Joshua Swamidass

Most readers of Genesis understood Adam and Eve to be (1) ancestors of us all, and (2) miraculously created without parents of their own, in contrast, evolution teaches that (3) we share common ancestors with apes, and (4) we arise from a large population, not a single couple. This conflict of fact onlyseemed solvable by revising foundational Christian theological beliefs, or by rejecting evolution.

Joshua Swamidass

But now, clearing up some big scientificunderstandings, we know that all four of these things can be true at the same time, even if Adam and Eve lived as recently as just 6,000 years ago, they would be the genealogical ancestors of everyoneacross the globe by AD 1. They could even have been created de novo, from the dust and a rib. Of course, atthe same time, we would also descend from people outside the Garden, otherswhom God created by a providentially governed process of evolution.

Joshua Swamidass