I have often wondered why many ideologies suggest that the Christian Bible is but a myth.
What has led to this conclusion?
I suppose the grandiose claims of the Bible are too magnanimous for the ordinary mind to accept or comprehend. For instance, I am aware of a tale in the guilty-as-charged text that human beings lived till they were almost 1,000 years old, once upon a time. Permit me to share the offending literature here. I quote from Genesis Chapter 5…
When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.
When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died.
When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enosh lived a total of 905 years, and then he died.
I am not a scientist, neither am I an archaeologist. I am but a humble advocate of the law who seeks commonsensical but rational interpretations of grandiose ideas. To me, in a world where humans start to drop off the planet by the tender age of 120 years, it does seem rather preposterous that there was a time when said humans would live to be almost a thousand years old.
No wonder people scoff at the Biblical text that makes these claims. Moreover, a reminder of our mortality is not often the favorite subject of dinner time or polite conversation.
Hence, since we are not at dinner, neither do I pretend to be polite in this existential musing, I want to consider the answer to the question: Did humans truly live to be almost a thousand years old, once upon a time?
My Elementary Research
Here is the disappointing aspect of my research. I am not going to cite a well-known scientist who has proven their research to show that such humans once lived because, unfortunately, there is no scientist that has ever proven this claim.
Neither am I going to refer to archaeological discoveries that may claim that there has been unearthing of an ape-like human who may have lived to be the age that no contemporary human has ever experienced, namely 1,000 years. The reason I do not refer to archaeology is because there is no such evidence available in antiquity.
However, I will certainly do something unconventional to see if I can make sense of all these 1,000 year old human claims. I am going to consider the possibility from a layman’s idea of genetics.
The Human Gene
Let us assume that the humans who lived to be almost 1,000 years old had genes. Of course they did, if we are to assume that we, as their predecessors, had to come from somewhere. But since there is an argument that the Bible is fake, I decided to use the reason of assumption to indicate that the humans in those days probably had genes, like the humans of today.
What is a gene?
According to Medlineplus.gov, a United States Library of Medicine, a gene is “the basic physical and functional unit of heredity.” They are made up of DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, which is the material in all humans that enables us to inherit the features of our ancestors.
The information in DNA is stored as a code. According to Medlineplus, and I quote: “Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people. The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism.”
Let’s pause and reflect for a minute. Each human being is composed of ‘something’ called DNA. DNA is ordered in such a way that it is the building code for a human body (I suppose that town planners borrowed their idea of building codes from an original building on earth called the human body).
For example, if you had an ancestor with dark hair and brown eyes, it is possible that you would be built with dark hair and brown eyes when your physical features are being formed during your conception. But wait – if there are about 3 billion bases of human DNA, it means that there is an innumerable amount of combinations and permutations that a baby boy’s or girl’s physical features could look like when born, because we are made up of multiple possibilities of codes!
The Gene Pool
This brings us to the next point. All humans have DNA. Our DNA is what builds up our bodies features. There are about 3 billion bases of human DNA. The DNA writes the code to make up the characteristics that we will inherit from our ancestors, such as brown hair or brown eyes. This means that as humans create babies, we are contributing to something called a gene pool. The human race, therefore, is made up of an insane number of genes amongst us, known as the gene pool. According to the National Human Genome Research Institute:
A gene pool refers to the combination of all the genes (including alleles) present in a reproducing population or species. A large gene pool has extensive genomic diversity and is better able to withstand environmental challenges. Inbreeding contributes to a smaller gene pool, making populations or species less able to adapt and survive when faced with environmental challenges.
Natural Selection and the Gene Pool
Science has suggested the theory of natural selection – That the most resilient species will survive the harshest environments.
When we remove the glasses of denial that there may be a God behind the Bible, it is possible to begin to make sense of the book that speaks of so many controversial things. For anyone with an inquisitive mind, they will discover that the claims of the Bible only require the ability to think beyond bias or preconception and consider the minute advances in science and technology that have made modest discoveries of otherwise unexplainable things. Such an inquisitive mind would have the capacity to discover beyond what the eye can see.
However, I am not claiming magical vision here! Yet again, I disclaim myself as a lowly lawyer who only ponders whether the existence of genes played a part in the reduction of the human ability to live up to a thousand years.
Adam Lived to be 930 Years Old
From a natural human perspective, the subject of this paragraph is preposterous. A 930-year-old human has never been proven to exist.
If he did, why are we no longer experiencing the longevity that he had in our contemporary living? Surely, science, technology and medicine should be able to answer the question or resolve the equation?
Well, let us consider how it could have been possible for a 930-year-old man to have once lived on the earth.
Unfortunately, we would have to swallow the account of the Bible on this topic. The text indicates that it used to be a possibility that humans lived for centuries until a time when it was no longer possible. The reason why we would imbibe this version of the existence of humans is because no one can disprove it, but only argue against it. However, science is able to suggest that it is in fact, not just possible, but probable.
Humor Me Again – The Mythical Flood in the Bible
I will refer us back to the gene pool. Let us assume that humans could live to be almost 1,000 years old. Let us further chew on the account of the Bible that suggests that a great flood occurred and wiped out most of humanity except for 8 lone people (Genesis 6). It is the stuff that myth is made of.
But wait.
Let us accommodate the myth for a moment. The preposterous account of the Bible indicated that before the flood, there was a race of men who were called “mighty.” They originated from that mythical gene pool of almost-one-thousand year old humans.
Then a flood happened. The majority of the mythical humans were all wiped out. About 8 of them remained on earth. The gene pool drastically decreased.
Let us refer back to the scientific view of gene pool: It is a combination of all genes. Inbreeding contributes to a smaller gene pool, making populations or species less able to adapt and survive when faced with environmental challenges.
This is what science says. And I imagine that most disprovers of Biblical text have to believe in something at some point, and the least we may all possibly believe in is science, and what we can see.
If the myth of eight people remaining on earth after the also mystical flood is true, and scientific discourse is applicable to the myth to test for probability, the definition of gene pool suggests that there was a radical decrease in the adaptability of the species that was left behind after the flood.
Biblical text suggests that human life span began to decrease radically from that point, indicating that if there was a strong gene of longevity before, it had been weakened by the third century after the flood, not only according to Genesis, but according to the science of genealogy (Genesis 11 – A time at which the human lifespan had been cut to half).
As the Genesis tale progressed, one would note that human years continued to decrease on earth. Until a time when a finite number was defined as the culmination of human living on earth – 120 years maximum.
But that is a story for another day.
Now, humor my elementary musings on this topic, as one would wonder why our scientific adventures have not yet found the evidence of 930-year-old men in archeological excavations – Yet, we are able to deduce that human gene pools can deteriorate.
As there is no ancient text that is bold enough to suggest the longevity that humans once had, and I happen to be one of those folks who likes to ponder the impossible and preposterous, I would suggest that though my musings are elementary, the conclusion that humans living for almost 1,000 years old is a reality that the musings of a mind can discover, if it can think beyond what the eye can see.