When Did Adam First Walk The Earth?

[danieldemol]

How long ago do L.D.S members believe Adam first walked the Earth?

[Hamba Tuhan]

Let me consult all 15,000,000, derive a consensus, and get back to you.

[Calm]

When taught, LDS usually follow tradition, but many believe in other timelines and even some believe that Adam is figurative.

 

This provides a general timeline...again usually based on Christian tradition, as opposed to revelation though there is some revelation that suggests this is generally in the ballpark:

 

http://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/images/gospel-library/manual/32489/32489_000_004_06_dispensation.pdf

 

Make sure to read the footnote.

 

I, for one, believe that Adam and Eve were real, but most likely the first individuals to exist in a covenantal relationship with God rather than the first humans on earth.  I am open to as to timing, don't feel that is particularly precise and much more likely to be symbolic in nature.  Calculations based on genealogy don't take into account the possibility that one was a descendant rather than a son and thus could involve multiple generations between individuals in the genealogical line rather than just one generation.

Edited October 9, 2013 by calmoriah

[brightpath]

6013 years ago Adam and Eve walked thus earth!

[Rivers]

6013 years ago Adam and Eve walked thus earth!

If that is the case, the second coming should take place this year.

[strappinglad]

If that is the case, the second coming should take place this year.

Duck and cover !!!

[Hamba Tuhan]

If that is the case, the second coming should take place this year.

 

We should be so lucky!

[mfbukowski]

How long ago do L.D.S members believe Adam first walked the Earth?

In case you hadn't figured it out already, there are many opinions on the subject.  There have been many statements by leaders in the past especially adhering to a pretty fundamentalist view, that Adam lived about 6000 years ago, but the church does not take a position on it.  But I am sure that someone here will debate that point.

 

There is much we decide for ourselves in our faith- we focus more on practices than on doctrine, within limits of course.  I know that's a vague answer, but there IS no firm answer to your question.

[danieldemol]

Let me consult all 15,000,000, derive a consensus, and get back to you.

Or LDS members could answer the question with respect to their personal opinions, and I could get some idea of what the consensus is amongst the LDS posters here, which will suit my purpose quite well

[danieldemol]

6013 years ago Adam and Eve walked thus earth!

Do you personally believe they were the first humans or not?

[danieldemol]

When taught, LDS usually follow tradition, but many believe in other timelines and even some believe that Adam is figurative.

This provides a general timeline...again usually based on Christian tradition, as opposed to revelation though there is some revelation that suggests this is generally in the ballpark:

http://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/images/gospel-library/manual/32489/32489_000_004_06_dispensation.pdf

Make sure to read the footnote.

I, for one, believe that Adam and Eve were real, but most likely the first individuals to exist in a covenantal relationship with God rather than the first humans on earth. I am open to as to timing, don't feel that is particularly precise and much more likely to be symbolic in nature. Calculations based on genealogy don't take into account the possibility that one was a descendant rather than a son and thus could involve multiple generations between individuals in the genealogical line rather than just one generation.

Thanks for this answer

[danieldemol]

Calmoriah,

Do you know how it was decided where dispensations should begin and end?

[Hamba Tuhan]

Or LDS members could answer the question with respect to their personal opinions, and I could get some idea of what the consensus is amongst the LDS posters here, which will suit my purpose quite well

 

OK. My personal answer: I have no idea, and knowing that time is relative anyway, I'm not even sure how to have an idea.

[danieldemol]

OK. My personal answer: I have no idea, and knowing that time is relative anyway, I'm not even sure how to have an idea.

Lol, relativity is unlikely to have made a significant difference to time between Adam walking the Earth and now, given that the earth's velocity is well below the speed of light, and it is presumably moving at about the same velocity it was back then, but 10 points for amost making a straight forward question in-decipherable by invoking a subject i have a hunch that you are not overly familiar with.

Do you give a similar answer when people ask how long ago you were born?

[danieldemol]

*almost*

[Hamba Tuhan]

Do you give a similar answer when people ask how long ago you were born?

 

Yes.

[Kenngo1969]

Or LDS members could answer the question with respect to their personal opinions, and I could get some idea of what the consensus is amongst the LDS posters here, which will suit my purpose quite well

Pray, do tell, what is that purpose?  (Thanks in advance! )

[BCSpace]

How long ago do L.D.S members believe Adam first walked the Earth?

 

I'll go with the earliest Neolithic Revolution, perhaps around 8,000 B.C., the time of the first appearance of civilizations.  Adam is the first man (literal spirit child of God) on earth but not the first homo sapiens who came about by evolution just as science says they did.  I have reconciled evolution with LDS doctrine. 

 

I choose civilization as a marker for the Fall because it seems to be a good indicator of the difference between homo sapiens with spirit children of God within and those previously without (they must have had a different type of spirit).  It seems to answer the question as to why big-brained homo sapiens could walk the earth for a quarter of a million plus years with little development and then suddenly and rapidly advance.  In addition to or in conjunction with a different spirit scenario, I could also go with an uplift; perhaps a gift of intelligence from God or the result of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge....

 

I believe Adam and Eve have to be historical figures though how much of the details of that story is figurative, I don't know.  I could go with any number of scenarios.  According to official LDS doctrine, the rib story is figurative.

 

Accordingly, I also accept the notion of a local (and necessarily historical) Flood even though that is in conflict with LDS doctrine but not necessarily in conflict with possible Hebrew-Genesis interpretation of the extent.  I don't believe the rest of my hypothesis is in any sort of conflict with LDS doctrine, including the notion of no death before the Fall.  I postulate no death before the Fall, but death and evolution before the Garden state (and after the Fall). 

 

2 Nephi 2:22 shows us a creative state before the finished creation and the property of "no death" does not seem to be applied to that creative state.  It is only applied to the created state (finished garden state).  In addition, the 1931 Heber J Grant FP statement to the General Authorities allows for the possibility of pre Adamite races of man.

 

Another question that remains to be answered imho, is the extent of the Garden state of no death.  There seems to be doctrine/reasoning that points to either the whole earth or a smaller locality.  And thus I have fun hypothesizing on what happened to the other homo sapiens before and possibly during and after Adam's time in the garden depending on the extent of the state of no death.

Edited October 9, 2013 by BCSpace

[CV75]

How long ago do L.D.S members believe Adam first walked the Earth?

For me, I started believing it sometime after I joined the Church, whichwas about 38 years ago.

[Flyonthewall]

I don't know about all the others, but this LDS believes Adam & Eve were cast out of the Garden approx. 6000 years ago.

As to how long they were in the Garden is anyone's guess.

[WmLaw]

For me, I started believing it sometime after I joined the Church, whichwas about 38 years ago.

For me, I believed it until about a year ago... when I actually decided to think about O.T. events and accounts critically.

[Rob Osborn]

Adam was the first man on the earth of all man. There were no preadamites. Adam was also created first before the animals. Adam' creation and expulsion is no older than 6-7 thousand years ago. That is what I glean from the scriptures.

[pmccombs1]

It seems to answer the question as to why big-brained homo sapiens could walk the earth for a quarter of a million plus years with little development and then suddenly and rapidly advance.  In addition to or in conjunction with a different spirit scenario, I could also go with an uplift; perhaps a gift of intelligence from God or the result of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge....

 

 

Or perhaps the well-established, observable phenomenon that sometimes goes by the names, "emergence," "emergent complexity," or "spontaneous complexity," is a better answer to the question. People have been experimenting with complexity theory and emergent systems for a long time now, and many researchers have modeled and witnessed the sort of thing that you say needs a god in order to explain it, and thus to reconcile it with science.

 

It really seems to me that our stories are meant to convey some other sort of truth than the one we label as "scientific" or empirical.

[CV75]

For me, I believed it until about a year ago... when I actually decided to think about O.T. events and accounts critically.

It seems you need to be more crtitical of your critical thinking! How do you know that when you "actually decided" you weren't just "theoretically deciding?"

[Freedom]

I am of the opinion that Adam and Eve were real people, but the passage in Genesis is a metaphor used in the temple ceremony. Genesis was not used in the temple ceremony, it is the temple ceremony. Thus, it does not suggest when they lived. We simply do not have enough information which suggests to me that it is quire irrelevant. The lesson we are to learn from Adam and Eve is the importance of making and keeping sacred covenants. I think BC Space provides a very plausible historical context for Adam and Eve.