Top Vatican scientist weighs in as geneticists hunt for Adam and Eve

Genetic researchers are in a race to discover the man they identify as "Adam." Following ancestral lineages derived from the Y chromosome, geneticists hope to discover nothing less than the genes of the very first man to walk the earth. Vatican officials recently weighed in on the search.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - At least two scientific studies are making the rounds in the scientific community as both seek to find the ultimate ancestor of all modern humans, dubbed "Adam."

The first study conducted by the University of Arizona dates humans back about 338,000 years ago. The study was published in March 2013, but some scientists are already working on their rebuttal. The problem is that anatomically modern humans simply did not exist that long ago, so scientists are in disagreement over the findings.

On this we agree, we are all brothers and sisters. Pray for unity.

Another study from the University of Sheffield seems to affirm that modern humans emerged from Africa about 200,000 years ago. This means that Adam would have been African in origin, and would have emerged along with his descendants from Africa into the Middle East, and from there populated the world.

This genetic quest to find Adam has recently captured the attention of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the world's oldest scientific mission.

Winter Arber, a Nobel prize-winning scientist at the Vatican, told FOXNews that "Scientific investigations have no means to identify adamant you and to sequence the genomes. Therefore, identification of Adam and Eve it remains a matter of religious belief."

What Arber is explaining is that it is impossible to identify any actual individuals who could have been Adam or Eve. While it might be possible to get fairly close in terms of time, as well as geographic origin, it simply isn't possible to identify the specific set of genes belonging to the first human family as individuals.

Geneticists of course, know this is true. Instead they explained that rather than searching for actual physical evidence of the actual persons of Adam and Eve, they are seeking the first anatomically modern Homo sapiens they can find. They believe that at some point there was a first man and a first moment, and they refer to these individuals as "Adam" and "Eve." It helps to convey understanding of their work.

As everyone in the world must agree, there was a first man and a first moment. What is still subject to debate is when they lived, and if they were created by God, or by a process of natural human evolution, guided by God. Amongst Christians, this is a topic of intense debate. Most geneticists will favor the latter interpretation, or even a godless version of it. Nonetheless, everyone must agree that we all had to come from someone, and those for someone's are in fact, Adam and Eve.

What is also certain, is that we are highly unlikely to ever find their remains, or the specific genetic evidence that identifies them as such.

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