An interesting thought experiment sent to me an email:
Could the great ages of Adam, Methusela and Noah be real if they were due to being more closely related to Adam and later when Adam’s offspring intermarried with the existing population the mix of genes or loss of Adam and Eves genes led to shorter lives?
This requires some suspension of disbelief. But what if Adam and Eve did have better genetics than us, that allowed them to age more slowly. Could this scenario be worked out so that the longevity of individuals of their lineage would steadily decrease as they interbred with others?
Isn’t this what genetic entropy is? I’ve seen some threads with the title, so I’m curious how the argument would be different here other than it’s caused by interbreeding rather than climate change, which is what I assume YEC advocates would argue. If there’s a post, paper, or reply that explains this concept better, let me know.
This is different, because Sanford is saying that patriarch longevity would degrade without interbreeding due to mutations. I think the idea of their longevity degrading due to interbreeding is likely more plausible, thought it depends on the details.
Wouldn’t there be fairly strong selection favoring longevity, given that the old folks appear to have remained fertile for hundreds of years? I think the scenario you propose demands blending inheritance rather than quantitative traits with particulate inheritance.