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:')

You're so special
Elaine Morgan,
Mountain Ash, Glamorgan, UK
18 June 2008
So you think you're unique (24 May, p 28)? Of course we are - every species is unique - but nowadays we are continually being reminded that we are nevertheless "not so special". It's a coded phrase designed to convey the idea that nearly all the traits distinguishing Homo sapiens from our nearest relatives have finally been satisfactorily accounted for or shown to be illusory and that, as your article put it: "The last stronghold of human uniqueness has fallen."

The motivation behind all this may be a laudable attempt to counter creationist claims of a special creation.

But that battle can never be won by shutting our eyes to uncomfortable truths. The fact is that with respect to the most salient physiological features distinguishing humans from chimpanzees - habitual bipedalism, "naked" skin, a subcutaneous fat layer and so on - leading Darwinian scientists are, if anything, further away from any agreed explanation than they were a century ago. That is despite the fact that physiological differences are far more hard-edged and quantifiable than behavioural ones - and should be regarded as more reliable evidence. Something is clearly missing in their narrative.

The imminent bicentenary of Darwin's birth would be an excellent opportunity to confront this spectacular failure. Instead, there is a tendency to sweep it under the carpet by refusing to talk about it. If Darwinian scientists are genuinely unaware of how many questions still remain unanswered, they are deceiving themselves. If they are aware of it, they are being disingenuous in glossing over these basic problems by distracting attention from them.

In either case it is a deplorable situation, and it is time somebody said so.

Here's a file from March 28, 2000, that apparently I hadn't touched since. The link is "live.altavista.com" so it's probably a dead link. Hmm, lemme check... nope, not there, nothin' in the Wayback Machine either.

A new fossil analysis is rattling the family tree with evidence that humans evolved directly from an ancestor that walked around on its knuckles like gorillas and chimpanzees. -- "Study Looks At Human Ancestor Traits by Matthew Fordahl, AP Science Writer, 03/22/00"