The Promethean Adam A Unified Model of Creation and Evolution

“Our religion will not clash with nor contradict the facts of science in any particular.” ­­Brigham Young At the advent of the 21st Century, 156 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species, discussion of biological evolution versus creation continues to be a major topic of debate in the public sphere. Of course, atheists tend to completely accept the theory of biological evolution as it currently stands, with no intelligence or Creator behind the organization of our world or the life that inhabits it, while Christians fall on a sliding scale with regards to the acceptance of the theory. In broad terms, their philosophies can be expressed in the following ways:

Young Earth creationism, or “YEC”: The world is only a few thousand years old. Evidence to the contrary as suggested by geology, anthropology, paleontology, and astronomy is disregarded as either the confusing creations of the devil, tests given to us from God, or woeful misinterpretations of data. Adam and Eve were real people who were the first humans to come into existence thousands of years ago.

Soft theistic evolution, or “STE”: The world is billions of years old. The organisms of the world evolved as God intended because of the circumstances that God created, without any need for God’s continuing intervention. Adam and Eve are probably allegorical constructs and not real people. Early humans evolved from apes as anthropologists suggest.

Hard theistic evolution, or “HTE”: The world is billions of years old. God was directly involved in every step of the evolutionary process. While beings who were physically human did evolve from apes, all humans alive today are descended from Adam and Eve.

Of course, there are some gray areas between these various viewpoints. For instance, some might believe that God was directly involved in every step of the evolutionary process and that Adam and Eve are strictly allegorical figures. However, for the sake of simplicity, these are the definitions that will be used for this essay. For most Christians who fully appreciate the wonders and realities of science, the natural thing to do is to identify with the STE interpretation. However, there is one thing about doing so as a Christian that can make one uneasy: the story of Adam and Eve. The Bible gives a clear, unbroken genealogy connecting Adam and Eve to later figures who, according to core Christian doctrines, must have been real people ­ including Jesus Christ. The New Testament even refers to Jesus Christ as the “second man”, thus suggesting that there must have been a “first man” ­ 1

that is, Adam. These two figures stand as bookends to the story of humanity’s fallen state. How can we insist on the reality of one while denying that the other ever existed? The portrayal of

1 1 Cor. 15:22,47

Adam and Eve as mere allegorical figures is particularly troublesome for Latter­day Saints, who have been taught by modern prophets that these were in fact real people, with Adam actually being the same individual as Michael the Archangel. It may appear that the literal interpretation of Adam and Eve’s personhood and position as the progenitors of the human race is irreconcilable with the verifiable facts of human ancestry, but the purpose of the present essay is to argue to the contrary. This essay assumes the following statements to all be true:

Organisms can and do evolve from one species to another by natural means. Modern humans are primarily the descendants of lower life forms (early hominids,

monkeys, so on and so forth). Homo sapiens sapiens, or biologically modern humans, came into existence at least

100,000 years ago. Adam and Eve were real people, and they were the first children of God in this world,

coming here only a few thousand years ago, as scripture suggests. The Garden of Eden is a real place that still exists.

The statements listed above may initially seem contradictory, but it will hereafter be shown that they are not. It is important to note, however, that it is only possible to construct a consistent reconciliation between these ideas by appealing to the doctrines of Christ as explained by Joseph Smith and the modern prophets who have followed after him in addition to the teachings of the Bible. Any attempt to do so by limiting the teachings of God to the arbitrary and demonstrably incomplete compilation of holy writings that comprises the Bible will only result in either a highly liberal interpretation of scriptural narrative (as with those Christians who see Adam and Eve as mere allegorical figures rather than real people) or a woefully erroneous portrayal of scientific findings (as with those who would have us believe that humans were wrangling sauropods only a few thousand years ago).

A Fourth Model: The Promethean Adam (and Eve)

Creation God created the world. We do not fully understand the processes utilized in that creation or the extent to which God was directly involved as it unfolded, but we know that He did so for the purpose of establishing a place where His children could gain mortal bodies, learn through opposition, grow through affliction, have joy, and ultimately become like their Father. This was the plan and purpose from before the first bacteria appeared. We also know that this process of creation involved biological evolution. It would have been silly to expect God to mention biological evolution in the Genesis account when that theory is non­essential to the salvation of souls and when those reading it would not have understood it in the slightest until very recent times. (And, in truth, most people still do not understand the fundamentals of biological evolution.)

Early Humans About 28 million years ago, the first apes appeared. These were animals with human­like facial expressions and hands with fingers that could skillfully manipulate the objects in their environment. Unlike their monkey cousins, they lacked tails. About 15 million years ago, the first great apes, or hominidae, appeared. These were larger than the other apes, and they were highly intelligent creatures, with strong social orders, complex thought processes, and human­like emotions, as we can see in the gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and chimpanzees of today. About 7 million years ago, the lineages of humans and chimpanzees split. This led to a series of evolutionary developments that comprise the “missing link” between humans and apes, such as Australopithecus afarensis, which walked upright and used stone tools. About 2.8 million years ago, the first members of the Homo genus appeared, which came to include species like Homo habilis and Homo erectus. These were highly intelligent beings, each probably out­competing and displacing other hominidae as their brains grew larger from generation to generation and they developed more advanced social interactions and technologies. Gradually, our ancestors lost most of their body hair, made more effective tools and weapons, and gained control of fire. About 500,000 years ago, the first Homo sapiens appeared. These included various sub­species, such as the Neanderthals and Denisovans, who, though being genetically compatible with Homo sapiens, were visibly different from modern humans. They wore clothes, hunted with spears, and lived in dwellings not too different from those of some societies that exist still today. The first modern humans, Homo sapiens sapiens, appeared between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, and they seemingly out­competed the Neanderthals and Denisovans, probably both fighting them and mating with them. This is why DNA attributed to Neanderthals and Denisovans is still apparent in humans today.

The Children of God At some point in all of this, God created two people ­ Adam and Eve ­ and placed them in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was in this world and yet characterized by a different plane or nature of existence. While the harsh realities of the mortal life that we know continued unimpeded, Adam and Eve lived in a place without death or suffering. Existing as beings with perfect, celestial bodies, they could have lived there indefinitely. However, this would have frustrated God’s work, as Adam and Eve could not procreate at this point, and as it was necessary for God’s children to face suffering and temptation in order to develop spiritually. Therefore, God gave Adam and Eve the option to fall and become mortal. Realizing the necessity of such a Fall, Eve decided to go through with it and convinced Adam to do the same. When Adam and Eve fell, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. Their bodies became mortal, meaning that they could bear children and that they would eventually die. However, this fall did not only affect them: it also affected the rest of the world. From that point, death ­ spiritual death ­ became a reality that had not existed previously in the world. Animals and humans had lived and died ­ and had often killed and eaten each other ­ but none of them had ever sinned, because none of them had the capacity for sin. As is the case today, animals

simply acted out their natural inclinations, and were incapable of the insight that is necessary to overcome natural inclinations on their own or to understand when a wrong is being committed. Family...But Not The key thing is the nature of the humans that existed in the world prior to Adam and Eve’s fall. These beings were like us physically, but they were not like us spiritually. Our spirits, existing in the presence of our Heavenly Father before this world was created, are literally the offspring of God. As God’s literal children, we possess a certain divine spark unlike anything else in the universe. This divine spark empowers us to great good ­ and great evil. The humans existing in this world prior to the Fall were very intelligent creatures, but they lacked the spark and were the mere creations of God rather than God’s offspring. They were most likely emotional ­ even savage ­ but simple. The fact that they lacked the divine spark shows why they went over one hundred millennia without very much technological or cultural development. While they had tools and buildings and simple societies ­ and possibly even religion ­ they lacked the thing that makes the Rembrandts, Hitlers, Stalins, Napoleons, Curies, and Shakespeares of the world. The Divine Fire But then, suddenly, a new kind of spirit began to inhabit the children born to humans, as if great floodgates in Heaven had suddenly opened. It was probably very subtle ­ even unnoticeable to those who did not know to look for it ­ but as a result, people started asking questions. They started wanting to know why. They started building things they did not need to build and exploring new places. They sought not only answers, but new questions as well. They sought not only survival and gratification, but power, honor, wisdom, and improvement ­ beyond the equilibrium levels that exist in nature. Roughly seven thousand years ago, the children of God fell into this world. They brought with them a heightened level of purpose, curiosity, and resolve. As a result, civilization was born ­ as were both sin and excellence. Most of the first children of God born into this world were raised by human parents who were not the descendants of Adam and Eve. However, as the active initiators of this event, Adam and Eve can still legitimately be termed the father and mother of the human race as we know it ­ even though biologically modern humans had existed for at least 100 millennia. The Necessary Fall Some will ask: “Why did Adam need to fall if Eve could interbreed with pre­Adamic humans?” It is a good question, as, according to the LDS interpretation of Genesis, it was essential for both to fall in order for humanity as we know it to come into existence. There are a two possible reasons for this:

Adam was the great patriarch of humanity. He was in a position of authority, having been given that authority by God. The great flood of spirits from God’s family would not begin to pour into mortality until he decided to open the gates.

Adam and Eve were already married and therefore linked. It would have been a sin for Eve to unite with someone else when Adam was still alive. It also would have been a sin for Adam to abandon her. The human race truly would have been getting off on the wrong foot.

Issue 1: Adam, Eve, and Death One of the primary points of argument between creationism and the theory of evolution is the issue of death. A simple reading of the Bible creates a picture in which the world was perfect prior to the Fall of Adam and Eve, having no death. The problem with this is that it contrasts with a massive amount of fossil and geological evidence showing that organisms were living and dying on this planet for billions of years before humans even got here. Of course, the classic example is dinosaurs, but there are plenty of other examples. The first step in tackling this concern is to find out exactly what is meant by “death” in scripture.

Adam: Bringer of Death In the narrative in Genesis, we read of God’s admonition to Adam and Eve that they not eat of the forbidden fruit because it will cause them to die. As it says in Genesis 2:17: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” But we need to look at this wording carefully. According to the narrative, did Adam and Eve stop breathing and fall to the ground without a pulse in the day that they ate of the forbidden fruit and were cast out of the Garden of Eden? Certainly not! Rather, they went out into the mortal world, had children, and lived very long lives. Was God wrong? No. Rather, God was speaking of a spiritual death, which could be defined as a separation from God, and it occurred immediately after their transgression. As 1 Cor. 15:22 states: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” This idea is reiterated in Romans 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;”. The definition and nature of the death mentioned here become quite clear when we simply take a moment and read the text. If Adam’s death comes by sin, it would follow that anyone who sins will immediately die because of that sin. This is true. However, the world is full of career sinners who have many decades of experience and have not yet died. This is because, as with Adam and Eve, the death spoken of is of a spiritual nature ­ a separation from God ­ and is not simple biological death. Therefore, this death does, in fact, occur immediately as a result of sin, just as is stated in Romans.

“The First Death” and “The Second Death” In Revelation 20:12­15, something called “the second death” is mentioned. In this passage, the second death is clearly depicted as the casting of the souls of the wicked into hell after Judgment. Thus, the second death is of a spiritual nature rather than physical. However, if there is a second death, what is the first death? A common assumption is that the first death would naturally be biological death ­ the physical failure and decay of the mortal body with which we are all well acquainted. However, such is not the case. There are no instances in which the “first death” is identified in the Bible. However, if we look to the additional scriptures of the Restored Gospel, we can see it rather clearly defined. For instance, Helaman 14:15­16 states the following:

For behold, [Jesus Christ] surely must die that salvation may come; yea, it behooveth him and becometh expedient that he dieth, to bring to pass the

resurrection of the dead, that thereby men may be brought into the presence of the Lord. Yea, behold, this death bringeth to pass the resurrection, and redeemeth all mankind from the first death—that spiritual death; for all mankind, by the fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual.

Thus we see that the “first death” and the “second death” are both spiritual in nature, with the first death being that spiritual death that Adam and Eve brought upon mankind through the Fall that separated them from God and brought them into a sinful, mortal state. Similarly, D&C 29:41 states:

Wherefore, I, the Lord God, caused that he should be cast out from the Garden of Eden, from my presence, because of his transgression, wherein he became spiritually dead, which is the first death, even that same death which is the last death, which is spiritual, which shall be pronounced upon the wicked when I shall say: Depart, ye cursed.

Thus we see again that the first death is the death that Adam and Eve brought upon themselves by eating of the forbidden fruit, and this death was not biological death, but spiritual death. Again, biological death did occur as an eventual result of their separation from God, but it was not primarily the death of which God warned them while they were still in the Garden. Some Latter­day Saints may be confused by this assertion due to a misconception that the “first death” is temporal, physical, or biological, while the “second death” is spiritual. However, the previous two scriptures clearly state that the “first death” and the “second death” are both spiritual. One of the reasons for this confusion is the fact that we identify sin and death as twin barriers to salvation ­ barriers that Christ overcame through the resurrection and the Atonement. This explanation of the barriers to salvation is accurate and scriptural. For instance, consider 2 Nephi 9:8­9:

O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness. [Emphasis added.]

The core doctrine taught by this verse is that physical death separates us from God by taking away one of the things that makes us like God ­ that is, a physical body, which God has ­ and makes us more like the devil by relegating us to an existence of spirit only. It shows the importance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as that resurrection broke the bands of death and will thereby allow us all to be resurrected physically. However, the important thing to note is that, in terms of the “first death” and the “second death” as explicitly stated with those words in scripture, the physical death from which Christ’s resurrection saves us is only a symptom or aspect of the first death, and not wholly the first death itself. It is therefore apparent that, in stating that Adam and Eve brought death into the world, what the scriptures actually say that they brought was a spiritual death. This spiritual death led to their own subjection to physical death but did not create physical death for the rest of the world, as such death had already existed for billions of years.

Issue 2: Pithecophobia It seems insulting to many Christians to suggest that we are the descendants of apes. (Even though, technically, we are apes.) However, before we get too worked up about how grand and mighty humanity is, we should see what scripture has to say on the matter of human nature:

We are created from dust. (Gen. 2:7) Why is it nobler to come from dust than to come from apes? Also note that, according to a straight and literal reading of the Genesis account, apes would have existed, happily eating fruit, prior to Adam and Eve. Therefore, there is a good chance that the “dust” from which Adam was created was at one point ape feces. Is it nobler to come from ape feces than to come from apes? Regardless, according to evolutionary theory, there is nothing wrong with saying that we came from the dust of the earth. It’s just that a few billion years of intermediary steps are omitted by that explanation ­ which makes sense, as no one at the time Genesis was written would have understood it anyway.

We are filthy and sinful. None of us do any good ­ no, not one (Ps. 14:3, Rom. 3:12, 23). On the one hand, we debase ourselves by saying that we are all sinful. Without God, and relying on our own mortal nature alone, we are nothing. Having sin, in a way, we are actually below the apes. On the other hand, we are too magnificent to have come from apes. Is this not a contradiction?

We are enemies to God. (Mosiah 3:19) Are apes enemies to God? Quite the contrary: they fulfill the purpose given to them by their Creator. They do not shake their fists at Heaven and cry “Why?!” They do not commit blasphemy. They have their vices, but they are the simple, straightforward vices of animals. We, on the other hand, are all cognizant rebels who must amend our ways.

The inflated view that many have of themselves and of humanity is contrary to the Bible, to scientific findings, and to plain reason. Humans have vices. Humans have animal tendencies. Humans defecate. Humans like sex. Humans are irrational, emotional, selfish, and petty. Yes,

there is a certain divine spark that lies within us, but that is something that would rest in our spirits rather than in our bodies anyway.

Issue 3: Too Complex? In finding an explanation such as the one given in this essay to be dizzying and difficult to understand, some might employ Occam’s razor to combat it. “Your explanation is too hard to understand. Therefore, God did it.” However, if this explanation seems convoluted and unnecessarily complicated, it is only because it aspires to do something that other explanations do not: that is, it actually attempts to explain things. It is true that there are many things that we do not yet understand about God and the natural universe and how they interact, and it is certainly good to have a firm realization of the limitations of our own understanding. However, we cannot use the simplicity of answers like “God did it,” “We don’t know,” or “It’s a mystery” as evidence of their soundness. This is because, while they are answers, they are not explanations. It is always easier to say you do not know the solution than it is to give a solution, but as admission of ignorance is not an explanation, and as it does not require any verification, Occam’s razor hardly applies. In fact, by suggesting that God made all of this happen through processes that still lie completely beyond human understanding, one would be suggesting the existence of an explanation that is even more complex than this one. Saying that we do not have the slightest idea of what those processes are does not make them less complex, but actually does the opposite.

Issue 4: The Time Problem Some would say that it would make no sense for God to spend billions of years creating Man when he could do it instantaneously. It would probably be a mistake for any human to make sweeping judgments about what God would or would not do in various circumstances, but so long as we have decided to do that, consider the following:

Time is nothing to God. One does not criticize a master painter for taking 20 minutes to decide on his next stroke rather than 20 seconds. This concept is even more true for God, as He literally has all the time in the universe.

God wasn’t wasting time anyway. He was doing things that, as a Creator, He felt were important. Even if we are God’s most important creation, this does not mean the He does not care about His other creations.

God is a minimalist. God has worked miracles, and God will yet work miracles, but His direct intervention in this world tends to come in specific, measured doses. The star that appeared heralding Christ’s birth was most likely a supernova that actually occurred thousands or tens of thousands of years prior in preparation for that event, with its light finally reaching Earth at just the right time. If humans can be created through lightly guided natural processes, that would be in line with most of the things that the Judeo­Christian God does.

Issue 5: A Mass Human Extinction Pre‐Fall? People often say something like the following: “We do not need to be related to Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Cro­Magnons. God created us separately.” Perhaps God simply eradicated these early humans whose remains we have found in some sort of massive extinction event about 6,000 years ago, thereby emptying out the world for it to be inhabited by Adam and Eve and their descendants. However, this is highly unlikely for multiple reasons. For example:

There is no feasible motivation for it. Why would God have created such people only for them to become an obstacle that He would inevitably have to remove? It is as if we were suggesting that God made a mistake ­ that He accidentally created humans by impure means and so had to wipe them out and start again.

They were biologically human. They were not super­intelligent mollusks. They were not just apes either, but were genetically and biologically compatible with us in every way. Unlike gorillas and chimpanzees, if a Neanderthal were alive today, that individual would be sexually compatible with modern humans and would be able to produce viable offspring. Is that not a massive coincidence?

God is neither a trickster nor a liar. God may not make the truth immediately and plainly evident to us at all times, but it would seem contrary to the nature of the Christian God to intentionally do things to cause us to believe something other than the truth. Putting fossils in the ground such as these that so clearly suggest a human origin through billions of years of biological evolution would be something that only a malicious and petty deity ­ or at least a hapless one ­ would do.

Fossil and genetic evidences suggest otherwise. The main racial groups that exist today have existed for tens of thousands of years at least. The suggested mass­extinction model requires us to assume that non­Adamic humans all over the world all suddenly died and that Adam and Eve’s descendants immediately spread out through the world and divided into the same racial groups as the people who lived in those respective areas previously ­ and that they did so swiftly enough that the gap in population levels has never been noticed by anthropologists.

While there is the possibility for this alternative to be true on the basis that “God can do anything,” Occam’s razor would suggest that this is not the most viable interpretation. In like manner, it is possible that God made everyone in the world except for you disappear last night and then created other people exactly like them to take their place this morning. It is possible if you believe in an omnipotent God, but it is still not very likely.

Issue 6: The Garden of Eden It is true that the Bible talks about the Garden of Eden as if it were a physical place, and, for the account of Adam and Eve to be real rather than allegorical, it would need to be a real place. However, there is no such place in the world we know. Some would suggest that the Garden of Eden ceased to exist, but such is not the case according to the Bible. As Genesis 3:24 states:

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

If the Garden of Eden were ever a real place, it is still so now. Some may assume that it “fell” and became mortal and corruptible just as Adam and Eve had done, but if that were the case, there would have been no need to cast Adam and Eve out and to send an angel to keep them out. (Though there is the possibility that the effects of the Fall on the Garden of Eden were gradual.) It is more likely that, while the Garden of Eden is a real place, it lies on a different plane of existence or exists as a different type of matter, as with spirit, and as with celestialized bodies that, according to the New Testament account, are apparently capable of traveling through space at the speed of thought (Luke 24:29­31), though they can be made manifest to mortals at times as well, but perhaps only when the eyes of mortals are opened by divine power. One of the points of disagreement among contemporary Christians is the state of the spirit between death and Judgment Day. Some Protestants say we are all immediately judged, while others say that our spirits sleep. The Catholics believe that the wicked will immediately go to Hell, while the righteous will go to Purgatory. Due to clarifications given through the doctrines of the Restored Gospel, Latter­day Saints believe that we all go to the Spirit World ­ which is divided between Paradise and Prison ­ to await Final Judgment. While thus waiting in the Spirit 2

World, the deceased will still have the chance to accept Christ. Regarding the location of the Spirit World, Joseph Smith said the following:

[The righteous] are exalted to a greater and more glorious work; hence they are blessed in their departure to the world of spirits. Enveloped in flaming fire, they are not far from us. 3

The spirits of the deceased are not far from us. Commenting further on that principle, Brigham Young said the following:

Where is the spirit world? It is right here. Do the good and evil spirits go together? Yes they do…. Do they go beyond the boundaries of the organized earth? No, they do not…. Can you see it with your natural eyes? No. Can you see spirits in this room? No. Suppose the Lord should touch your eyes that you might see, could you then see the spirits? Yes, as plainly as you now see bodies. 4

2 Alma 40 3 https://www.lds.org/liahona/1977/12/the­spirit­world­our­next­home?lang=eng 4 http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Spirit_World

Given that there are entire worlds around us that we cannot see, it is entirely possible that the Garden of Eden existed ­ and exists ­ on a different plane such that it is here and yet inaccessible to us. This sense is reflected in the language of the passage from Genesis: “a flaming sword which turned every way”. The image of a sword turning in every direction at once is metaphysical and difficult to grasp, like cubism or the bending of spacetime. By defying our common conception of dimensional boundaries and measurements, this description suggests that the “sword” has been placed such that, like the garden beyond, it is incomprehensible to the typical mortal eye and beyond the reach of mortal powers.

Issue 7: Non‐Adamic Humans and Racism One argument some might make against the argument proposed in this essay would be that it reinforces pseudo­scientific beliefs held by racist groups. With the rise of Darwinian theory came an attempt by some to reconcile science and religion by stating that some human racial groups today are the descendants of Adam and Eve while others are the product of biological evolution. Specifically, some white extremists have claimed that Caucasians are the descendants of Adam and Eve and Black Africans are the descendants of “monkeys”. This proposition has been used as an argument against miscegenation, equating it to bestiality. It is of course a ridiculous racist position: as previously stated, all of the main racial groups in existence today ­ including Caucasians ­ already existed long before Adam and Eve are said to have come into the world. Indeed, Cro­Magnon skeletons dating back more than 40,000 years were already ethnically European ­ that is, white. 5

Even acknowledging that the major racial groups of today all existed prior to the Fall, some might argue that certain populations ­ particularly Jews and Arabs ­ have more Adamic blood than others. Such may certainly be the case, but the ratio of Adamic genes in a particular ethnicity’s genetic identity is hardly quantifiable, and even if it were, there is hardly any evidence that such people have any kind of intrinsic genetic superiority.

Issue 8: Sinless Humans? It may seem strange to us to think of the possibility of entire human populations being incapable of sin. According to LDS doctrine, all humans today not only are capable of sin but inevitably commit sin so long as they have reached a sufficient level of intellectual maturity. Similar views are shared by most religious traditions. Could it be possible that, prior to the Fall, the humans inhabiting this world were indeed sinless? To answer the question, one must have a clear definition of sin. If sin is defined as any willful action that distances a child of God from his or her divine parentage, it is clear that the mortal humans born prior to the Fall were not capable of sin, as they had no divine parentage. Even though they were intelligent beings, according to this definition, they were not capable of *sin* per se because they were not the children of God as their descendants would be. This does not mean that they were incapable of doings that we might find reprehensible. For example,

5 Howells, William. "Getting Here: The Story of Human Evolution", 1997, Compass Press, p. 188.

dolphins are highly intelligent and sympathetic creatures. Domesticated dolphins have proven to be so intelligent that they have been trained to help with complex tasks such as the removal of explosive sea mines. Exhibiting an altruistic tendency that seems commonplace, wild dolphins have even been known to save humans from drowning and to protect them from sharks. However, groups of male dolphins also frequently get together to overpower females in mating rituals that, in human terms, could easily be termed gang rape. It is possible that pre­Fall humans were similarly both intensely altruistic and quite animal and selfish, with a simplicity and directness similar to that which we would normally ascribe to small children. It may seem pompous and presumptuous to refer to the early humans as lower beings, having spirits that lack the “divine spark” and that did not spring forth from God. It would certainly be pompous and presumptuous ­ and untrue ­ to say that some humans alive today are the children of God while others are not. However, this presumption does not imply that the pre­Fall humans have no place in God’s plan. Indeed, in speaking of the beasts singing praises to God as mentioned by John the Revelator, Joseph Smith said that they were not mere symbols, but 6

actual beings, and added the following:

[They were] four of the most noble animals that had filled the measure of their creation, and had been saved from other worlds, because they were perfect: they were like angels in their sphere. We are not told where they came from, and I do not know; but they were seen and heard by John praising and glorifying God.

It is evident that there are, in fact, intelligent creatures brought into being by God that, though not being His offspring, still fill an important purpose in God’s plan and have the ability to take their place in the realm of His glory ­ if not in God’s throne, then at least beside it. This is not to 7

say that the four beasts seen by John the Revelator were pre­Fall humans, but they may have a similar role in the grand scheme of things.

Conclusion Without having received specific, comprehensive revelation on the matter, no one can authoritatively say what did or did not happen with regards to Adam and Eve and their relationship with the physical origin of humanity. However, from a Christian perspective, it is quite possible that Adam and Eve, rather than being the literal forebears of all of humanity, were the forebears of humanity in a more figurative sense, having created the mortal situation in which we now find ourselves and having opened the way for the spirits of God’s children to inhabit mortal bodies. As Jesus Christ was not literally the second man to walk the earth in the anthropological sense, neither was Adam literally the first. Adam and Eve stood as vanguards 8

(more Prometheus than Pandora, though certainly Pandora too) in the opening of a new era. This was an era in which the eyes of young humans suddenly gained a divine fire ­ a godly spirit

6 Rev. 5:6­14 7 Rev. 3:21 8 1 Cor. 15:47

­ that made them look beyond the routine hunter­gatherer lives of their ancestors and aspire for something more profound.