Human evolution; new anthropological info (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, April 02, 2020, 20:51 (1694 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: It seems lots of different ancestors of different brain development were all living at the same times in Africa:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/palaeontology/more-clues-to-the-story-of-our-past?utm_source...

DAVID: the burst of human development in so many directions and types is sort of like the Cambrian Explosion. We can debate why this burst but it does not seem to be climate changes or oxygen levels, some of the obvious discussion points around the Cambrian. I say God's decision, but He won't tell us His reasoning. Now let us guess....nothing humanoid, please.

dhw: Daft! You tell us that “We can only know his logic is like ours” and he probably has thought patterns etc. like ours, and then you ask for explanations that will not involve logic and thought patterns like ours! I will keep my theist’s hat on for the sake of argument, in which case of course it’s God’s decision. Why all the different forms of homo? Either he was experimenting, or he had set in motion a mechanism that enabled all organisms to work out their own ways of survival. And so once the human line had begun, it branched out as different sets of humanoids and homos found their own means of coping with the environment. How big their brains grew may have depended on the sort of activities they performed, since we know from the modern brain that it changes according to what tasks it is made to perform – though you would rather ignore this aspect of modern science since it conflicts with your theory that God has to preprogramme or dabble every variation. If you can’t find a logical explanation of your own but reject the logic of these two explanations because they don’t fit in with your image of God or your interpretation of his purpose, then please acknowledge the possibility that either your image of God or your interpretation of his purpose might be wrong.

Your possible human reasons As applied to God were exactly what I expected. As I've said, the more science we know about evolution and biochemistry, the more we may be able to see the probable logic behind what God has created. Try this possibility about my in-charge God: He set the evolution of Hominins and Homos in high drive just as in the Cambrian Explosion. It is of the same exact pattern, but a shortened time period. The experiences of many different homo types in many different environments with their sexual intermingling gave the final sapiens all the various immune and environmental tolerance abilities they would need to go forward in living successfully. I admit this does not have Him address every tiny issue, but as I look at the Cambrian with a burst of 50+ phyla settling down to the current much smaller number (35), the evolutionary patterns as used by God are the same, and therefore support the theory.

There are several more reports on this human explosion; sites if you want to read more but it repetitious:

https://nature.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c6057c528fdc6f73fa196d9d&id=c7ba...

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2239329-we-may-now-know-what-our-common-ancestor-w...