Question: 

I recently read an article on your website by William Golightly entitled Genesis and the beginning of Humanity.  The author made a few points that were very new to me. The main point was that evolution took place in Humanity before Adam and Eve, and that when they evolve to a certain level, God began to infuse mankind with his spirit and thus began his relationship with us.
And during this time of humans recieving souls, there were many humans on earth which explains why Cain was able to find a wife and the reason he was afraid of being harmed by other people.  Another point that was made was that before the flood, all humans did not have direct lineage to Adam and Eve, but after the flood, every human afterwards did/does have direct lineage to atleast one of the eight who were on the Ark.  What are your thoughts on this?

Answer:

William is a friend of mine.  I believe in presenting a variety of views at my web site.  I am not sure that I agree with William on this subject.  Let me be completely honest.  I simply do not know exactly what happened.  I was not there.  Sincere, believing, well-trained scholars differ on this question.  The evidence for common descent–even for common descent of human beings is very strong from genetic information.  Nevertheless, I tend to believe that Adam and Eve were a special creation.  I believe this for a simple reason.  It is clearly the most obvious interpretation of Genesis 2.  Like John the Baptist said, God can create children of Abraham from stones (Matthew 3:9).  God miraculously created genetic material in the womb of the Virgin Mary to create a human being.  I assume the genetic material of Jesus, if analyzed would have looked "evolved."  I believe that when Jesus made wine from water and made fish out of thin air, there was every evidence that these were "natural" and had "evolved."  He certainly could have made Adam and Eve from "the dust of the ground."  William believes that there is essentially no historical truth to the Adam and Eve story.  I disagree, but I will admit that I cannot absolutely rule out his metaphorical interpretation of Genesis 2 and 3.  Nevertheless, I believe that Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel were real people who really did what Genesis says they did.  I do not agree, at least not completely, with William, although I respect that he is quite sincere and has very good reasons for reaching the conclusions he has.  I am entirely open to the possibility that I am wrong, but, like I said, I believe Adam and Eve were a special creation.

About other non-souled, evolved intelligent hominids living at the time of Adam and Eve, I believe this is possible.  If so, like William speculates, this line would have ended in the flood.  We simply cannot know with absolute certainty what happened.  We will have to settle for asking what is the most reasonable explanation of the biblical stories.  What is not in doubt is that the Bible is inspired by God.  The massive evidence for this cannot be ignored.