Genesis and Early Man

the long version

This second volume of The Doorway Papers sets forth a biblical answer to the questions raised by the existence of fossil remains of early man and theories of man's animal origin. Whether Adam and Eve existed historically, as the Book of Genesis implies, is the focal point of the author's anthropological research. Dr. Arthur C. Custance holds to a literal interpretation of the Genesis record. With this belief he accepts the idea of the instant creation of man, followed by a real temptation involving a real tree in a real garden; he contends also that the evidence supports the traditional biblical chronology which places a recent date on the origin of the first human pair. What, then, the author asks, are we to do with the accumulated data which are almost universally interpreted in such a way as to challenge the biblical record of man's early history? What do we make of Neanderthal Man, different shapes for the human skull, and the origin of different cultures? In Genesis and Early Man, the author states, "I suggest we accept wholeheartedly whatever factual knowledge there is, but apply to it an alternative interpretation rather than the current evolutionary viewpoint. We cannot merely reject it, for that is to commit intellectual suicide; and the alternative interpretation proves, to my mind, to be thoroughly satisfying and reasonable." - Jacket flap.