Peoples of the Americas

Genesis 11:7-8

“Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.”

How Native American people came to be in the American continents is one of the most fascinating mysteries of anthropology. Scientists from both secular and Christian backgrounds tend to agree that, for the most part, Native Americans must have migrated to the continents from Asia. This would almost certainly involve crossing from present-day Siberia to present-day Alaska during the Ice Age, which creationists say happened shortly after the Flood.

The existence of large ice sheets in North America would have seemed to create a barrier to migration. In a previous Creation Moment, we discussed the Clovis sites, which are consistent with people having migrated into the interior of what is now Canada, in an ice-free area between two large ice sheets. Now, more recent research has suggested that the migration could have been along the coast. Certain islands off the coast of Alaska contain evidence of this possible migration route.

In the near future, it is unlikely that we will be able definitely to say which of the coastal or inland migration routes is correct. But why would such people groups have migrated so far in any case? Why would they not just stop on the Asian side of Beringia?

The answer is likely to be that they spoke different languages, so they could not understand each other. At the Tower of Babel incident, in Genesis 11, God had spread confusion into human language, and this is what forced the migration of all peoples of the world.   Author: Paul F. Taylor

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You have revealed that all peoples of the world are descended from the one man, Adam. Therefore, anyone can be saved by calling on the Name of the One Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Ref: University at Buffalo. “In ancient boulders, new clues about the story of human migration to the Americas: Geologic evidence supports a coastal theory of early settlement.” ScienceDaily.ScienceDaily, 30 May 2018.<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180530144144.htm>. Image: Cacophony edit by Noodle snacks, CC BY-SA 3.0.