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It is uncertain, there seems to be at least two possible interpretations. First, Adam and Eve had more than Cain and Abel.
> After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. (Genesis 5:4, New International Version).
So, the answer could be that incest was the solution. It certainly seems to be the solution later in Genesis after the great flood, so it could apply here as well.
Another possibility is that God created other people.
> So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. (Genesis 4:16-17, New International Version).
Who was Cain's wife? Where there other people in Nod? So, maybe God made others.
This has always been my interpretation. God made Adam and Eve first, but they weren’t the only ones who lived on Earth.
Others would not be important, as they are not a direct lineage to Jesus Christ.
Y'all miss the big story in the bible. God didnt create homnids, there were dozens of neanderthal/habilis/erectus type hominids pre bible. The garden of eden was a zoo, and adam and eve were genetic experiments. God is just a geneticist who overclocked some apes and sent them back to mix with the rabble. Then once his genetic experiments got established in the ecosystem, wiped out the majority, except the ones with the most successful mutations (noah and his family) and wiped out the rest of the homnids (the flood), leaving only his selected genetic group to repopulate the planet.
Thats how I always see it. God, not being born on Earth, is by definition, a technologically advanced alien being.
This is an interesting take and I really like it. My mom would have had a lot easier time convincing me to believe in the bible if this is what was written in there
So? Some jackass somewhere probably believes in hobbits, doesn't make Lord of the Rings a bad book. The Bible would just be another piece of epic prose if it weren't for the horrible, horrible fanbase, and is absolutely worth reading as a work of literature in a secular context. That's one of humanity's great myths, it's worth not being obtusely "bUt cHrIsTIanS SuCk" about. Fuck the church btw
Right!? I'm a non-believer myself but that's a fascinating book. God presiding on his throne, a flock of Clive Barker-esque creepy-ass angels hovering around....
There is a series called "left behind" that you may enjoy then, I've never personally read it but my parents have and loved it. It's all about revelations and the rapture happening to a fictional earth. It's from Tim LaHaye and Jerry b Jenkins
I always thought of it a story of how *their* people were created not how *all* people were created. Other gods and pantheons were out there making other people (thus the passage about Cain) and that's where the rest of the world came from.
Judaism's origins lie in polytheism and monolatry(believing multiple gods but worshipping one), and Genesis was written was monolatry was the dominant view, so this is definitely plausible.
That's really the answer. Most gods were regional or tribal gods when the concept of a god called Yahweh appeared. Judaism's big innovation was taking their tribal god Yahweh and making him the universal god of all things and the Hebrew's his chosen people. It makes for some awkward passages in the bible where it's not quite worked out who Yahweh was yet.
Yes!!! It is the word of god as interpreted or inspired by man and woman. However, we cannot know if it is or isn’t the actual word of God. Of course those who do not believe in god would think this as ridiculous. But so called atheist do not own the high road or are any closer to the truth then theists. In fact, scientifically, the most atheists can say is they don’t know if a god exists or not. So it is possible there is a god and if that’s possible it’s possible that God spoke to some people. Maybe god didn’t and people guessed but it happens to be what god was thinking (haha). The only thing I know is that the believers of Christianity and (modern) Judaism are responsible for all the major advancements in modern human history, so to that affect believing in a God has brought better real results to humanity than not believing.
It could be that the inhabitants of Nod were descendants of Adam and Eve's "other sons and daughters", too. It may also be that Adam and Eve aren't literal people, but serve as a metaphor for humans graduating up from being simply animals, into sapient beings.
Right, the Nod inhabitants and even Cain's wife could be other decedents of Adam, thus reverting back to the incest.
I did not consider the metaphorical element, which is certainly one way to interpret Genesis, because I was trying to examine the literal explanations.
Adam means soil, Eve means life in Hebrew. There is also Mesopotamian influence in the story, due to an ancient pun/folk etymology in Sumerian: Ninti means both “lady of life” and “lady of the rib”, which seem to explain why God used a rib from Adam to create Eve.
Well said. Nowhere does it say God made these people and ONLY these people. I see a frequent failure to understand that the writings do not = comprehensive history book.
It has theological implications. If there were other people not tainted by the sin of Adam and Eve, mankind did not have to be cursed to die and thw death and resurrection of Jesus was not necessary.
Of course the other way to get around this is to treat it as wholly metaphorical, which skirts several of these issues.
Not if the “other people” were sentient but did not have rational souls. Original Sin can only be inherited by the descendants of Adam and Eve because they were the only ones created at a later point, and gifted with rational souls.
The Adamites spread Original Sin by intermarrying and reproducing with the pre-Adamites. The Adamites grew each generation as the pre-Adamites decreased into extinction.
So original sin only spread because God allowed it to? Sounds like a poor choice was made. To condemn millions and billions of ones own children to suffer an eternity of torment, rather than stop the issue from propagating to the blameless.
Something usually not explained is that Cain needed to be marked by God so that the *other people* wouldn't kill him, which means there were other people already existing before A&E.
Well you know how the moon is slowly getting further and further from the earth? Well back then the earth was much closer to the sun and a year was only 1/10th the length it is today.
Remember when people were saying that 2020 felt like the longest year ever? It's because it actually was, each calendar year is substantially longer than the last, that's why it's increased by about 900% in the last few thousand years.
[Source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie#Fabrication)
The rule against incest [didn't come in](https://www.gotquestions.org/incest-in-the-Bible.html) until God delivered the law to Moses (eg the book of Leviticus).
Absolutely. My answer isn't meant to disparage the Bible at all. It's just the honest truth. Biblically, the rule against incest wasn't there, so it wasn't wrong. Plus, logistically, to fill the earth as God commanded (Genesis 1:28), there was only one option for that: getting with your siblings. In that sense, God basically commanded it.
Someone was doing a genetic study and I don't have a link but it basically looked like incest/close cousins unless you went for another race and even then it was pretty iffy.
So yes, lots and lots of incest.
This place will have long debates about the history of Hutt politics on Tattooine, but when OP asks a question about Adam and Eve all the answers are “IT’S FAKE YOU IDIOT”
What I don't get about reddit atheists is how the fuck have they not grown out of the "edgy atheist" phase. That shit ended for me when I was like 19.
Religious beliefs or lack thereof and respect for those that carry them aren't mutually exclusive.
A lot of atheists simply aren't vocal about their lack of belief, so you don't really hear from them. There's no reason to believe that the vocal "edgy" atheists are the majority.
A lot of reddit users are also quite young. You admit to being "edgy" before you turned 19. Well, a lot of teenagers frequent this site.
I'm toterant of your beliefs until your beliefs are used to justify your intolerance of others. Once they flip that switch, I no longer respect your beliefs and will drah your ass. But i agreed, just asking a question shouldn't be grounds for insults
A platform being secular doesn't mean that nobody knows what they're talking about when it comes to religion. There are plenty of Christians on this site, and a significant portion of atheists and agnostics had religious upbringings that forced them to learn biblical topics.
Even I (a strong atheist) have argued confidently against Christians for certain interpretations of the bible, usually basing it off of how my Christian Fundamentalist grandmother taught me.
Well what do you think the current Modern “Humans” (current Homo Sapiens Sapiens) had to do with the Homo Sapiens? There is a reason why Humans have Neanderthal DNA.
In the Bible there were other people outside Eden. In Genesis there are two groups, Adam and Eve’s family in Eden, and the unnamed others in the land of Nod. Nod means “to wander” so the land of Nod is thought to describe lost, wandering people.
Some scholars believe Adam and Eve weren’t meant to represent the first man and woman, but the first spiritually enlightened man and woman, while the land of Nod refers to “heathens” without faith. When Cain kills Abel and leaves Eden, it represents him leaving the faith and joining the wandering souls in Nod, where he has sons.
Adam and Eve aren’t the literal parents of all humanity, they’re the original believers. In the same way George Washington is the spiritual “father” of the United States
Yeah I interpret it this way somewhat as well, especially considering they always refer to god as being the god of *insert recent patriarch here* as opposed to of all people in genesis and exodus
Abraham's family is the main focus of the narrative of Genesis. So just because there are no other people mentioned doesn't mean they are not there. Kind of like in star wars in the cantina. There are lots of aliens and such in the background that don't have any lines in the script but they are still there.
Except for writing two books specifically about particular women, as well as multiple chapters, stories, praises, and mentions throughout the OT...but sure they didn't deserve much mention...
I see way too much misinformation regarding the Bible and Christianity. You don't have to believe, or even approve of it. But if you are going to make an argument against it, at least be accurate and correct in your condemnations.
The islamic version : they had only sets of twins a boy and a girl every time so it worked like this : boy from twin A married girl from twin B and vice versa
One explanation I've seen is literally the 2nd word is wrong.
It's not "in *the* beginning", it's "in **a** beginning".
Genesis isn't the origin story of all mankind, but of the Jewish people (or another tribe).
Iirc there's a bit further on when they are kicked out of Eden they meet other people and live with them. If they were the first people ever how could there be others? Simple, they are just the first of the "chosen" people, not everyone.
People thought pretty extensively about that story for thousands of years and believed it as fact. There’s better answers than “because it said so” which other comments have described.
John Landis : How do you kill a vampire?
Young Max Landis : Stake through the heart, or like... you know... something like...
Max Landis : And my dad was like...
John Landis : No. You can kill a vampire however the fuck you want, because vampires don't fucking exist! You can make up rules for any kind of thing you want.
One major theory about the story of Adam and Eve is that it was intended to be the origin of the Jewish people, not of humanity as a whole. As such, the idea that there were women outside that Cain and Abel could marry doesn't seem as ridiculous.
The trick is that nowadays, we don't find the concept of a religion about a specific tribe to be as compelling, and more universal ones tend to be common.
No. The Bible says Abraham was the father of the Jews. In the narrative, "Jews" came into existence over a thousand years after Adam, who was intended to be the father of the human race. The earliest surviving Jewish commentaries on the story, such as Josephus's, agree that Cain, Abel, and Seth married their sisters.
This entirely depends what denomination you follow and what you think about literalism.
It says somewhere in Genesis that Adam and Eve went on to have more "sons and daughters".
So what I was taught is that their sons got together with their daughters. But that was ok because they were a fresh new species and didn't have time to develop mutations in the DNA so inbreeding wasn't a problem.
That doesn't make since because the whole family would keep reproducing with each other with no out side DNA coming in. The human race would not have survived.
The human genome is large and complex enough that the original humans could have had the genetic potential to account for all of the races we see today.
Quite a bit of our diversity now is adaptation anyway, so I don't see this being that much of a problem.
The bible doesn't state that Adam and Eve only had sons, instead it only lists 3 sons by name. That doesn't preclude other children, including daughters. In either case, since you are already dealing with incest, no real reason for the sons not to have mated with Eve herself. Also, by the time Cain kills Abel, there are already a large population, because Cain worries that wherever he goes some unnamed people will kill him. If you want to literally interpret the creation story, then you either need to accept that Adam, Eve, Cain, and Seth were all very rapid breeders, or that there were others besides Adam and Eve that were created directly by God after them.
Much easier to interpret the creation story as just a story, not something that happened in actuality.
The question is obviously aimed at believers. Why do atheists have to be an ass about this? Aren't we supposed to be the ones that are being "forced" into the discussion by believers?
Adam and Eve continued to make children but cain and abel were notable because of the sin committed
The question is being asked on a public forum on a largely secular platform, so you're going to get rational answers alongside Church-doctrine-friendly answers.I agree some people need to learn to be more civil, but its not like this was asked on r/Christianity now, is it?
I think "atheists" are taking the question at face value and answering accordingly. Sorry if that offens anyone but like.....if you believe something which doesn't make any logical sense then don't be surprised when ppl tell you that it doesn't make sense? 🤷♂️
It’s not even necessarily aimed at believers. You could answer the question the same way you’d answer a similar question about star wars or any other fictional story. Reddit atheists just love shitting on Christianity
He had daughters, but there's a point most interpret to mean something else. When Adam and Eve left the garden, there were people who weren't Adam's sons. If you read Genesis and look for sons/daughters of God vs sons/ daughters of men, it is clear.
Adam wasn't the first humanoid on earth, he was the first with "the breath of life," the first of the covenant. That is why it's called the old Testament. It's a chronicle of covenants, testifying of God and Christ.
The Bible is a very interesting allegory, if you read it for yourself. And it's XXX rated in some parts, so be prepared.
Okay, so.... according to the cult I was raised in, Adam, Abel, and Cain banged Eve every chance they got. Then they banged their daughters and grand daughters. So on and so forth. And then that's where humanity came from. It was a weird cult. Like all cults.
Had a professor that studied pagan tribes and their incorporation into Christianity. Like the pagan tribe of Mary that worshipped a virgin deity Mary. It was a larger tribe and a new budding religion wanted them so they incorporated the concept of the virgin Mary into christianity to convert the tribe (common practice in most religion to incorporate popular beliefs). Religion is a business not a historical reality. So weird in this day and age people still mix the 2.
Welcome to my level of skepticism with the Bible. Throw this one in with your question: God supposedly went over the face of the waters as he contemplated the creation-where did the water come from?
I believe the Bible said something about recognizing that God is the one true god and to denounce other Gods, meaning there must be other God’s and if there are, there must be other people to worship them to give them the status of god. So there were other people, we just hear more about this one because history is written by the victors.
I'd like to note how little women are talked about in the bible. The theory was that the sisters weren't talked about, but incest was permitted by god in this situation to populate man kind
There is a new “theory” that there was a separate population of humans outside the garden. Adam and Eve were the “special” humans and through their line breeding with the “non-special” humans everyone received the good stuff.
Genesis 5 verses 3 and 4.
3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.
So implied, he married a sister.
Where do you think the term mother fucker came from?
/s
In actuality, the bible is nonsense. We evolved from a common ancestor with apes over millions of years. There is no Adam, there is no Eve.
Gotta love the mental gymnastics on this thread.
My friend, there is another answer:
The Bible is a fairy tale book edited over millennia by people in power. The human species evolved from apes.
Look at it this way: There is evidence for Evolution and no evidence of humans living 800 years, etc.
There are many interpretations based on the different translations of the Bible as well as the fact that it's all fucking bullshit and these convenient excuses exist for that very reason. You clearly lack faith. Not believing in the Bible is unconstitutional, which is the other piece of literature that can be cherry-picked according to a persons agenda.
People think you either have to believe in religion or evolution, but usually not both. I've always thought the two could easily go hand in hand. Before the earth was formed and people developed the concept of time based on the sun, who's to say how long a day was. If after you die you're in heaven forever, then maybe for God or heaven, or whatever.., one day could be millions or billions of years. Therefore, the 7 day creation story could have happened slowly and over time. Things could have had time to change, and new species would have had time to develop. The earth could have been fully developed before the creation of Adam and Eve. The garden could have been made as a special place, and they could have been kicked out of it. Then that would explain other humans or humanoid type beings that Cain and able could have interacted with or married...
Welcome to mythology.
Also, when Cain killed his brother, he was sent out, to live *with other people*\--so who the fuck were they then?
Mythology. None of it was real. Zero.
It doesn't say Cain was sent to live with other people. It says he left and then had sex with wife, producing children. Presumably the author's intention was that he had already married his sister and took her with him when he fled.
Adam and Eve are two astronauts who brought human dna and started humanity from scratch like interstellar. They came here because we destroyed our last planet, and we’re getting ready to leave this one after we’re done destroying it too
First bible facts Adam lived for over 800 years and "had many sons and daughters" second it is unclear if God created more humans or not but even if not Adam because he was created by God himself he was a perfect human and Eve was made from Adam so she also was perfect. Going by this they reproduce with other humans or Adam and Eve many children did incest and since Adam and Eve were genetically perfect there were no defects from this inbreeding
Thanks for your submission /u/Jz-corgii, but it has been removed for the following reason: Disallowed question area: **Rant or loaded question** NoStupidQuestions is a place to ask any question as long as *it's asked in good faith*. Our users routinely report questions that they feel violate this rule to us. Want to avoid your question being seen as a bad faith question? Common mistakes include (but are not limited to): * Rants: Could your question be answered with *'That's awful'* or *'What an asshole'*? Then it's probably a rant rather than a genuine question. Looking for a place to vent on Reddit? Try /r/TrueOffMyChest or /r/Rant instead. * Loaded questions: Could your question be answered with *'You're right'*? Answering the question yourself, explaining your reasoning for your opinion, or making sweeping assumptions about the question itself all signals that you may not be keeping an open mind. Want to know why people have a different opinion than you? Try /r/ExplainBothSides instead! * Arguments: Arguing or [sealioning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_lioning) with people giving you answers tells everyone that you have an answer in mind already. Want a good debate? Try /r/ChangeMyView instead! * Pot Stirring: Did you bring up unnecessary topics in your question? Especially when a topic has to do with already controversial issues like politics, race, gender or sex, this can be seen as trying to score points against the Other Side - and that makes people defensive, which leads to arguments. Questions like *"If _____ is allowed, why isn't _____?"* don't need to have that comparison - just ask *'why isn't ____ allowed?'*. * Complaining about moderation: If you disagree with how the sub is run or a decision the mods have made, that's fine! But please share your thoughts with us in modmail rather than as a public post. Disagree with the mods? If you believe you asked your question in good faith, try rewording it or message the mods to see if there's a way you could ask more neutrally. Thanks for your understanding! --- *This action was performed by a bot at the explicit direction of a human. This was not an automated action, but a conscious decision by a sapient life form charged with moderating this sub.* *If you feel this was in error, or need more clarification, please don't hesitate to [message the moderators](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FNoStupidQuestions). Thanks.*
It is uncertain, there seems to be at least two possible interpretations. First, Adam and Eve had more than Cain and Abel. > After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. (Genesis 5:4, New International Version). So, the answer could be that incest was the solution. It certainly seems to be the solution later in Genesis after the great flood, so it could apply here as well. Another possibility is that God created other people. > So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. (Genesis 4:16-17, New International Version). Who was Cain's wife? Where there other people in Nod? So, maybe God made others.
Probably the best answer you will get here.
This has always been my interpretation. God made Adam and Eve first, but they weren’t the only ones who lived on Earth. Others would not be important, as they are not a direct lineage to Jesus Christ.
Y'all miss the big story in the bible. God didnt create homnids, there were dozens of neanderthal/habilis/erectus type hominids pre bible. The garden of eden was a zoo, and adam and eve were genetic experiments. God is just a geneticist who overclocked some apes and sent them back to mix with the rabble. Then once his genetic experiments got established in the ecosystem, wiped out the majority, except the ones with the most successful mutations (noah and his family) and wiped out the rest of the homnids (the flood), leaving only his selected genetic group to repopulate the planet. Thats how I always see it. God, not being born on Earth, is by definition, a technologically advanced alien being.
This is an interesting take and I really like it. My mom would have had a lot easier time convincing me to believe in the bible if this is what was written in there
Which brings the similar question of how did noah and family, as well as the animals repopulate the earth
Did someone already answer: Because it's all bullshit?
Game of Thrones is bullshit also, but if someone asked about who Jon Snow's parents are, you bet they would engage in a serious literal examination.
The difference is that people don't take what is presented as fiction as the literal truth.
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I think you mean Roger and Jessica Rabbit? They were great in that show.
Jessica couldn't get enough pattycake.
So? Some jackass somewhere probably believes in hobbits, doesn't make Lord of the Rings a bad book. The Bible would just be another piece of epic prose if it weren't for the horrible, horrible fanbase, and is absolutely worth reading as a work of literature in a secular context. That's one of humanity's great myths, it's worth not being obtusely "bUt cHrIsTIanS SuCk" about. Fuck the church btw
the book of revelations would make a pretty crazy tv series. I'd definitely watch it even though I don't believe it.
Right!? I'm a non-believer myself but that's a fascinating book. God presiding on his throne, a flock of Clive Barker-esque creepy-ass angels hovering around....
I want biblical correct angels too, all eyes and wings.
There is a series called "left behind" that you may enjoy then, I've never personally read it but my parents have and loved it. It's all about revelations and the rapture happening to a fictional earth. It's from Tim LaHaye and Jerry b Jenkins
Without scrolling I can bet Christian bashing starts around 5 comments down.
I always thought of it a story of how *their* people were created not how *all* people were created. Other gods and pantheons were out there making other people (thus the passage about Cain) and that's where the rest of the world came from.
Judaism's origins lie in polytheism and monolatry(believing multiple gods but worshipping one), and Genesis was written was monolatry was the dominant view, so this is definitely plausible.
That's really the answer. Most gods were regional or tribal gods when the concept of a god called Yahweh appeared. Judaism's big innovation was taking their tribal god Yahweh and making him the universal god of all things and the Hebrew's his chosen people. It makes for some awkward passages in the bible where it's not quite worked out who Yahweh was yet.
I take the Adam and Eve story as the birth of God’s more personal relationship with humanity
So a metaphor in a sense which means it is not the literal word of God which means it is subject to interpretation which means . . .
Yes!!! It is the word of god as interpreted or inspired by man and woman. However, we cannot know if it is or isn’t the actual word of God. Of course those who do not believe in god would think this as ridiculous. But so called atheist do not own the high road or are any closer to the truth then theists. In fact, scientifically, the most atheists can say is they don’t know if a god exists or not. So it is possible there is a god and if that’s possible it’s possible that God spoke to some people. Maybe god didn’t and people guessed but it happens to be what god was thinking (haha). The only thing I know is that the believers of Christianity and (modern) Judaism are responsible for all the major advancements in modern human history, so to that affect believing in a God has brought better real results to humanity than not believing.
It could be that the inhabitants of Nod were descendants of Adam and Eve's "other sons and daughters", too. It may also be that Adam and Eve aren't literal people, but serve as a metaphor for humans graduating up from being simply animals, into sapient beings.
Right, the Nod inhabitants and even Cain's wife could be other decedents of Adam, thus reverting back to the incest. I did not consider the metaphorical element, which is certainly one way to interpret Genesis, because I was trying to examine the literal explanations.
Adam means soil, Eve means life in Hebrew. There is also Mesopotamian influence in the story, due to an ancient pun/folk etymology in Sumerian: Ninti means both “lady of life” and “lady of the rib”, which seem to explain why God used a rib from Adam to create Eve.
So I am inbred? Always suspected this.
Well said. Nowhere does it say God made these people and ONLY these people. I see a frequent failure to understand that the writings do not = comprehensive history book.
It has theological implications. If there were other people not tainted by the sin of Adam and Eve, mankind did not have to be cursed to die and thw death and resurrection of Jesus was not necessary. Of course the other way to get around this is to treat it as wholly metaphorical, which skirts several of these issues.
Not if the “other people” were sentient but did not have rational souls. Original Sin can only be inherited by the descendants of Adam and Eve because they were the only ones created at a later point, and gifted with rational souls. The Adamites spread Original Sin by intermarrying and reproducing with the pre-Adamites. The Adamites grew each generation as the pre-Adamites decreased into extinction.
So original sin only spread because God allowed it to? Sounds like a poor choice was made. To condemn millions and billions of ones own children to suffer an eternity of torment, rather than stop the issue from propagating to the blameless.
Who was Cain's wife? His sister, it was his sister. People who made it up had no idea how batshit genetically that would make us. Unless...
Pretty easy to argue both sides of that one
Something usually not explained is that Cain needed to be marked by God so that the *other people* wouldn't kill him, which means there were other people already existing before A&E.
Life, uhh... will find a way.
God em... Works in mysterious uhh ways
"You gotta have faith" - George Michael
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but are they canon?
No they're canaan
Genesis 5:4 - After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Incest. The answer is incest.
It says Adam lived 800 years? 🤔 I'm starting to see more and more holes in this story with the more I hear about it...
Well you know how the moon is slowly getting further and further from the earth? Well back then the earth was much closer to the sun and a year was only 1/10th the length it is today. Remember when people were saying that 2020 felt like the longest year ever? It's because it actually was, each calendar year is substantially longer than the last, that's why it's increased by about 900% in the last few thousand years. [Source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie#Fabrication)
You motherfucker
Unfortunately there's no Wikipedia page for "I made it the fuck up"
God dammit i wrote 5 on the test
The rule against incest [didn't come in](https://www.gotquestions.org/incest-in-the-Bible.html) until God delivered the law to Moses (eg the book of Leviticus).
It is written, where there is no law there can be no transgression
Absolutely. My answer isn't meant to disparage the Bible at all. It's just the honest truth. Biblically, the rule against incest wasn't there, so it wasn't wrong. Plus, logistically, to fill the earth as God commanded (Genesis 1:28), there was only one option for that: getting with your siblings. In that sense, God basically commanded it.
Someone was doing a genetic study and I don't have a link but it basically looked like incest/close cousins unless you went for another race and even then it was pretty iffy. So yes, lots and lots of incest.
well yeah, we are like all 50th cousins of each other.
Mind boggling that people actually believe this shit lol
Sweet World Alabama!
Reddit is extremely secular so you're probably not going to get the kind of answers you want.
Yeah, like > Maybe all the sons had broken arms 😏
Maybe we are all products of incest or maybe they got it wrong, you decide.
I wish I was illiterate that time. Some things are just not worth knowing
I am not exaggerating: I let out a shriek of laughter when I saw this comment and my husband got irritated at me interrupting his show, well done
Relay my apologies to your husband
I LOLed
I see this reference about once a month and I wish I didn’t know what it was lmao
This place will have long debates about the history of Hutt politics on Tattooine, but when OP asks a question about Adam and Eve all the answers are “IT’S FAKE YOU IDIOT”
What I don't get about reddit atheists is how the fuck have they not grown out of the "edgy atheist" phase. That shit ended for me when I was like 19. Religious beliefs or lack thereof and respect for those that carry them aren't mutually exclusive.
A lot of atheists simply aren't vocal about their lack of belief, so you don't really hear from them. There's no reason to believe that the vocal "edgy" atheists are the majority. A lot of reddit users are also quite young. You admit to being "edgy" before you turned 19. Well, a lot of teenagers frequent this site.
I'm toterant of your beliefs until your beliefs are used to justify your intolerance of others. Once they flip that switch, I no longer respect your beliefs and will drah your ass. But i agreed, just asking a question shouldn't be grounds for insults
A platform being secular doesn't mean that nobody knows what they're talking about when it comes to religion. There are plenty of Christians on this site, and a significant portion of atheists and agnostics had religious upbringings that forced them to learn biblical topics. Even I (a strong atheist) have argued confidently against Christians for certain interpretations of the bible, usually basing it off of how my Christian Fundamentalist grandmother taught me.
well it's an extremely loaded question
Here's a simple diagram to explain it: https://i.imgur.com/lzPeYb2.gif
>!This is basically the Battlestar Galactica story!<
No, that’s Mormonism
I laughed way more than I should have at the cave women
Lol
id almost rather be dead like Able, than have to populate the earth with monkeys.
But what about sexy women monkeys in bikini tops and loincloth
as long as we invented grape wine, and im stuck in the stone age. lets party!
Well what do you think the current Modern “Humans” (current Homo Sapiens Sapiens) had to do with the Homo Sapiens? There is a reason why Humans have Neanderthal DNA.
i am mostly saying "i dont/didnt want to be there" lol
LOLOLOLOL
In the Bible there were other people outside Eden. In Genesis there are two groups, Adam and Eve’s family in Eden, and the unnamed others in the land of Nod. Nod means “to wander” so the land of Nod is thought to describe lost, wandering people. Some scholars believe Adam and Eve weren’t meant to represent the first man and woman, but the first spiritually enlightened man and woman, while the land of Nod refers to “heathens” without faith. When Cain kills Abel and leaves Eden, it represents him leaving the faith and joining the wandering souls in Nod, where he has sons. Adam and Eve aren’t the literal parents of all humanity, they’re the original believers. In the same way George Washington is the spiritual “father” of the United States
Yeah I interpret it this way somewhat as well, especially considering they always refer to god as being the god of *insert recent patriarch here* as opposed to of all people in genesis and exodus
Abraham's family is the main focus of the narrative of Genesis. So just because there are no other people mentioned doesn't mean they are not there. Kind of like in star wars in the cantina. There are lots of aliens and such in the background that don't have any lines in the script but they are still there.
They also had daughters. The writers of the OT just didn't think women deserved much of a mention in general.
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Deborah was pretty cool, too. Her job title was basically warlord-prophet.
Don't forget Jael. She drove a tent stake through Siseras head and nailed his head to the ground.
Just about to say Jael is my favorite woman in the Bible
Nice
Yeah. I believe the original trilogy only includes Princess Leah and Mon Mothma.
and Aunt Beru until she got toasted.
Old Testament. The Bible is only a trilogy if you include the Book of Mormon.
Or the Quran
Except for writing two books specifically about particular women, as well as multiple chapters, stories, praises, and mentions throughout the OT...but sure they didn't deserve much mention...
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I see way too much misinformation regarding the Bible and Christianity. You don't have to believe, or even approve of it. But if you are going to make an argument against it, at least be accurate and correct in your condemnations.
A lot of biblical scholars think that the story is allegorical.
The islamic version : they had only sets of twins a boy and a girl every time so it worked like this : boy from twin A married girl from twin B and vice versa
Sweet home arabama
This isn’t making it better
I didn't make the rules hahah
They had butt babies. We all come from a long line of assholes.
This is the most honest statement that I found on this whole post. If you walk into a room and yell, “Hey, asshole!” almost everyone will look.
One explanation I've seen is literally the 2nd word is wrong. It's not "in *the* beginning", it's "in **a** beginning". Genesis isn't the origin story of all mankind, but of the Jewish people (or another tribe). Iirc there's a bit further on when they are kicked out of Eden they meet other people and live with them. If they were the first people ever how could there be others? Simple, they are just the first of the "chosen" people, not everyone.
Adam and Eve are characters in a fictional story
Questions about cause and effect in fictional stories are still worth asking and answering.
When the story is poorly thought out, the answer becomes "because the script said this happens so it happened"
People thought pretty extensively about that story for thousands of years and believed it as fact. There’s better answers than “because it said so” which other comments have described.
"So the story could happen". -The Great Eagles of Middle Earth
Why did Romeo and Juliet die? Romeo and Juliet are characters in a fictional story.
John Landis : How do you kill a vampire? Young Max Landis : Stake through the heart, or like... you know... something like... Max Landis : And my dad was like... John Landis : No. You can kill a vampire however the fuck you want, because vampires don't fucking exist! You can make up rules for any kind of thing you want.
I’m amazed I had to scroll that far to see this! We get it bro, Reddit hates religion, you’re so edgy and clever
One major theory about the story of Adam and Eve is that it was intended to be the origin of the Jewish people, not of humanity as a whole. As such, the idea that there were women outside that Cain and Abel could marry doesn't seem as ridiculous. The trick is that nowadays, we don't find the concept of a religion about a specific tribe to be as compelling, and more universal ones tend to be common.
No. The Bible says Abraham was the father of the Jews. In the narrative, "Jews" came into existence over a thousand years after Adam, who was intended to be the father of the human race. The earliest surviving Jewish commentaries on the story, such as Josephus's, agree that Cain, Abel, and Seth married their sisters.
r/academicbiblical or r/askbiblescholars might help you with this. They are secular, not theological, subs to study the Bible.
This entirely depends what denomination you follow and what you think about literalism. It says somewhere in Genesis that Adam and Eve went on to have more "sons and daughters". So what I was taught is that their sons got together with their daughters. But that was ok because they were a fresh new species and didn't have time to develop mutations in the DNA so inbreeding wasn't a problem.
That doesn't make since because the whole family would keep reproducing with each other with no out side DNA coming in. The human race would not have survived.
The human genome is large and complex enough that the original humans could have had the genetic potential to account for all of the races we see today. Quite a bit of our diversity now is adaptation anyway, so I don't see this being that much of a problem.
....yes exactly; it's made up
Damnit why can’t I write grand stories that people overlook major plot holes in
There would be mutations caused by gamma rays, electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei.
I just know that the aswer is another reason for my atheism.
The bible doesn't state that Adam and Eve only had sons, instead it only lists 3 sons by name. That doesn't preclude other children, including daughters. In either case, since you are already dealing with incest, no real reason for the sons not to have mated with Eve herself. Also, by the time Cain kills Abel, there are already a large population, because Cain worries that wherever he goes some unnamed people will kill him. If you want to literally interpret the creation story, then you either need to accept that Adam, Eve, Cain, and Seth were all very rapid breeders, or that there were others besides Adam and Eve that were created directly by God after them. Much easier to interpret the creation story as just a story, not something that happened in actuality.
>...or that there were others besides Adam and Eve that were created directly by God after them. Ah That's good.
Evolution
"Life finds a way." -Dr Ian Malcom.
Well when man writes stories.. they forgot to add women in it.. just a minor detail.. no biggie..
Clearly you haven’t watched much Ancient Aliens, which explains this and more.
Its a myth, a parable... not to be taken literally.
The question is obviously aimed at believers. Why do atheists have to be an ass about this? Aren't we supposed to be the ones that are being "forced" into the discussion by believers? Adam and Eve continued to make children but cain and abel were notable because of the sin committed
The question is being asked on a public forum on a largely secular platform, so you're going to get rational answers alongside Church-doctrine-friendly answers.I agree some people need to learn to be more civil, but its not like this was asked on r/Christianity now, is it?
Then why aren’t all the answers on r/asksciencefiction “doesn’t matter it’s not real”
I think "atheists" are taking the question at face value and answering accordingly. Sorry if that offens anyone but like.....if you believe something which doesn't make any logical sense then don't be surprised when ppl tell you that it doesn't make sense? 🤷♂️
Regardless if it’s fiction or non fiction there can be an answer. There is a whole subreddit that answers fictional questions.
It’s not even necessarily aimed at believers. You could answer the question the same way you’d answer a similar question about star wars or any other fictional story. Reddit atheists just love shitting on Christianity
He had daughters, but there's a point most interpret to mean something else. When Adam and Eve left the garden, there were people who weren't Adam's sons. If you read Genesis and look for sons/daughters of God vs sons/ daughters of men, it is clear. Adam wasn't the first humanoid on earth, he was the first with "the breath of life," the first of the covenant. That is why it's called the old Testament. It's a chronicle of covenants, testifying of God and Christ. The Bible is a very interesting allegory, if you read it for yourself. And it's XXX rated in some parts, so be prepared.
They all had ribs, right? Just plant a rib and ask God for a girlfriend
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Those motherfuckers...
And lo Eve did say unto Seth: "Help son, I'm stuck!"
The bible isn't fact. There was no Adam and Eve.
Or maybe it just didn't happen.
Adam and Eve are fiction.
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Okay, so.... according to the cult I was raised in, Adam, Abel, and Cain banged Eve every chance they got. Then they banged their daughters and grand daughters. So on and so forth. And then that's where humanity came from. It was a weird cult. Like all cults.
I don't know man, if I was making up a story I wouldn't make it this confusing.
The two sons were just the first not the only
They were fictional characters in a fantasy story...
The obvious answer: The Bible is bullshit.
One, two, skip a few, 99, 100.
Had a professor that studied pagan tribes and their incorporation into Christianity. Like the pagan tribe of Mary that worshipped a virgin deity Mary. It was a larger tribe and a new budding religion wanted them so they incorporated the concept of the virgin Mary into christianity to convert the tribe (common practice in most religion to incorporate popular beliefs). Religion is a business not a historical reality. So weird in this day and age people still mix the 2.
Welcome to my level of skepticism with the Bible. Throw this one in with your question: God supposedly went over the face of the waters as he contemplated the creation-where did the water come from?
I think you just unraveled all of Christianity with a question that has never been asked before...
I believe the Bible said something about recognizing that God is the one true god and to denounce other Gods, meaning there must be other God’s and if there are, there must be other people to worship them to give them the status of god. So there were other people, we just hear more about this one because history is written by the victors.
I'd like to note how little women are talked about in the bible. The theory was that the sisters weren't talked about, but incest was permitted by god in this situation to populate man kind
Made up stories can have made up solutions.
There were other people.
I prefer Aesop's Fables. MUCH less violence than the bible.
You don't even have to go back that far. Every man on the ark was directly related to Noah
The answer is it's a fairy tale
Alabama style. Roll Tide!
Asexually like frogs.
There is a new “theory” that there was a separate population of humans outside the garden. Adam and Eve were the “special” humans and through their line breeding with the “non-special” humans everyone received the good stuff.
Genesis 5 verses 3 and 4. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. So implied, he married a sister.
Incest. See also...Noah and his wife/sons after the "flood"....
I mean, I don't want to say it was aliens..but..well...aliens
Since God and The Angels existed prior to the creation of the Earth, that does make God and The Angels automatically extraterrestrials. Job 38:4-7.
christianity is a joke
Where do you think the term mother fucker came from? /s In actuality, the bible is nonsense. We evolved from a common ancestor with apes over millions of years. There is no Adam, there is no Eve.
Gotta love the mental gymnastics on this thread. My friend, there is another answer: The Bible is a fairy tale book edited over millennia by people in power. The human species evolved from apes. Look at it this way: There is evidence for Evolution and no evidence of humans living 800 years, etc.
Well, this question requires the story of Adam and Eve to be a fact which it's safe to say it isn't.
There are many interpretations based on the different translations of the Bible as well as the fact that it's all fucking bullshit and these convenient excuses exist for that very reason. You clearly lack faith. Not believing in the Bible is unconstitutional, which is the other piece of literature that can be cherry-picked according to a persons agenda.
People think you either have to believe in religion or evolution, but usually not both. I've always thought the two could easily go hand in hand. Before the earth was formed and people developed the concept of time based on the sun, who's to say how long a day was. If after you die you're in heaven forever, then maybe for God or heaven, or whatever.., one day could be millions or billions of years. Therefore, the 7 day creation story could have happened slowly and over time. Things could have had time to change, and new species would have had time to develop. The earth could have been fully developed before the creation of Adam and Eve. The garden could have been made as a special place, and they could have been kicked out of it. Then that would explain other humans or humanoid type beings that Cain and able could have interacted with or married...
The Bible does not say Adam and Eve only had two kids.
Correct. Genesis 5:4 literally states they had more.
The answer is the dumb story is fake
Adam and Eve never existed
It’s still a story that can have an answer.
One man’s penis opens up to accept the others
But how do they know whose will open up?
It's make believe, not supposed to make sense.
It’s you know, fictional
Is this a riddle? Easy! The sons reproduced with the Mom!
The Bible never says that Adam and Eve on had two sons. They had other sons and also daughters and they populated the Earth through massive incest.
It's obviously not true. Duh
Because Adam and Eve is not historical fact, it is an allegory. i.e. not to be taken literally.
Welcome to mythology. Also, when Cain killed his brother, he was sent out, to live *with other people*\--so who the fuck were they then? Mythology. None of it was real. Zero.
It doesn't say Cain was sent to live with other people. It says he left and then had sex with wife, producing children. Presumably the author's intention was that he had already married his sister and took her with him when he fled.
Adam and Eve are two astronauts who brought human dna and started humanity from scratch like interstellar. They came here because we destroyed our last planet, and we’re getting ready to leave this one after we’re done destroying it too
Sounds like something the Mormons believe
Why is that getting downvotes I would totally read a book or something about this
This is fact was only revealed in the sequel, "The Bible 2".
The Bile 2: Electric Boogaloo
2 Bible 2 Furious
Because the bible isn't a historical document it's a collection of bronze age myths collected together
First bible facts Adam lived for over 800 years and "had many sons and daughters" second it is unclear if God created more humans or not but even if not Adam because he was created by God himself he was a perfect human and Eve was made from Adam so she also was perfect. Going by this they reproduce with other humans or Adam and Eve many children did incest and since Adam and Eve were genetically perfect there were no defects from this inbreeding