Human evolution: early thumb tool grip advance (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, January 30, 2021, 00:17 (1182 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: The dexterity of our hands and the opposable force of our thumbs make our hands vastly more useable than apes or early forms like Lucy. I can't imagine an ancient hominin playing the piano or violin.

dhw: So what are you proposing here? That 2 million years ago, your God stepped in to design opposable thumbs, anticipating H. sapiens’ invention of the piano and violin? Or is it possible that these homos had conceived of artefacts that required additional dexterity, and the process of making and improving on these artefacts RESULTED in more efficient thumbs?

Think it through! Two million years ago who walked the earth? Early erectus and some older forms dying out:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/hominid-transition-occurred-southern-africa-2-milli...

Early small-brained erectus made stone tools so the new form of thumb from God was more useful, and anticipated the bigger brain hand uses later.

QUOTE: “such enhanced manual abilities in this small-brained species suggest a decoupling of the traditionally assumed correlation between brain size and tool-using skills in the fossil record”, the authors write." (David’s bold)

DAVID: The bold is a very interesting take on how advances in human development are related if at all. My view, with God as the designer, decoupling makes sense, as it is up to Him to decide wherever when to create advances in hominin and homo forms.

dhw: It also makes sense that the smaller brain can come up with new ideas, and the implementation of those new ideas may result in anatomical changes – not necessarily in the brain. It ties in with the whole principle of the cell communities responding to new requirements (in this case implementing the idea for a new artefact). I really don’t know why you think your God had to preprogramme all this 3.8 billion years ago, or to keep stepping in and operating on countless thumbs and pre-whale legs and human brains and pelvises when all he had to do was give cells the intelligence to restructure themselves, as we know they do during processes of adaptation.

You know exactly why I think as I do. God designs advances. God could not pack into cells His knowledge of design. It is always easier to just design it yourself as I have done in architectural designs in the past. You seem to love your second-hand God character, a weak confused fellow.