What really happened back then?

[MODU]

(This is a thought challenge more than politics, but it's playing off of the current threads.)

Personally, I've never imagined that we'd be having so many religious debates on this site; however I am glad to see that most of us are mature enough to share our own personal beliefs with each other.  With that said:

While I'm not the most religious person on here, I am possible more religious than most.  However, I also understand that we have many archeological discoveries which cast a shadow over the true history of man on Earth.  We know in the Bible that Adam and Eve gave birth to three sons following their exit from Eden, and when Cain killed Able, Cain was driven out into the land of Nod to establish the "city" of Enoch.  Cain was afraid that he would be killed by whoever found him, which is why God marked him.  Now, it is truly possible that in the 130 years before Seth (the third son mentioned in the Bible) was born, Adam and Eve had many other kids which married and left the tribe of Adam.  Were these the people Cain was afraid would kill him, or were there others already on the Earth?

(Keeping in the perspective of the Biblical history...)

Stonehenge, Easter Island, the Pyramids, etc are all dated to be at least 10,000 years old, which leads you to believe that the civilizations which built those structures had to be at least 1000 years old in order to advance in technology and population size in order to construct these wonders which exist still today.  Could God have started multiple pockets of men on Earth prior to Adam and Eve?  Could those prior "experiments" be the source of the Angels that reside with God now?  According to the Bible, the Angels are a lower class in regards to Man.  Maybe that's because they were flawed creations which God destroyed prior to the creation of Adam and Eve, and possibly were the ones who made the original wonders.  Has anyone ever had similar thoughts or hypotheses about this?

[minionofmidas]

(draws MODU's attention specifically to Gen. 6.1-2) Yeah, all those Alien nutters love those lines, too.

[MODU]

(draws MODU's attention specifically to Gen. 6.1-2) Yeah, all those Alien nutters love those lines, too.

hahaha . . . I know about sons and daughters marrying.    You forget, I live near West Virginia.    *dies laughin* 

[minionofmidas]

(draws MODU's attention specifically to Gen. 6.1-2) Yeah, all those Alien nutters love those lines, too.

hahaha . . . I know about sons and daughters marrying.    You forget, I live near West Virginia.    *dies laughin* 

Did I get the chapter wrong ... or did you? Or maybe you're using a different translation.

[MODU]

(draws MODU's attention specifically to Gen. 6.1-2) Yeah, all those Alien nutters love those lines, too.

hahaha . . . I know about sons and daughters marrying.    You forget, I live near West Virginia.    *dies laughin* 

Did I get the chapter wrong ... or did you? Or maybe you're using a different translation.

Genesis 6:1-2

1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.

[afleitch]

I believe in a Big Bang about 15billion years ago. I believe in the formation of the earth about 4.5 billion years ago. I believe dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. I believe in an ice-age that ended around 10000 years ago. There MAY have been civilization before that (hence flood/Atlantis myths) that was decimated around that time. (We often take steps back in civilisation, such as after the decline of the Roman Empire)

An agrarian proto-western civilsation emerged outside of the fertile crescent around 8000 years ago and between the fall of Rome and 400 years ago the most techinilogically advanced society was China. And it may soon be again!

[minionofmidas]

(draws MODU's attention specifically to Gen. 6.1-2) Yeah, all those Alien nutters love those lines, too.

hahaha . . . I know about sons and daughters marrying.    You forget, I live near West Virginia.    *dies laughin* 

Did I get the chapter wrong ... or did you? Or maybe you're using a different translation.

Genesis 6:1-2

1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.

Okay, those were the ones I was thinking of. The Sons of God, mind you, not the sons of men.

[MODU]

(draws MODU's attention specifically to Gen. 6.1-2) Yeah, all those Alien nutters love those lines, too.

hahaha . . . I know about sons and daughters marrying.    You forget, I live near West Virginia.    *dies laughin* 

Did I get the chapter wrong ... or did you? Or maybe you're using a different translation.

Genesis 6:1-2

1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.

Okay, those were the ones I was thinking of. The Sons of God, mind you, not the sons of men.

hehehe . . . yeah, I know.    I think it's just poetic language, like "the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve" used in 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.'

[MODU]

I believe in a Big Bang about 15billion years ago. I believe in the formation of the earth about 4.5 billion years ago. I believe dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. I believe in an ice-age that ended around 10000 years ago. There MAY have been civilization before that (hence flood/Atlantis myths) that was decimated around that time. (We often take steps back in civilisation, such as after the decline of the Roman Empire)

An agrarian proto-western civilsation emerged outside of the fertile crescent around 8000 years ago and between the fall of Rome and 400 years ago the most techinilogically advanced society was China. And it may soon be again!

There we go.    That's what I'm talking about.  Anyone else?

[Schmitz in 1972]

Interesting theories! I must admit that I have never exactly considered all the nuances of the age of the world and MODU's idea is certainly compelling. However, the Bible itself seems to refute these ideas. It seems very clear that nothing occured before the six days of creation. That's why it was "the beginning." If we examine the days it becomes fairly apparent that the only one these alternate creations could have been made on would be the sixth day itself. For all other days these human forerunners simply do not mesh with the other things God created on the day. This would only be possible if we take Yom, the word translated as day (the most literal translation is "a period of time") to mean a stretch of time consisting of thousands or millions of years. Even leaving that aside, the Bible seems pretty clear that Adam was indeed the first man who was created on this sixth day.

While we're on the subject of creation, scientists have a rough idea of where the edge of the universe has been since the big boom. Using the Theory of Relativity, one scientist calculated how much time would have passed on the edge of the universe in relationship to the time that had passed on earth prior to recorded history. He came up with a total of, surprise surprise, six days.

[minionofmidas]

I thought up another silly thing last night.

Everybody's aware of the following options
- God created the Earth and the different species and the Bible is the Word of God (jmf)
- God did not create the Earth and the different species and the Bible is not the Word of God (Atheists)
- God did create the Earth and (in some way, not necessarily contradicting evolution theory) the different species, but the Bible is certainly not the Word of God, at least not all of it (normal)

But how about this one...
-God did not create the Earth and the different species, but nonetheless the Bible is the Word of God. In other words, God lied.
Think about the possibilities! All the contradictions fall apart!

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

No human knows, and know human can EVER know, it's pointless to try and think about it