Many people have become agnostics because of the supposed conflict between the Bible and science. In truth, there is no conflict at all between a correct translation of the Bible and really proven science, not just unproved theories. One of these supposed conflicts is between the fact that science knows that human beings have lived on the earth far longer than the few thousand years covered by the Bible, and the common belief that the Bible says that Adam was the first man. But the truth is that the Bible nowhere says that Adam was the first man. Yes, I know that most of the preachers say that, but the Bible doesn’t. It merely says that Adam was the first WHITE man. Let’s look at the record.
The many mistranslations in the King James version obscure much of the truth. For example Genesis 1:1-2 “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” In the Hebrew, it says, “Now the earth HAD BECOME chaotic and empty.” (See Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible) That is, some early catastrophe had wrecked the earth, which was not “without form and void” before that. This was a judgment of God on earlier civilizations for their wickedness. Jeremiah 4:23-27 gives a vision of it: “I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form and void, and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, “The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.”