Remembering that there is no a priori reason to think that Homo sapiens sapiens (a taxonomic category) is the same thing as “human” or “adams” in Scripture (a theological category). Perhaps “adams” is less than Homo sapiens, or perhaps it is more.
Remember that Genetica ancestor is NOT genealogical ancestry.
Remembering that genetic ancestry is not discussed in Scripture, not even once, but the scientific findings your are discussing are exclusively about genetic ancestry… They are saying that the genetic origin of Homo sapiens is multipolar, but Scripture does not speak about our genetic origins.
Remembering that Scripture only (at most) seems to be discussing genealogical ancestry from Adam, which is NOT genetic ancestry. At most, it seems to say there is a unipolar genealogical origin of humans. Some feel Scripture does speak about our genealogical origins.
Keep in mind that it is 100% consistent for there to simultaneously be a unipolar genealogical origin of “adams,” but a multipolar genetic origin of Homo sapiens.
If you can wrap your head around #5, you’ll see the answer to your question. You reconcile the two by keeping straight what science actually does and does not tell us.
From a scientific view, to be clear, the Garden could have been anywhere.
Entirely consistent with the genetic evidence, it is possible Adam was created out of dust, and Eve out of his rib, less than 10,000 years ago in a divinely created garden where God might dwell with them, the first beings with opportunity to be in a relationship with Him. Perhaps their fall brought accountability for sin to all their descendants. Leaving the Garden, their offspring blended with their neighbors1 in the surrounding towns. In this way, they became genealogical ancestors of all those in recorded history. Adam and Eve, here, are the single-couple progenitors2 of all mankind. Even if this scenario is false or unnecessary, nothing in evolutionary science unsettles this story. So, evolution presses in a very limited way on our understanding of Adam and Eve, only suggesting (alongside Scripture) that their lineage was not pure.
You’re correct. The article I linked to did not explicitly state the evidence for homo sapiens sapiens evolving separately. However, the chart showing period migrations also indicates the starting points of those migrations. Migrations originating in Morrocco 300 kya stands independent of migrations originating in the South-East area of Africa 120 kya. The research does NOT show migrations between those regions, nor does it show any interbreeding among the two groups.
However, there is direct research supporting my comments and I’ll link to it here, as you requested: https://goo.gl/n2MioP And here is a quote from the relevant section of that article:
[Study author Carina Schlebusch, also from Uppsala University, said: “Both paleo-anthropological and genetic evidence increasingly points to multi-regional origins of anatomically modern humans in Africa, i.e. Homo sapiens did not originate in one place in Africa, but might have evolved from older forms in several places on the continent with gene flow between groups from different places.”]
[According to a study published this week in Science, new discoveries over the last decade have shown that modern humans likely originated from several migrations from Africa that began as early as 120,000 years ago].
I think you have read much more into my comments than what the pretext of my argument implies. I was simply curious whether a multi-time and multi-location origin of humanity in African can be harmonized with the consideration of the Biblical Garden of Eden being the entire continent. Nothing more; nothing less.
All of the above are moot points, however, if the full scope of the human evolution paradigm is accepted as fact. As such, Swamidass’ theological points about genetics being different from genealogy, can easily be reconciled with the scientific record.
The Eastern Orthodox communities constantly affirm that the material world may be flawed … but it was flawed - - and always cames short of the glory of the Divine - - from the very beginning.
Death comes to humanity via Adam and Eve because our material nature comes to us via Adam and Eve.
**@Swamidass ** Which verse do you think is most convincing that the Universe was once “high” and has since “fallen”?
Just an update. An article in the Guardian sums it up nicely:
From the last few paragraphs (for those who just want the highlights):
The discovery also raises intriguing questions about the fate of the earliest modern human pioneers. Genetic data from modern-day populations around the world strongly suggest that everyone outside Africa can trace their ancestors back to a group that dispersed around 60,000 years ago. So the inhabitants of the Misliya cave are probably not the ancestors of anyone alive today, and scientists can only speculate why their branch of the family tree came to an end.
Prof David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard University and an expert in population genetics and ancient DNA, said: “It’s important to distinguish between the migration out of Africa that’s being discussed here and the “out-of-Africa” migration that is most commonly discussed when referring to genetic data. This [Misliya] lineage contributed little if anything to present-day people.”
“These early exits are sometimes termed ‘unsuccessful’ or ‘failed’,” said Stringer. “Some of these groups could have gone extinct through natural processes, through competition with other humans, including later waves of modern humans, or they could have been genetically swamped by a more extensive 60,000 year old dispersal.”
I think the second ‘sapiens’ in the above should refer to modern humankind and NOT the archaic Homo sapiens that may have in fact had several points of origin in Africa. I affirm the evidence for the Great Leap Forward as the point in time that a theological humankind appeared on earth. This was the result of some epigenetic change in brain wiring (programming, if you will) that could have resulted from the more effective transfer of information (experience) that followed the invention of language and the ability to articulate it. This may well have occurred in the Mideast as long as 60K years ago when both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens were living there, but it only left lasting evidence with the cave art and elaborate burials in Europe about 40K yrs. BP. To me, this constitutes reasonable speculation, not scientific proof of the origins of theological humankind. @Jay313 Note that the Science article you refer to uses the term “human ancestors” which is OK, but also the term “earliest modern humans” which says nothing about their behavior, which is crucial to classifying them as theological humans. Al Leo