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Evidence of the Missing Link Found?
HUADPE writes to tell us CNN is reporting that scientists in northeastern Ethiopia recently discovered a skull that they think may be evidence of the "missing link" between Homo erectus and modern man. From the article: "The hominid cranium -- found in two pieces and believed to be between 500,000 and 250,000 years old -- 'comes from a very significant period and is very close to the appearance of the anatomically modern human,' said Sileshi Semaw, director of the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project in Ethiopia."
One nineteenth century minister, considering the then brand new evolution debate, had an idea.
When Adam was created, why didn't he immediately collapse from low blood sugar? Because he had the products of digestion already in his veins -- he probably even had the remains of a meal in his belly. This was a meal which he never actually ate , as moments earlier he'd been an inanimate lump. A human adult is the product of a long developmental process; his bones and sinews are knit through a lifetime of activity, which in Adam's case never happened. Adam was conceived as if he were the product of an ongoing process, even if that process never happened. And thus Adam would have had a belly button of course.
If not Adam, why not the world, and all the creatures in it? Clearly the world God conceived, in order to operate, would have to be the product of a similar process of development, and it would show all of the manifestations of that process, even if that process never actually happened. Indeed, evidence for evolution would be the very hallmark of the Creator Himself.
This seemed to the poor fellow a splendid idea. He felt certain the the religious side of the debate would lay down its arms and embrace evolution. Naturally, he was completely wrong. The religious side of the debate was the forerunner of the modern Fundamentalist movement, and much preferred a science whose purpose was to prove religious dogma. Under this naive man's idea, the free inquiry into evolution becomes practically sacred, something that no human authority has any right to tinker with.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Well, no. The problem is that evolution as a theory has many different forms accepted by today's biologists and scientists. Evolution has been molded from its original versions back in the 17th and 18th centuries into what we see today. When certain aspects have either been proven wrong or shown quite improbable, most of the accepted theories of evolution change to account for it. It almost reminds me of the formation of denominations in Christianity.
I'm going to assume that you believe in God, from your post. If not, please by all means disregard what I'm about to say. Trying to score a point for God will never happen at the creation vs. evolution table. Like you said, it's impossible to prove or disprove the existence of God, unless God proves himself. If the theory of evolution is ever completely debunked by man, those who "convert" from evolutionism will likely find some other theory to put force behind that still doesn't affirm God's existence.
And yes, I'm a Christian and I'm not here to get into the creation/evolution debate. I used to be a firm believer in evolution, so I know many of its weaknesses and not once have I been successful in sharing the news of Christ by attempting to disprove evolution. I can vouch that the general concept of macroevolution is fundamentally flawed at most every level. But that's like declaring a problem without offering a fix... it comes down gracelessly and makes it less likely for a person I'm conversing with to actually come to me for answers.
Sharing Christ effectively means putting behind such useless debate. God proves himself without our help, so all we can do is share his word in a loving manner and tell those we care about what He has done in our lives. And if that's hard, we can point them to useful Bible reading. Take for instance the book of Romans, where Paul debunks some of the myths about God which are sadly still believed by very many Christians today and have become the unloving face of Christianity that repels non-believers.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
"Missing link"? That's not scientific terminology, and it hasn't been scientific terminology for many, many decades now. The only ones talking about "missing links" these days are creationists who are under the impression that Darwin's Origin of Species is the latest and the greatest on the science front.
My other body is also not wearing any.
There's genetic replication, and there's memetic replication. Since time immemorial, the cultural and political elite have had smaller families (the Catholic Church is the most extreme example of this--a celibate priestly caste exerting near total cultural hegemony for over a thousand years.) Aristocrats, scientists, artists, and clerics have all tended to have fewer children, and recruited from amongst those who do bear children to replenish their numbers. Slippage does occur, but the pressure of loss of prestige and influence will drive even the most reactionary forces to moderate their positions; tolerance and a willingness to consider new ideas confer too much of a competitive advantage to be ignored. The cultural imperialism of the West in the third world doesn't exist because we are forcing our ideas upon them, but because they desparately want what it produces.
The current conservative reactionary bulge will dissipate as their children engage in the complexity of public life and discourse, in the same way that conservative judges tend to drift to the left in the daily practise of considering complex issues. Like it or not, the real action is in science, technology, art, and intellectual expression. And while the bulk of conservatives may be content to merely consume the products culture produces, the most ambitious amongst them will want to participate. The admission price for participation is a serious consideration of other ideas--culture does not reproduce asexually. The alternative is decline, irrelevance, and even domination by those willing to make the effort. It has ever been thus, and I see nothing that would prevent this from continuing.
The only question is whether the new cultural elite will emerge from the ranks of the reactionaries through recruitment and subversion, or whether America will come to dance to someone else's tune. But simple biological reproduction is pointless if cultural fitness (including the capacity to practice scientfic research) is compromised. If six of your seven children die because they cannot feed themselves, you're still going to die out.