Perhaps science and the Bible do share some common ground, as boffins say there is growing evidence that modern-day humans evolved from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
Scientists say there is a growing amount of evidence that proves we are all descendants of ‘biblical beings’ – meaning an Adam and Eve type couple did exist.
Adam and Eve are two of the world’s most legendary figures, despite many people disputing they ever existed. In Christianity, Judaism and Islam, the pair, whose supposed fornication led to the creation of the human race, are believed to be the first of God’s human creations.
While science and the Bible rarely share common ground on human evolution, boffins now say there is a growing ‘bank of information’ that indicates the Garden of Eden did actually exist outside the pages of Genesis chapter two.
Astonishingly, archaeologists have found signs that Eden was not only an actual place, but it could have been the birthplace of human civilisation. In addition, biologists have demonstrated that all humans alive today actually do have a common ancestor.
That said, in order for the Bible and science to line up, whopping great chunks of the biblical story would have to be reassessed. This means discarding the idea that God created Adam and Eve as part of his seven days at work, or querying whether or not they were even homosapiens.
While there are a number places thought to have once been the Garden of Eden, the most promising theory is that it was located in an area called Mesopotamia, which is largely modern day Iraq, and consisting of parts of Syria, Turkey and Iran, and which sits between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.
Classical and biblical archaeologist from George Washington University, Professor Eric Cline, wrote in his book ‘From Eden to Exile’: “This makes some sense from a textual point of view, because not only does the biblical account say that the garden lay ‘in the east’, meaning to the east of Israel, but it also mentions the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in connection with the Garden of Eden.”
The area is also widely recognised as the place animals and plants were first domesticated in the Neolithic revolution, some 20,000 years ago. Thanks to the rivers, humans were able to plant and harvest grains.
Professor Cline continued: “This area may have also become somewhat of an agricultural paradise for the local residents following the invention of irrigation during the fourth millennium BC.”
The biblical story of creation and the region’s most ancient myths also share similarities, and some archaeologists believe these myths were handed down to the Israelis, meaning the story of Adam and Eve, could have evolved from the ancient civilisation at Mesopotamia.
As for the population sharing the same ancestors, the ‘Mitochondrial Eve’ is the common female ancestor which all human DNA can be traced to, reports MailOnline. Mitochondrial Eve may not have been the first human, or created by God, but she was the woman who’s mitochondrial DNA was passed on from mother to child throughout time, while every other female lineage eventually died off.
Scientists applied the same logic to figure there must also be a Y-chromosome, Adam, which is the origins of all Y-chromosomes in every human.