Book Review: The Genealogical Adam and Eve by S. Joshua Swamidass

[Mark_Moore]

@Jay313

Sure. I have a deal for you. I’ll read your material and start a thread on BioLogos dedicated to your scenario and my reply. In the meantime, you start a thread over at “Peaceful” Science asking Swamidass and the peanut gallery to deal with the facts, not ad hominem or libelous claims. Does Tasmania add 10,000 years to GAE or not? Deal with the facts. Does GAE make God a monster or not? The crew has already taken a stab at it in If GAE were true, the God of the OT is worse than Dawkins and Hitchens describe .

Jay that thread you link to has 152 comments on Josh’s site, so they are doing that. And on his FB group I have already challenged some of the science, specifically the “ghost genes” part. I don’t think he had a good answer and I asked him to rephrase some of that and I think he will. So what you are asking has already been done. Including by me. And others with way more impressive credentials than me.

[gbrooks9 (George Brooks)]

@Jay313

Even God himself couldn’t teach the first couple how to conduct themselves in society outside the Garden, since humans learn those things by observing how other humans conduct themselves in specific situations. YHWH himself couldn’t teach Adam and Eve how to act around other people, since that is learned by observation and imitation.

@Jay313

What I describe below is MY view; no doubt @Swamidass 's view will differ from mine to some minor or major degree!

1] if God intentionally guided human evolution, God knows full well what human behavior and social norms are … not just for human society immediately proximate to the Eden sanctuary, but for all the other extant human societies.

2] So a de novo creation of Adam/Eve (including a “standard” genetic load, as well as a “standard” neural/engram inheritance) could very easily be made in sync with one of the surrounding pre-Eden human societies.

3] Point [2] would include any linguistically relevant genetic predispositions, as well as what God specifically taught them as mentioned in point [4] below!

4] The key input for Adam/Eve is what God taught the pair as they developed in Eden. What they learned from God is the legacy that they then brought to the rest of humanity!

[gbrooks9 (George Brooks)]

@Jay313

That’s all you’ve got to hang your hat on, those who depend on Romans 5? What I keep telling you and you fail to understand is that the median age of evangelicals and especially YEC is 55. The old folks aren’t changing their minds.

@Jay313

I think you will find trying to reach the audience of evangelicals who DEPEND on Romans 5 is plenty ambitious. You might claim YOUR scenario is designed for ALL the evangelicals… but without favorably embracing Romans 5, you will end up with a willing audience of Evangelicals even smaller than ours.

We aren’t trying to change the minds of stalwart Creationists… we only intend to reach the next generation that are looking for a legitimate Christian reason to diverge from the grandfather’s Creationism!

[gbrooks9 (George Brooks)]

@MOls

But the Swamidass book would affirm the quote at the end of that article:
“Genealogical science suggests that a pair living at that time and place could be part of the genealogies of all humans living today” (which I see cites his ASA paper)

@MOls

Just to be clear, the sentence

Genealogical science suggests that a pair living at that time and place could be part of the genealogies of all humans living today…"

does not mean that Adam/Eve were the only humans in existence at any point in time. The quoted sentence is based on the idea of rapid “genealogical progression” - - the ability of multiple Universal Ancestral Pairs to entirely co-opt a population, regardless of size.

Recent computer simulations of the genealogical progression for human populations frequently show that only a few assumptions enable this to happen within 2000 years.

So, if Adam/Eve are released into an already existing human population, God’s providential treatment of the affairs of Adam’s offspring would allow all humanity, by the time of the birth of Jesus, to be descended from Adam/Eve, as well as from a few other Universal ancestral pairs from after the time of Eden.