species as another, some because they are mere fragments, not providing enough information to determine what or who they were; but there are also those which are ignored, because they don’t fit into the chain as it has been developed.
Dating the age of any particular fossil is a challenging task at best. Two methodologies are used: radioactive dating and the geological column. There are several different versions of radioactive dating, but they all work under the premise that there are radioactive isotopes in everything. Those isotopes decay at a known rate, with the “half-life” of each of those isotopes being different. Scientists measure the amount of radiation coming from one of those isotopes and determine how many half-lives it has gone through. Multiplying that by how long the half-lives are, gives a number of years.
The first problem with radioactive dating is that the smaller the amount of radiation, the more difficult it is to measure it accurately, so as to determine the number of half-lives. Think of it this way – if you take a ruler and measure distance, it is easy to obtain a decent degree of accuracy for the major graduations on the ruler, say centimeters for example. Measuring millimeters is also relatively easy, although for accuracy, some means of magnification might be useful. But what happens if you want to measure tenths of millimeters or hundredths of millimeters with that ruler? The accuracy of the final digit becomes less and less. That’s what happens with radioactive dating, although scientists tell us the opposite. Logic shows the inaccuracy of their statement.
The second problem with radioactive dating is that of selection. Scientists select samples of material to perform radioactive dating on. These samples tend not to be consistent, even if they are gathered from the same place, extremely close to each other. If a sample does not come up with the results they expect, they declare it “contaminated” and try another sample, seeking the answer they expect.
As for using the geological column, that’s based upon the assumption that different layers of soil are laid down in different time periods, piling one upon the other. We see this in archeology, where ancient buildings and cities, which have been abandoned, become covered by layers of soil. But does that mean that we can extrapolate from that and account for millions of years?
The problem with using the stratification of rock and earth as a means of dating is coming up with a time scale to use, stating which strata is how old. One of the methods used for this, is the aforementioned radioactive dating. But there’s a simpler method that is more commonly used; that’s the presence of fossils in any particular strata. If you ask a geologist how they know a particular stratum is X number of years old, they’ll tell you that they know it is because such-and-such a type of fossil is found in it. Then if you ask a paleontologist how they know that a fossil is Y number of years old, they’ll tell you that they know it because it is found in such-and-such a stratum. It’s a circular argument.
By the way, the idea that a believer in the Bible, whether Christian, Jew or other, should try to make the Bible align with what science says is erroneous. Evolutionary theory is just that… theory, even though it is taught as fact. But since it cannot be proven, it cannot be taken as fact.
So, Aren’t All Those “Early Men” Still People?
There are always people who try and find some correlation between the Biblical story of creation and evolution. One way they do this is with the theory that the Adam and Eve mentioned in Genesis are merely two representative people in the evolutionary chain; we could say the first two that were truly homo sapiens. This is an attempt to align the biblical account of creation with evolutionary theory.
Not only is the evolutionary theory just a theory, but it is a theory based on inaccurate facts. A few of the examples of how inaccurate the “evidence” used is, are:
- Nebraska Man – the entire sub-species was created from four incomplete teeth. Not only that, but they decided what his wife looked like too. It turned out to be a phony, made from the tooth of a pig.
- Piltdown Man – created from an incomplete human skull and the jaw of an ape. The Skull was filed down to fit together; file marks are visible on the original skull, but not on the castings.
- Neanderthal Man – was thought to be hunched over, walking more like an ape; but it was known from the beginning to have arthritis.
- Cro-Mangon Man – was actually a perfectly normal human skeleton.
Could it be, perhaps, that aside from these examples, most of the fossil evidence is actually evidence of disease or even birth defects, showing up in the fossilized skeletons? To call any of them Adam and Eve would be to buy into a theory that is built upon shaky ground.
It might seem impossible that the great variety of humans that exist on the Earth today could have come from one couple as our common ancestors. Yet in 2004, a computer simulation of the human population on earth was run, with the idea of disproving common ancestry. To ensure that there was not a false “Yes” as a result to the test, the genetic barriers used were higher than historically used. Nevertheless, the results proved that all of humankind could have one pair of common ancestors as recent as two or three thousand years ago.
What About Cavemen?
The idea of cavemen originated with the discovery of neanderthal Man in Germany. Nevertheless, Neanderthals were probably not cavemen, as they were highly intelligent beings, with a larger cranial capacity than our own.
There is no specific time period that can be identified as “the time of the caveman,” simply because people could have lived in caves any time throughout human history. When the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, Abraham’s nephew, Lot, along with his two daughters, lived in a cave.
Then Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters were with him; for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave. – Genesis 19:30
Moving across the ocean to the United States, we find one of the greatest examples of cave dwellers known. Mesa Verde, located in the southwest corner of Colorado, is a national park, containing a number of villages built in caves. The inhabitants of these caves, who had a highly sophisticated culture, are thought to have abandoned their cave-villages about 1300 AD, It is unknown exactly why the people of Mesa Verde abandoned their homes; but drought, big game being hunted out and deforestation are all possibilities.
If God Created Us, Why Did He Do So?
One of the big questions in all this, is why God bothered to create mankind in the first place. The Bible doesn’t give a single definitive answer for this question; but there are several things which can show us different parts of the answer. To think that God would have multiple purpose in his creation is not far-fetched, as God clearly has the ability to make much bigger plans than we do.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts – Isaiah 55:9
For the Sake of Love
If there is anything we know about the character of God, is that He is Love (1 John 4:8). Since Love always requires a recipient, even if that recipient is not necessarily worthy of that love or doesn’t necessarily reciprocate in kind, one who has love will always seek out someone to give that love to.
But love also desires reciprocation; someone to love them in return. That’s why the angels weren’t sufficient. Like anyone else, God wanted those he loved to love Him in return. So, he created mankind with the idea of loving us and receiving our love in return.
We know how strong God’s love for us is, in that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins, reconciling us to Himself. He did this in faith, believing that at least some of us would accept that offering and enter into a relationship with Him.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. – John 3:16
To Be His Children
The creation story in Genesis is clear in stating that God created us in His image (see Genesis 1:26 above). That’s significant in a number of ways; but for the moment, the important thing is that we are created in His image. Looking at nature around us shows us the significance of that, in that all creation only produces offspring that look like themselves. Elephants don’t produce squirrels for children and fish don’t produce birds.
Being created in God’s image sets us apart from anything and everything else that God created, as none of them were created in His image. Not only that, but He purposed that we should become like Him, or at least like His Son, Jesus.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. – Romans 8:29
Regardless of whether we are born as children of God the Father or not, those of us who accept Jesus and start on the journey to becoming like Him are adopted as sons and daughters.
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” – Romans 8:15
Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. – Ephesians 1:5
To Rule Over His Creation
Going back to Genesis 1:26, where we saw that we are created in God’s image, we also see that we were created to have dominion over all of the other creatures that God created. He confirms this with Adam, telling him:
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
What is God’s Desire for Mankind?
While we may have been created by God for all these reasons, and more; the principal reason for God to create us is to be in relationship with Him. According to the Bible, that ability is hindered by our sin, our disobedience to God’s commands.
As a side note, there are none of God’s commands, listed in either the 613 commandments of Old Testament Law or the more than 1,000 commandments contained within the New Testament, which was written for God’s benefit. While it may not always seem so, when we think of God’s commandments as restrictive, each and every one of them was written for our benefit. Many of the things God tells us not to do are there because doing them can and will cause us harm.
Yet God is unable to cohabit with sin. He is holy and just, even while being a God of love. His holiness keeps Him from having fellowship with those in sin and his justice requires that there be atonement for sin. But because of His love, He chose to pay that atonement Himself, sending His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us in payment of that sin, reconciling us to Himself.