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Permalink Reply by Eoganacht on September 16, 2011 at 7:26pm

You cannot have a human phenotype with all the alleles possible. My understanding of genetics is that you can only have a few loci with different alleles (eg, black hair, brown hair, blond hair, etc). To have all the genetic variation we have today would mean that adam and eve had dna that was very different that ours today.

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Permalink Reply by T A A on September 18, 2011 at 2:12pm

I was in hated Catholic school all my youth and that's how the bible was taught, as a metaphor, especially the old testament, which was slightly scoffed at.

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Permalink Reply by kris feenstra on September 16, 2011 at 8:45pm

I'm pretty out of it at the moment, but it seems perfectly plausible to me.  Even if humans reproduce, on average, at a rate of 1.1, you'd still hit 6.5 billion before the end of 250 generations, barring any cataclysms wiping everyone off the face of the planet.  Given six thousand years, the average generation would need to be twenty-four years at its longest, I think.

 

I mean, it's not like that's a realistic model of human population growth over the ages, but I'm just saying that even at a low birthrate, a whole ton of kids can theoretically be pumped out in six thousand years.  Then again, I haven't really slept in days, so my math could be off drastically.

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Permalink Reply by Dustin on September 16, 2011 at 9:37pm

No, No, No.   You have to do this math after Noah survived the Flood because all the other humans were KILLED!  Using Adam and Eve is pointless.  

 

Noah is the key.  How many were there in his family after the flood?  I forget ... also, Noah lived very long and so did his descendants ... 

 

A guy in my church actually believes the ages are literal.  He said our bloodlines has become 'less pure' after so many generations of breeding.  

 

WTF?  I questioned him further and he actually thinks it's the BLOOD itself that becomes diluted after generations continue breeding.  So people don't live as long anymore ... 

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Permalink Reply by matt.clerke on September 18, 2011 at 7:41pm

Going from Noah onwards is probably better...I believe it was Noah, Noah's wife, Noahs three sons, and Noah's sons wife. 4 breeding pairs... Anyone have info on the supposed date of the flood?

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Permalink Reply by kris feenstra on September 18, 2011 at 8:04pm

I think it's roughly a millennium after Adam and Eve.  Unless I'm mistaken, that's about five millennia prior to present date (give or take a century or two).  Really though, given exponential growth, you don't need five thousand years to reach current population levels.

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Permalink Reply by Marc Poulin on September 22, 2011 at 4:51pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah's_Ark Scroll down to chronology

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Permalink Reply by James on September 16, 2011 at 10:24pm

I have though of this before, but must admit that I've never attempted the calculation. There's a lot to factor in. You have to estimate what year the flood occurred. You need to adjust for the time each new offspring will need to reach sexual maturity. Infant mortality rates undoubtedly differed through the ages. Etc...

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Permalink Reply by Albert Bakker on September 17, 2011 at 10:34am

Didn't people used to wait several centuries before having children in Noah's time?

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Permalink Reply by Donald S. Chase on September 17, 2011 at 10:14am

The genetic variation problem is solved by Rick Warren in his book  "The Purpose Driven Life". In it he states

that God had the wherewithall to give Adam and Eve a wide variety of DNA so that their offspring were not only Middle Eastern but also, Aboriginal, Asian, Caucasian, etc. Imagine the stares she must have received every time she took her brood out to MacDonalds.

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Permalink Reply by Meghan McWilliams on September 17, 2011 at 2:45pm

Awesome question, but you need to add holy magic into the equation.  

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Permalink Reply by Lewal on September 22, 2011 at 5:52pm

But Catholic priests can transubstantiate unleavened bread into actual flesh! You can't deny that that's magic. You just can't.

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