Teleology & evolution: Vocal cord development (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, December 11, 2016, 13:16 (2904 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Current research on monkeys, using special x-ray video techniques, finds that monkeys have the facility to speak with their current anatomy if they only had a brain to employ the ability. They don't:

http://medienportal.univie.ac.at/presse/aktuelle-pressemeldungen/detailansicht/artikel/...

Unfortunately, I couldn’t gain access to the whole article, but I must once more thank you for your integrity in presenting evidence that runs contrary to your own theories. Throughout this particular discussion, you have emphasized the enormous physical changes needed for human speech. You argued that God must have preprogrammed or dabbled such changes, and I argued that the need for new sounds would have triggered the cell communities to make the changes. If this latest research is correct, we were both wrong. It would seem that the need for new sounds (engendered by our enhanced consciousness giving us access to so many more aspects of the world around us) simply triggered far more expansive use of existing vocal mechanisms. An important contribution to the case for common descent, though of course it does not solve the mystery of our enhanced consciousness.