According to the Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe, DNA studies “point to the conclusion that all of the present-day populations throughout the world were most probably derived from a single common ancestor, within the span of the past 200,000 years.”

“Is this the same as Adam and Eve, Lord?”

Don’t be too mythological.  That is, they were not in a Garden of Eden and so on.  But the Garden story captures with great precision the prototypical experience of human innocence, and of Divine innocence and awkwardness.  In that sense, the common ancestor is Eve, a creature of a higher development than ever before, with a new level of interaction, able to hear and respond to a higher level of whispering, and hence, over time, of much greater development.

The story of Adam and Eve portrays the first kind of experience I had with human beings.  I created them in My image.  As essentially creative force (Myself), I gave them creative force, the power of sexuality and the ability to create other human beings.  I gave them objects of beauty, in nature and in each other, and pleasure in eating, moving about, and enjoyment of each other.  I had been all alone and I enjoyed the company.

At first I imagined I could walk among humans and enjoy their company.  This required that they obey me, while not being in awe of me, and that they retain a certain innocence.  This was my first experience in discovering that humans cannot interact with God in the simple, direct way they interact with one another.  Like children not separated from their mother, at first they had little individuality or purpose.  They enjoyed the good things I had given them and did not understand the power of good and evil or the power and complexity of their own sexuality.