Dr. John Sanford of Cornell University spoke to a filled-to-capacity lecture room on the evening of March 13 in BJU’s Howell Memorial Science Building. Sanford —author, inventor, researcher and associate professor at Cornell — delivered a seminar titled “Adam & Eve — Were they real? What does genetics reveal?” on the scientific, historical and biblical proof for the existence of Adam & Eve.
Although once an avowed atheist, Sanford is now an outspoken creationist and born-again Christian. He has written dozen of scientific articles and several books on genetics, and holds over 32 patents. For this seminar, Sanford analyzed proof for the historicity of Adam & Eve’s existence.
Initially, Sanford argued that the Bible itself affirms that the human race has its source from one man and one woman. The New Tfestament, Sanford said, is filled with references to the origin account in Genesis 1, and in Mark 10: “From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’” Jesus himself points to the creation account as a real, historical event.
“The beginning and end of the Bible are dependent on one another,” Sanford said. “The Bible is one message; you can’t have one without the other.”
Sanford also pointed to the fact that for much of history and into today, many religions, not just Christianity, have affirmed the Biblical account of creation. According to Sanford, if you add together all these various religions, then at least one-third of the world’s current population continues to believe in Biblical creationism.
For the duration of Sanford’s talk, he concentrated in his area of expertise: genetics. Sanford and his associate Dr. Robert Carter wrote a paper titled “In Light of Genesis… Adam, Eve, and the Creation/Fall,” a 35-page technical paper which scientifically discusses 12 pieces of genetic evidence that point to an origin story concurrent with Scripture. The full text of the article can be found at Logosra.org. During his talk, Sanford covered 7 of the article’s 12 points.
One of Sanford’s key points was how the DNA in the current human population points to the human race’s origin from one man and one woman. Sanford encouraged the audience to Google “Mitochondrial Eve” and “Y-chromosome Adam.” By doing so, Sanford said the audience would quickly find that even evolutionists agree that the genetic evidence points toward a single original human ancestor for both males and females. In addition, some simple math demonstrates that these two originators could have lived under 20,000 years ago, well within the biblical timeline.
In conclusion, Sanford encouraged the audience to learn and spread the knowledge of man’s origin to the surrounding world.
“Because God has given us evidence, He expects us to marshal that evidence and to use it like a sword,” Sanford said. “We’re to share it with the world in love.”
The Bob Jones University department of biology will host another special seminar April 1 at 7 p.m. in SC 137. Dr. Samuel Strerrett of the Bon Secours St. Francis Health System, an expert in robotic surgery, will be speak on the topic of general urology.