While many bible believers reject the idea there were at least three or four separate and distinct branches of early man, they expect unbelievers to accept that Adam and Eve were not only the sole progenitors of the human race but they allowed their sons and daughters to intermarry – despite the explicit warning that incest is an abomination.
“AND IF A MAN SHALL TAKE HIS SISTER, HIS FATHERS DAUGHTER, OR HIS MOTHERS DAUGHTER, AND SEE HER NAKEDNESS; IT IS A WICKED THING; AND THEY SHALL BE CUT OFF IN THE SIGHT OF THEIR PEOPLE; HE HATH UNCOVERED HIS SISTERS NAKEDNESS; HE SHALL BEAR HIS INIQUITY” (Leviticus 20:17).
Obviously the erroneous conclusion that incest was necessary on this occasion is a fabrication since there appears to be no explanation as to where Cain found a wife. Is it any wonder that most thinking people would rather reject such a view and accept that at some pre-historic stage the human race shared a much broader family that produced at least three or four separate branches? The forensic discoveries we find in relation to our origins must be cherished, but we should be careful not to think that such discoveries disprove the Genesis narrative. Both religion and science have a lot to offer, but there is more to the Genesis narrative than what is on the surface.
In the meantime science will be taken far more seriously than Christianity (not to mention Islam and Judaism that have based beliefs on the traditional view). If Christians continue to keep the door shut and insist that Gen 1:26-28 is specifically speaking about Adam and Eve, they have failed to recognise the many problems that this traditional view has created. These inconsistencies which we fail to notice are due in part to the stories we were taught in Sunday school and further developed in our minds by parents who unwittingly perpetuate the traditional view, albeit unwittingly.
If bible students could search the scriptures without leaving one stone unturned – as diligently as archaeologists do – they will see that Genesis, in light of science, has much more on offer than just a good old-fashioned Sunday school story.