>Modern genetics clearly
>shows that our ancestry goes much further back than is possible if
>biological Adam lived within the last 100,000 years as Ross, Wilcox
>and others believe. This tidbit supports my view of an ancient Adam
>and does not support a recent Adam as long as one accepts the assumption
>that Adam must be the biological head of the human race. The only
>exception is to do what Dick Fischer suggests and make Adam not be the
>biological head of the human family.
Remember, there is not one biblical bottleneck, but two. Three if you
count the incident at Babel. Adam of Genesis 2 and Genesis 5 (which
I also think is Adam of Genesis 1) appears to have a recent time frame,
about 7,000 years ago, in an identifiable locale; to wit, Southern
Mesopotamia. A perfect match with the Genesis genealogies from Adam to
Noah considering Eridu, the likely place of the garden of Eden, dates to
4800 BC. The city of Enoch, or E-Anna(k), dates to 4200 BC, and the
flood layers in that area date to about 2900 BC.
Plus, the flood stories in that region line up with Genesis. Look at
these commanalities between the account of Noah in Genesis 6-9, the
Sumerian account of Ziusudra, the Accadian legend of Utnapistim from the
11th tablet of Gilgamesh, and the Assyrian narrative of Atrahasis. The
historical accounts are a bit fragmented, and this is reflected in the
narratives.
Genesis 6:5: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually."
Utnapishtim: "Shuruppak - a city which thou knowest, (and) which
on Euphrates [banks] is situate - that city was ancient, (as were) the
gods within it, when their heart led the great gods to produce the flood."
Genesis 6:7: "And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have
created from the face of the earth;..."
Ziusudra: "By our ... a flood [will sweep] over the cult centers; to
destroy the seed of mankind ..."
Genesis 6:14: "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make
in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch."
Utnapishtim: "Six `sar' (measures) of bitumen I poured into the
furnace, three sar of asphalt [I also] poured inside."
Genesis 6:19-20: "And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every
sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they
shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle
after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth ..."
Atrahasis: "[Into the ship which] thou shalt make, thou shalt take the
beasts of the field, the fowl of the heavens."
Genesis 8:7-12: "And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to
and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he
sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off
the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her
foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on
the face of the whole earth then he put forth his hand, and took her,
and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven
days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove
came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf
pluckt off ..."
Utnapishtim: "When the seventh day arrived, I sent forth and set free
a dove. The dove went forth, but came back; since no resting place for
it was visible, she turned round. Then I sent forth and set free a
swallow. The swallow went forth, but came back; since no resting place
for it was visible, she turned round. Then I sent forth and set free a
raven. The raven went forth and, seeing that the waters had
diminished, he eats, circles, caws, and turns not round. Then I let
out (all) to the four winds ..."
Genesis 8:20: "And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of
every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings
on the altar."
Ziusudra: "The king kills an ox (and) offers an abundant sacrifice of
sheep."
Genesis 8:21: "And the Lord smelled a sweet savor;..."
Utnapishtim: "The gods smelled the savor, the gods smelled the sweet
savor."
Pardon the pun, but I think that our brains are really necessary. And
I think if we use them we'll agree that a recent Adam and a recent flood
best fits the data and makes the most sense.
Dick Fischer, The Origins Solution - http://www.orisol.com
"The answer we should have known about 150 years ago."