Godless Dave

And the shape of the jawbones, correct? I thought many pre-human hominids had a larger skull ridge than we do because their jaw muscles were anchored to it. Forgive my ignorance, I'm remembering this from 6th grade.

Monkeybot

No no no no no. Forensic anthropologists do this for a living. They don't just eyeball a skull and stick it in some random category. They analyze things as minute as tooth ratios (incisors:canines: premolars:molars), they compare the number of bumps on the teeth (the human has four), they compare the place where the jaw and the skull connect, they compare brow ridges, prognathism, and brain capacity (down to the level of knowing how many cc's of brain a species possesses on average). They can also compare tooth decay and make reasonable guesses about the diet and age of these creatures. The chances of looking at all these features in combination and mistaking a pygmy in Africa for Homo erectus are infinitessimal. Unless you have some seriously damaged fossils or a deliberate hoax, maybe. (And for many of these ancestors we have multiple specimens found.)

This is especially true considering how many thousands of human skulls we have access to, and are thus able to come up with basic minimal requirements for a skull to be placed in the category of anatomically modern homo sapiens.

Godless Dave

Thanks, Monkeybot! I forgot about number and type of teeth.

Biff the unclean

I've been working with gorillas for awhile now. Many (most) people who work with great apes have stopped referring to them as animals and taken up the term "being." The difference between the other apes and us isn't very substantial, it's mostly cosmetic. If by soul you are talking about a self awareness, intelligence, humor, then all apes have souls.

Monkeybot

No problem. I have an anthropology exam in a week, so I highly welcome corrections.

Debbie T

I find it funny when a theist thinks that we evolved from small particles or microbes or amoebas is something gross, when in their bible it says god made man from dirt. :banghead:

Badfish

Uh huh, and?.....

What was the first cause debbie?

Where did the microbes come from?

Where did the monkeys come from?

I find it funny that you blindly accept that life created itself from an apparent "No cause"

Seriously.


Oh and what difference does it really make that god formed man of the earth? It says he formed man, not monkeys or microbes and waited for them to evolve before placing him in the garden.

Calzaer

So where did the first cause come from?

Something as complex as life HAD to be caused, but something complex enough to cause life could just exist?

All theism does is add another turtle to the bottom of the stack.

BTW, the Bible also says you're required to put your son to death if he's disobedient. Don't see many people believing that, either.

mike_decock

"No cause" is just one of the possible answers for the "Unknown Cause".

Ignorance isn't evidence.

-Mike...

Biff the unclean

Who said life had no cause?

We are just saying that there is no reason to think that the first cause was a magic word, or magic breath on a magic dust bunny, or even a magic spare rib.