Human Evolution?

Science (Evolution of Hominids,...) and

Theology (Death, Sin, Adam & Eve in Eden, patriarchs, Noah,...)

What was the historical context of Adam and Eve?  Did nonhuman "hominids" exist before them?  Are they the parents of all humans?  Are the lists of their descendants complete, and are the long lifespans literal and accurate?

I.O.U. — This page will have more content (overviews & links) by the end of June 2008.

This page will combine theology and science, because in this area they're closely related — so in a rigorous "two books of God" approach, both types of questions should be examined — and most authors include both, mixed together, when they write.  Also, most readers will be asking both types of questions and will be wondering how to harmonize these perspectives.  This topic is important and is relevant in four areas, in Methods of Creation (theology & science) and Age of the Earth (theology & science):
METHODS OF CREATION: THEOLOGY (is evolutionary creation theologically acceptable?), 
EVALUATIONS OF EVOLUTION: SCIENCE (general principles of evolution + ID-questions),
AGE OF THE EARTH: THEOLOGY (in "linking the gospel" and especially "death before sin"), 
AGE OF THE EARTH: SCIENCE (is a young earth consistent with the scientific evidence?).

Here are some candidates for resource-pages: 
• John Bloom, On Human Origins: A Survey with an old-earth creation perspective  (50 k + 25k)  {an older version, from 1997: On Human Origins: A Survey}
• pages by Carol Hill, Dick Fischer, Roy Clouser, Peter Ruest, and (proposing an ancient age for Adam, millions of years ago) Glenn Morton
• pages explaining a proposal that hominids became humans when God established a "spiritual communication" with hominids and thus made them human, not when hominids developed a certain level of cognitive sophistication;  in this view, we became human due to a decision by God and the action of his Holy Spirit, not due to the "spiritual efforts" of hominids (as in appeals to evidence for hominids engaging in "spiritual activities" such as building altars or performing burial ceremonies for their relatives or community members)
• excerpts from chapters (by James Hurd, David Wilcox, Terry Gray, Robin Collins, Warren Brown) in Perspectives on An Evolving Creation [this will be assembled later]
• Evolution and the Bible — a statment by the Presbyterian Church (USA)  (5 k) http://www.pcusa.org/theologyandworship/science/evolution.htm
• David Wilcox, Establishing Adam: Recent Evidences for a Late-Date Adam (about 100,000 years ago)
• description of a seminar — Nature in Belief: Evolutionary Explanation, Biological Function, and Religious Purpose — led by Alvin Plantinga and Jeffrey Schloss for the Calvin Summer Seminar Series, and related pages about evolutionary psychology
• Davis Young, The Antiquity and the Unity of the Human Race Revisited  (45 k + 9k)
• young-earth creation views, from AIG/Ham & ICR/Morris, plus others

This topic, especially its theology, is closely related to questions about "death before sin" in AGE OF THE EARTH: THEOLOGY.
 

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