Adam's Ancestors : Johns Hopkins University Press : 9781421400655 : 15 Mar 2011 : Winner of the Selection for Professional Reading List of the U.S. Marine Corps Although the idea that all human beings are descended from Adam is a long-standing conviction in the West, another version of this narrative exists: human beings inhabited the Earth before, or alongside, Adam, and their descendants still occupy the planet. In this engaging and provocative work, David N. Livingstone traces the history of the idea of non-adamic humanity, and the debates surrounding it, from the Middle Ages to the present day. From a multidisciplinary perspective, Livingstone examines how this alternative idea has been used for cultural, religious, and political purposes. He reveals how what began as biblical criticism became a theological apologetic to reconcile religion with science-evolution in particular-and was later used to support arguments for white supremacy and segregation. From heresy to orthodoxy, f