The Origin of Adam: Science Proves that a Miracle Must Have Happened

By Richard PH D. Yen

This book is written for the young Christian going to college who wonders if his faith can stand up against the challenges of college professors and unbelieving friends. How does one refute the silly idea of Darwinian evolution with a smart answer and yet maintain good relationships?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Dec 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781640883901

Book preview

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank Mr. Mike Lee for doing the artwork, and Mrs. Karen Leong for editing the text. I am also grateful to Dr. JP Moreland for his willingness to write the Foreword for this book. The Chinese version of this book is being translated by Mr. Sau-Wing Lam and I hope to release it soon. These friends are wonderful to work with. Also, I want to thank the editors at Trilogy Publishing who offer comments and changes that make this book far more readable than it had been.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

Can You Believe This?

CHAPTER TWO

Lucky Darwin

CHAPTER THREE

Einstein Apologized

CHAPTER FOUR

Whales

CHAPTER FIVE

Excuses

CHAPTER SIX

Lottery

CHAPTER SEVEN

Newborn

CHAPTER EIGHT

Randomness

CHAPTER NINE

Young Earth

CHAPTER TEN

Old Earth, Young Man

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Beginning

CHAPTER TWELVE

Formless

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Genesis 1:1

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Diary

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Day One

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Day Two

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Day Three

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Day Four

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Heavenly Objects

CHAPTER TWENTY

Day Five

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Day Six

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Mankind

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Day Seven

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Repetition

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Which Day?

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

An Eyewitness?

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Age of The Universe

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Bones

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

DNA

CHAPTER THIRTY

Copying

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

One Origin

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Point of Separation

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Proportionality

Chapter Thirty-Four

Puzzled

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

The Sudden Appearance of Man

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Neanderthals

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Neanderthal DNA

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Other Humans?

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Moral Requirements

CHAPTER FORTY

Sons of God

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Descendants of Adam

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Noah’s Family

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Hybrid

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Races

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Real Events

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Literal Time and Space

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Conclusion

REFERENCES

FOREWORD

Dr. Richard Yen is a scientist with immense creativity and a deep, pervasive knowledge of issues surrounding the Bible and science. And he has applied that creativity and knowledge in writing The Origin of Adam.

It is a highly readable, brief study of a vast number of topics that focus on Genesis, chapter one and two, the theory of evolution, the age of the universe, human beings, and the origin of Adam and Eve.

Dr. Yen has provided the reader with much food for thought, and whether or not one agrees with all his conclusions; this is an important book that demands to be read. So, get a pen, a piece of paper, and dive in!

JP Moreland, Ph.D.

Distinguished Professor of Philosophy,

Talbot School of Theology, Biola University,

California, U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION

I accepted Christ during the Billy Graham Crusade held in Hong Kong, 1963. I was only 14 years old at that time, but I knew what I believed or more accurately—whom I have believed.

I also knew that I was going to be a scientist, no matter what. I chose McGill University in Montreal, Canada, for my undergraduate studies because it was one of the few institutions of higher education with a full program in the subject I love—Genetics. I took all the courses related to molecular genetics, cell biology, microbiology, human biology, and population genetics, in addition to all the required physics, chemistry, and mathematics.

I had no problem understanding all the subjects I studied. In fact, I was honored as a McGill University Scholar for every year that I attended there, and I graduated in 1971 with a 4.0—grade point average and First-Class Honors. However, the problem that I faced was with my faith. I learned that evolution was based on science. While it was correct that the science of genetics was not known at Darwin’s time, the reality was that mutations are real in this world, and natural selection does occur. One can do experiments in the laboratory to measure the rate of mutation and set up conditions to influence the survival of fruit flies with certain genetic traits. In contrast, it appears that my faith was based only on emotions and not facts or science. No one at church at that time could help me because no one studied or had a background in genetics.

I thank God for allowing me to discover a book to help me with my faith. It is a simple book written by Paul E. Little and published by Intervarsity Press. It is called Know Why You Believe. For the first time, I realized that Christianity was not based on emotions. The central theme of Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The empty tomb proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Christianity is based on objective facts, even though most Christians only talk about their own subjective experience. Soon after I finished reading the book, the news came that Dr. Little died from a car accident in Canada. But this book saved my life—my life was turned around from despair to purpose again.

In addition, I discovered a second book when I was a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. The little book written by Dr. Duane Gish in 1973 is called Evolution, the Fossils Say No. Darwinian evolution claims that all the living things that we see today came from non-living things. This is simply not possible from what I know about biochemical processes. Dr. Gish added evidence from the fossil record—that evolution, as claimed by Darwinians did not occur!

Dr. Gish explained that if the fossils formed millions of years ago look more or less the same as their descendants today, then it is proof that the genes of these organisms are very stable. They have hardly changed over the millions of years during which they had all the opportunities of forming new mutations. These animals have remained as the same animals; they have not evolved into other forms of animals. Because of Dr. Gish’s little book, I found a new way of looking at the facts and a systematic way to organize these facts. It is amazing how a small book can make such a big difference to someone like me at a time when I needed to know.

That is why I wrote this small book. This book is not only written to show why Darwinian evolution is impossible; it is written to integrate the latest scientific discoveries with insights into the book of Genesis.

So essentially, this book is written not to denounce Darwinian evolution, but for people who wonder whether religion is compatible with science. It is my sincere wish that religious people would spend time learning more about science and scientists.

Science is basically just a systematic way of studying the universe that the Creator had made. Science by itself is not anti-religion. In fact, science can only study the events that can be reproduced or repeated. For example, science can predict how fast a key will fall when you let go of the key in your hand. But science cannot study the events that are unique or occur only once. For instance, science cannot predict when you will let go of that key in your hand even though it can describe exactly how fast it falls once you let go. Science is actually quite limited.

Unique events that cannot be reproduced are often more important to our life than the events that can be reproduced. Your birth into this world is definitely a unique event in the entire history of the world. You cannot demand your mother to do it for you again, no matter how much we now know about the science of gestation. So, science studies events that can be repeated, while faith focuses on events that cannot be repeated. There is really no contradiction between belief in the power of science and a belief in the wonders of unique events.

Throughout my discussion with others, I notice that the origin of mankind can be an emotion-evoking subject; not just with non-Christians but even among Christians. Everybody defends his or her established ideology, and I understand that. All I ask is that you spend a little time to read this book and check out what the Bible actually says and what it does not say. I hope that after you have read this little book, you will agree with me that while there are lots of questions, the answers are there; both logical and reasonable. The origin of Adam is indeed a fascinating story.

CHAPTER ONE

Can You Believe This?

A visiting scholar from China came to my church and asked one of our leaders, I heard that Christians believe that God made Adam. How can that be? The following statements are what the leader