I had a discussion the other day about the merits of the theological/biblical contentions that people originated from only Adam and Eve and that the earth and everything in it is less than 10,000 years old.

One of the biggest problems that I have with the idea that all of mankind came from only two people has to do with the implications regarding the degenerate nature of inbreeding. What I am referring to is the tendency of offspring from people who are closely related to become dumb or crazy. European royalty ran into this problem when they tried to keep the crown in the family, because they would produce offspring with close relatives and eventually their rulers became mentally incapable of ruling and were overthrown or were used as puppets.

How this relates to the biblical contention that mankind came from only two people is the fact that the sons of Adam and Eve (if this was the only family in the world) would only have two options for procreation: their mother or their sisters. Either one of these options would likely produce horrible results ranging from retardation to terrible abnormalities. I was told that God allowed this to be OK during that time. Yeah right. Nature is nature and some laws, like genetic laws, cannot be violated without paying the price. The genetic variance we see today could not have been produced by 7,000 of inbreeding. Neither could the evolutionary process that has given us different races as an adaptation to our habitat.

It also seems funny to me to ponder the possibility that the earth is only 10,000 years old when we can show that many things on our planet MUST be older than 10,000 years. If the dinosaurs became extinct somewhere between a creation date of 10,000 years ago and the present era, wouldnt there be a lot more evidence of humans and dinosaurs living together? If the earth is only 10,000 how did the Native Americans migrate to North America 40,000 years ago? I think you see my point. It is absolutely ridiculous to hold the opinion that a literal interpretation of the biblical accounts for history is good for your mind or your soul. You are merely becoming easier to manipulate by believing such far fetched tales.

I will concede the bible is filled with many wonderful tales that encourage morality in the face of a self-centered human tendency. It is great material to show children the concepts of right and wrong, much like Aesops fables inspire children to look at things from different perspectives. However, undying allegiance to a literal interpretation of the bible in the light of overwhelming evidence to the contrary makes you sound more like one of the fools in Jesus parables rather than the rational being that humans are generally thought to be.