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Old 09-23-2006, 08:34 AM   #1
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Default Origin of the human races and the Bible

According to the Bible, the modern humans today are all descendents of the sons of Noah. Does it explain how different races like the Chinese, the Kenyans or the Swedish came to be? Did they evolve their features then in less than 3000 years or so? Does the Bible mention any other human ethnicities outside the range of the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, Israel, Rome and Greece? What is the farthest range that people in the Bible lands knew of other ethnicities?
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Old 09-23-2006, 10:47 AM   #2
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There is a Christian attempt to grapple with that here: The origins of race.

"Race" is a modern concept.
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Old 09-23-2006, 11:44 AM   #3
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This thread from 2003 raises the same question. I think the answers there cannot be improved on.

Shem, Ham, and Japeth

Also Noah and the Ark.

And you might find some interest in Is Japeth a corruption of Jupiter?

Truly there is nothing new under the sun.
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Old 09-23-2006, 03:47 PM   #4
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Biblical literalists cannot say anything on the subject because the Bible says nothing about it.
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Old 09-23-2006, 10:34 PM   #5
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According to the Church of the Iron Oak, the aboriginal peoples of Europe, East and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas are not descended from Adam. They are descended from Lucy, never lived in the Garden of Eden, aren't subject to original sin, and don't need Jesus. They should worship their ancestral gods, love the earth and deal justly with their fellow men. I am not an Iron Oaker but an agnostic, but that is what Iron Oak members have told me.

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Old 09-24-2006, 12:18 AM   #6
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Church of the Iron Oak appears to be a neopagan or Wiccan group (i.e., they're making it up as they go along.)

But who would not be included in "the aboriginal peoples of Europe, East and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas?"
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Old 09-24-2006, 12:24 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Toto View Post
But who would not be included in "the aboriginal peoples of Europe, East and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas?"
North Africa and the Middle East?
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Old 09-24-2006, 12:29 AM   #8
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The Biblical explanation with Ham, Japeth and Shem has problems. It doesn't account for the origin of the Chinese, Japanese, Aborigins and Meso-Americans, to name a few.

That only whites are descended from Adam is usually a Christian Identity (i.e white supremacism Christianity) belief. Mainstream Christianity holds that all humans are descended from Adam.
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Old 09-24-2006, 03:08 AM   #9
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So what do non white christians believe? How do they explain how they are non white, yet they descend from a (presumably white) adam?
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