Q&A: Homo sapiens – Modern Man
Homo sapiens – Modern Man
Question
With God’s help,
Hello Rabbi,
How can one reconcile the scientific view, which holds that modern man already existed about two hundred thousand years ago, with the count we use for the creation of man being only 6,000 years?
It is important for me to note that the question here is not about how long the world itself has existed (which, to the best of my knowledge, is estimated at about 14 billion years), which can be explained in various ways, such as that the six days of creation were six eras of billions of years. Here, by contrast, we are speaking about a count that we begin after the end of those eras, a count that, as I understand it, refers to the moment Adam was created, and it is hard to say that they only began counting time after tens of thousands of years.
I would be glad for the Rabbi’s answer or a referral to an existing answer.
Thank you very much!
Answer
Moshe wrote:
First of all, nobody came and said, “I am a descendant of that person,” and nobody told us that his grandfather was some prehistoric human from X years ago, and nobody told how the world was created, nor how the first man came into existence, nor where his mate came from. Now, if you tell me that the world has existed for at least 200,000 years, then you need to provide answers: what happened in the world, what our purpose in the world was, what they believed in, what they ate, what their customs were, how they knew how to count, how many days they had in a week, and so on and so on… Who invented the weekly cycle? Who invented their language? There is no information, no stories of heroism, no survivors, nothing. But carbon-14 speaks in place of all those answers—does that seem logical to you?
And someone else also wrote (Moshe?):
Homo sapiens – Modern Man First of all, nobody came and said, “I am a descendant of that person,” and nobody told us that his grandfather was some prehistoric human from X years ago, and nobody told how the world was created, nor how the first man came into existence, nor where his mate came from. Now, if you tell me that the world has existed for at least 200,000 years, then you need to provide answers: what happened in the world, what our purpose in the world was, what they believed in, what they ate, what their customs were, how they knew how to count, how many days they had in a week, and so on and so on… Who invented the weekly cycle? Who invented their language? There is no information, no stories of heroism, no survivors, nothing. But carbon-14 speaks in place of all those answers—does that seem logical to you?
Friends, don’t open a new thread for a question that already exists. Next time I’ll simply delete it.
Discussion on Answer
By the way,
modern man emerged from Homo sapiens about 60,000 years ago, apparently with the appearance of language. Only then did archaeologists find modern art, advanced technology, and creativity. It’s worth reading a survey of the period by Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (I think Diamond also deals with this period in The Third Chimpanzee and Guns, Germs, and Steel, and others).
Thank you very much, sorry for repeating the question. I actually did look for a question on the topic, but I didn’t find a title similar to this subject.
A. What is still difficult for me is that apparently one has to distort the verses too much in order to fit them to what science accepts today. If so, if every interpretation is acceptable, then what meaning do the verses have? After all, I can explain them however I want and basically have no real commitment, and because of that they lose their value… Doesn’t that trouble you?
B. It is also important for me to know whether this approach is scientifically verified by strong evidence, or whether it is just a nice theory that is not sufficiently grounded, and its evidence can be explained in other equally good ways.
C. As a continuation of B: do you accept the claim that the Flood in the world caused many fossils to form in a way that makes them look as though they were formed millions of years ago? If that is accepted, then it really could explain, to some extent, the fossilized skulls that are supposedly dated to a period 200,000 years ago.
Thanks in advance!
A. There is no need to distort the verses at all. They do not describe history but norms. Your claim about their meaning is my claim about studying the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in general. Indeed, I do not see much value in studying it nowadays.
B. Which approach? The world is not 5,700 years old. Homo sapiens is also much older. As far as I know, this is well verified.
C. I don’t think so. Usually the claim is that no indications of a global Flood are found at all. That too has been discussed here in the past.
As for your question, there was a question here on this issue just a few days ago.
Here, I found it:
https://mikyab.net/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%A7%D7%A4%D7%94-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%94/#comment-14702