How Can 2 People Populate The Earth Without Running Into The Problem of Incest?

[Timothy Hunter]

Let's humor the thought for a second, the creationist hypothesis that a single pair of a man and a woman jumpstarted the human race and grew from there was true, wouldn't the effects of inbreeding kick in after a few generations?

[Zelena]

Yes, I suppose…

Actually, the human race already “suffers” from a lack of genetic diversity: the human race is less genetically diverse than the apes.
More, the humane population is more diverse in Africa than in the rest of the world because populations were constitued by a smaller group of individuals…

There’s a “sect” in Paris called “La Famille” (the family) that is a group of around 3000 people that must only reproduce among themselves: they have some rare diseases.

[Tami]

The way the various versions of the bible get around this is by having Adam and his immediate male descendants live to be anywhere from 100 to 950 years old and still able to father children. No idea about the women in this narrative.

So, I guess if you are a male who lives to be 700 years old and you can produce offspring with, not only your original female partner but with your daughters, granddaughters, great-granddaughters, and so on, that could be a whole lot of children.

But yeah, it would still be inbreeding and incest.

Actually, according to the most common biblical narratives, Eve was formed from Adam, which would make her either his daughter or his sister depending on how you look at it. Which complicates the story even more.

Many non-biblical origin stories of mankind don't have an 'Adam and Eve', but instead, have hundreds of people created by whatever deity the stories derive from.

[CSTowle]

Don't go looking for logic in a book of fairy tales. I mean, if'n you want to by all means knock yourself out. But don't expect to find any.

[CosmiComic]

I don't think it's meant to be taken literally.

[Tami]

I don't think it's meant to be taken literally.

It shouldn't be, but many, many people do.

It's even a Science Fiction Trope. A man and a woman are alone on an otherwise depopulated or empty planet and they say something to the effect that they will have to start over and repopulate the world.

[Kirby101]

It's not Adam and Eve, It is Noah and his family that populated the Earth. And every species alive is the result of incest as well. It's just good they all had both male and female offspring.

[Tami]

It's not Adam and Eve, It is Noah and his family that populated the Earth. And every species alive is the result of incest as well. It's just good they all had both male and female offspring.

Noah is supposedly descended from Adam and Eve, so :shrug:

[CaptCleghorn]

It's not Adam and Eve, It is Noah and his family that populated the Earth. And every species alive is the result of incest as well. It's just good they all had both male and female offspring.

A point many miss when talking about taking the Bible literally. But the basic concept still remains.

[DanMad1977]

What if...on earth human were developing at different places on earth from different sources at the same time?. They wandered around and met other humans from other places and had sex with them.

[seismic-2]

How does it work when, say, the tortoises populated the Galapagos Islands? One (pregnant) tortoise is swept out to sea, arrives on the islands hundreds of miles from the mainland, and lays eggs. The hatchlings grow up and mate, those offspring do the same, and after a few generations a self-sustaining population is in place. The fact that they all shared a common ancestor does not doom them to extinction from some genetic defect.

[CosmiComic]

It shouldn't be, but many, many people do.

It's even a Science Fiction Trope. A man and a woman are alone on an otherwise depopulated or empty planet and they say something to the effect that they will have to start over and repopulate the world.

A few minutes of critical thinking is all that's needed, although not all religions support critical thinking. I especially don't get why a sci-fi writer would use that premise

[Tami]

How does it work when, say, the tortoises populated the Galapagos Islands? One (pregnant) tortoise is swept out to sea, arrives on the islands hundreds of miles from the mainland, and lays eggs. The hatchlings grow up and mate, those offspring do the same, and after a few generations a self-sustaining population is in place. The fact that they all shared a common ancestor does not doom them to extinction from some genetic defect.

Here is a scientific article about this

The way I see it, the Islands are a closed environment, not subject to as many environmental stressors as you would find in the world as a whole. The original ancestor or ancestors arrived on the Islands from South America about 9 million years ago. There was already genetic diversity through the long species history in South America (they did not just appear out of nowhere), so they weren't as limited genetically. Also, Turtles lay a large number of eggs. Far more than a human could give birth to.

A safe environment + a very large initial population of 'baby turtles' + millions of years of evolution = a stable population of Turtles on the Galapagos Islands. Plus the fact that these turtles live very long lives and are far more resilient than humans increase the chances of survival.

[seismic-2]

A safe environment + a very large initial population of 'baby turtles' + millions of years of evolution = a stable population of Turtles on the Galapagos Islands. Plus the fact that these turtles live very long lives and are far more resilient than humans increase the chances of survival.

Apparently it takes far less time than millions of years. We see many instances of invasive species that sprang from single specimens or at most a few individuals that arrived accidentally on cargo ships and that then proliferated nearly explosively, displacing native species (including by exposing them to diseases against which they had no immunity). This can happen in less than a century. In human terms, that's about a hundred generations, or a couple of millennia.

[Tami]

Apparently it takes far less time than millions of years. We see many instances of invasive species that sprang from single specimens or at most a few individuals that arrived accidentally on cargo ships and that then proliferated nearly explosively, displacing native species (including by exposing them to diseases against which they had no immunity). This can happen in less than a century. In human terms, that's about a hundred generations, or a couple of millennia.

The thing about invasive species si that they are invasive because there is nothing in the new environment that can maintain the balance of the population. Without predators or other hazards, species can run wild if they are the type of species that can populate a small area with millions of offspring. Larger species need more space, so they are less likely to overrun an area. Those that do overrun an area are more likely to destroy native species and drive them to extinction.

Technically, Humans are the worst kind (and best example) of an invasive species.