The question of reconciling the biblical narrative of human origins with modern genetic data on the dangers of inbreeding (consanguinity) is one of the most challenging points of contact between science and religion. On one hand, the Book of Genesis describes the origin of all people from one couple — Adam and Eve, and later, after the Great Flood, from the family of Noah. On the other hand, modern genetics unambiguously demonstrates that consanguineous marriages significantly increase the risk of expressing harmful recessive mutations leading to hereditary diseases. Resolving this apparent contradiction lies in the interpretation of both sacred texts and scientific facts. Genetic mechanisms of risk in inbreeding From a scientific perspective, the danger of inbreeding is due to the distribution of recessive alleles — variants of genes that do not manifest in the presence of a dominant, healthy allele — within the population. Each person carries several such hidden, potentially harmful mutations. In a diverse population, the likelihood of two carriers meeting with the same recessive mutation is low. However, among close relatives with common ancestors, the genetic set is very similar. As a result, their offspring have a high probability of inheriting two copies of a harmful recessive allele (one from each parent), leading to the manifestation of hereditary diseases such as cystic fibrosis, phenylketonuria, or various forms of immunodeficiency. Biblical paradigm and its theological interpretations The biblical narrative, if taken literally, implies the inevitability of consanguineous marriages in the dawn of human history. The children of Adam and Eve (Cain, Abel, and Seth) could continue the lineage only by entering into relationships either with each other or, as some apocryphal interpretations suggest, with other "human daughters" not mentioned directly in the canonical text. A similar situation arises after the Flood, when all modern humanity originates from three ... Read more