The first people... (soul, evolution, recall, God, Adam and Eve)

[yossarian22]

Originally Posted by Autodidact

Please explain, in detail, how the weight of water could possibly cause mountains to rise. I'm looking forward to it.

My guess would be an increase in seismic activity due to massive amounts of shifting pressure and temperature.

[Soldano16]

Originally Posted by Heracles

The idea of there being an Adam and an Eve, two original humans, is not absent from evolutionary theory.

They would not be original humans - they had parents.

Geneticists have used mitochondrial DNA to trace back the human line to one single female, who they dub mitochondrial eve. Basically this woman's lineage has outlasted all others and so apparently every person alive is related to her.

Do not confuse mitochondrial DNA with human DNA. The mitochondrial in our cells contain different DNA than our actual cells. That's because the mitochondrial in our cells are actually old bacteria that mingled somehow with our cells and it worked out for both parties.

[methylatedghosts]

Originally Posted by crystalonyx

If this is true, your god is a most ineffecient creator, it took a billion years for homo sapiens to evolve after life originated, and the odds of that happening were much less than hitting the powerball jackpot. Your supposed god was really rolling the dice on this one.

Not:
1) if it was guided
2) if the outcome didn't matter
3) there was only one possible outcome.

I could list more - but there are many possible reasons that it wasn't "rolling dice" as you say.

Inneficient? 1b years is nothing compared to being timeless..... 1b years is a blip. Our concept of time and our experience of time says that 1b years is really really long - because we compare it to us, we compare it to our own lives. If you were to be timeless, then 1b years is nothing.

[methylatedghosts]

Originally Posted by Autodidact

Please explain, in detail, how the weight of water could possibly cause mountains to rise. I'm looking forward to it.

I'll offer an explanation.

Consider that this story is told by people. Consider that the first story was told by one person, maybe a few more - who may or may not have heard it from "god". Consider also, that the time period associated with the flood of Noah, could be traced to the opening of the wall between what is now the black sea and the mediterranean sea - causing vast amounts of water to flood the area and create the black sea. (Don't know the details of this - but apparantly the black sea was dry and populated at the time)

Imagine that a flat land area is under water. Now - this water starts moving towards the sea - slowly at first, then faster as it gathers momentum. Some parts of the land are much softer than others, and some parts have rocks. Now with enough water, the soft parts will erode (valleys) and the water level will sink. If you're in a boat on the water - it'd look as though the areas where the earth is harder (more difficult to erode) is rising up out of the water - when in fact you're just going lower. (the mountains)

I don't know how water-tight my thinking is here (excuse the pun) but I hope that covers at least one perspective.