We all know the Creationists theory of how they think we got here, God making man from dirt, blowing up his nose and then making a woman from his rib, but if we accept that concept, and many hundred of millions surprisingly do, we are faced with one man and one woman and an otherwise empty planet to fill.
All we are told about Adam’s and Eve's offspring is that they had 'begot sons and daughters' and according to Scripture, Adam and Eve’s family consisted of sons Cain, Abel and Seth, plus a minimum of two other sons and two daughters, giving a total of seven children.
So now we have Mum and Dad and seven brothers and sisters and a rather tricky question of what happened next for Christians but they do have an answer.
Apparently as Adam and Eve were formed by God, not only were they genetically perfect but so was their offspring so incest was not a problem as there would be no defective genes passed around as they were perfect which doesn't answer the question of the Christian religion being based on incestuous relationships at so let's pass very quickly over that ickyness.
With each generation begotting more sons and daughters, all related to each other, the gene pool grew and several generations of nephew on auntie action, there would be a wide enough spread to find someone to begot with who isn't a relative.
This isn't just an exercise in highlighting religion being based on incest and them not minding at all (although it does do that also), it has proper, real life implications as we are approaching the cusp of inhabiting other planets and NASA are pondering on the least number of pioneers needed for the move to populate the new planet and not have to turn to an Adam and Eve style incest party.
The minimum number they have come up, starting with young, childless and unrelated couples and screening for the presence of potentially dangerous recessive genes, is 160.
Not quite as easy to understand as the Creationist story but a lot less awkward at the Christmas Dinner when you could find yourself sat next to your brother/husband/nephew.
2 comments:
Adam and Eve story is an analogy? Someone better tell the Christian church then because they have been pushing that as a true story for centuries.
Brilliant! Who doesn't love the sound of another chunk of religious doctrine being washed away.
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