The Antiquity and the Unity of the Human Race Revisted by Davis Young, Department of Geology, Geography, and Environmental Studies, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan

From Christian Scholar's Review XXIV:4, 380-396 (May, 1995)

Summary: If the data in Genesis 4 are correlated with the cultural setting of the Neolithic Revolution in the ancient Near East about 8000 to 7500 B.C., then the biblical representation of Adam as Cain's immediate father suggests that Adam and Eve lived only about 10,000 years ago. The fossil record of anatomically modern humans, however, extends at least 100,000 years before the present. There are at least three solutions to this dilemma. All three alternative solutions pose difficult exegetical or theological challenges that result either in a refinement of the doctrine of original sin or a significant departure from traditional historical readings of Genesis 2-4.