Humans came to be "in God's image" about 6000 years ago

Mods: Human Origins and Evolution seems the most appropriate forum.Sitting through a breakfast conversation with my theistic parents and sister, I observed a discussion involving the rationalization of the Genesis creation story and creation in general by my sister. Putting aside for the moment the implicit assumption that rationalization of such a story is desirable or acceptable, I wanted to address the particular method she proposed.She freely admits that science indicates that biologically humans existed long before the 6000 BCE year creationism time period, and the earth long before that. Instead she proposes that while physically indistinguishable, the humanity of those beings only manifested around 6000 BCE through undefined social and cultural organization.At the time, I approached the rationalization this way: Stone-age tools were developed and used long before 6000 BCE, perhaps around 30,000 BCE in that general area. This resulted in the elaboration that it wasn't sheer intelligence she was talking about, but some sort of greater cultural organization. I continued by suggesting that using her reasoning, apparently we shouldn't be concerned with the behavior of the American colonists toward the native Americans due to them not qualifying as "human". She of course protests indistinctly, which brings me to my second and third approach:Her argument is basically a "No true Scotsman" explanation toward the undeniable fact of intelligent human life well prior to the timeline claimed in the Bible. In essence she is saying "Sure, there were humans around at that time, but not "true" humans!" Secondly, considering that she couldn't actually define what distinctive quality cropped up around that time (as illustrated by the native American example) she didn't really have a rationalization at all, merely a strong enough conviction that there *must be* a rationalization to assuage her feelings of cognitive dissonance.Now for the topic itself: For those creationists or theistic evolutionists who care about the Biblical creation stories, can you flesh out that rationalization she was so confident could be made? For those non-theists and others I would ask for examples refuting such rationalizations, such as examples of differing timelines of civilization development in different regions, as in China or the Americas. And of course any other comments that reasonably address the issue.Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Topic title changed from "No-True-Human Argument" to "Humans came to be "in God's image" about 6000 years ago".

The subtitle is my idea of (possibly) a better topic title.My impression is that the topic not really fit well into any forum - It's kind of a "Human Origins and Evolution"/"Bible Study" hybrid.Your sister's position seems to accept standard scientific evolution theory, but with something happening about 6000 years ago.As things are currently set up, I foresee massive problems keeping the debate on topic theme. Message 1 seems OK (with perhaps a title change), but prior to promotion to the yet to be determined forum, would you comment on my comment first?Certainly, other admin comments also welcome.Adminnemooseus

I agree on the title change, it seems much more descriptive of the issue at hand. As for difficulties keeping to the topic theme... I would bow to your experience in that matter, but I am uncertain how to make it more topic-centric.I don't think any rationalization would be directly sourced from the Bible, unless there is a definition of what makes people human of which I am unaware. Similarly I can foresee issues from non-theists disputing the arbitrary determination of "god's image" due to this lack of biblical definition. After further reflection, I am inclined to agree that the "something" happening about 6000 years ago is far too indefinite for reasonable discussion.

Topic title changed. The evolution side strongly objects to "young Earthism". Proposing something within the old Earth framework is less objectionable, especially if it has no direct conflict with worldly evidence.The topic's probably going to turn into a mess - pretty much all of them do. It's just a question of how many good relevant messages happen before the mess sets in.The topics is ready to release but I'm still not sure where to send it, and I think the forum location does have some significance. I'm going to think about it a bit more before making the move.Stand by.Adminnemooseus

Thread copied to the Humans came to be "in God's image" about 6000 years ago thread in the Creation/Evolution Miscellany forum, this copy of the thread has been closed.