Quote by OmikamiFor all of you
religious people, if you believe in Bible literally do you honestly believe that everyone originally came from Adam and
Eve?
The bible explicitly condemns incest, at least in certain configurations.
The idea is ridiculous. By science we learn that too much incest would lead to deformity and eventually you would have
mess up kids.
The Bible statement, in Acts 17:26, that "[God] made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire
surface of the earth" is acknowledged by Bible students to be backed up by the facts. John Peter Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, a work that considers the arguments of a great
number of scholars in an analytical and explanatory discussion of the Bible, says on page 191:
"That the Scriptures neither know nor will know of pre-Adamites . . . nor of
various primitive aboriginal races, appears not only from Genesis i. and ii., but also from the consistent presumption
and assertion of the entire Holy Writ; for example, Matthew xix.4; Acts xvii.26; 1 Cor. xv.47. . . . The original unity
of the human race coincides with the doctrine of the unity of the fall of man in Adam, and the unity of the redemption
in Christ. . . . The greatest naturalists have mostly declared themselves against the originality of different human
races . . . in regard to the alleged fruitfulness of sexual combinations among the various races, the proof of such
fruitfulness is justly pronounced one of the strongest proofs of unity. . . . The autochthonic theory [that living
things (in this case humans) were formed or occurred in the places where they were found] [can]not deny the fact that
the origin of the various types of men points back to a common home in Asia."
This statement about the unity of the human race (that all are one race, one created kind, not "aboriginal"
tribes or nations in the sense that they were separately created or separately originating) coincides with the Bible
statements: "Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin," and, "just as in Adam all
are dying, so also in the Christ all will be made alive." Yet the Creator has arranged, through the countless
genetic combinations, to provide in mankind the most delightful and interesting variations. (Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians
15:22)
Was God fostering what is now called "incest" by arranging matters so that the first children of Adam would
marry one another--brothers marrying sisters? No. For, in Adam's original perfect state his children would have
been born in perfection. (Deuteronomy 32:4) There would have been no family weaknesses to be passed on and accentuated
by the marriage of near relatives, as is the case today, when the sinful human race has greatly deteriorated and many
genetic defects exist. Even after Adam had sinned, his descendants lived as long as 969 years in the days before the
Flood. (Genesis 5:27)
Accordingly, it took a long time for genetic defects to become so numerous and so grouped in family lines that it became
dangerous to the offspring for close relatives to marry. Even Abraham, some 2,000 years after the creation of Adam,
married his half sister. (Genesis 20:12) Not until God gave the Mosaic law (about 500 years later) did He prohibit close
family marriage unions among the people of Israel. (Leviticus 18:6-18)
The Bible record does indicate that Cain married one of his sisters (Genesis 4:17; 5:4) and that Abram married his half
sister. (Genesis 20:12) But later, in the Law given through Moses, such marriage unions were specifically forbidden.
(Leviticus 18:9, 11) They are not permitted among Christians today. Marriage to a close relative results in a
more-than-average probability that damaging hereditary factors will be passed on to their offspring...
Why was brother-and-sister marriage not inappropriate at the beginning of mankind's history? God created Adam and
Eve perfect and purposed that all humankind descend from them. (Genesis 1:28; 3:20) Obviously some marrying of close
relatives, especially within the first few generations, would occur. Even after sin made its appearance, there was
relatively little danger of marked deformities in the children during early generations, because the human race was much
closer to the perfection that had been enjoyed by Adam and Eve. This is attested to by the longevity of people then.
(See Genesis 5:3-8; 25:7.) But about 2,500 years after Adam became a sinner, God prohibited incestuous marriage. This
served to safeguard the offspring and it elevated the sexual morality of Jehovah's servants above that of people
around them who were then engaging in all manner of depraved practices. (See Leviticus 18:2-18)
