[Signalman]

“Modern humans: about 250,000 years.
Pre-humans: the previous 2-4 million years.

[Squawk 8888]

Homo sapiens: About 200,000 years.

Man as self-aware, organized, God-fearing? About 10,000 years.

The Almighty did it all in six days, but the first five lasted a few billion years.

[lafroste]

I agree with Squawk 8888. Humans took a while to develop. The “Beings” part was recent. Think of it as driving a car. Before you can drive a car the car must first be built. You, as the driver, can’t get in and drive where your will decides until the car is finished. Homo Sapiens are the car. The spirit to make them Beings is the driver. The spirit is created by God and given a “car” to drive. That’s why we are called human beings.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Evolutionists believe man developed from apes but I believe the reverse is happening (if not physically then characteristically).

God created the universe and man so he can filter worthy souls to fill his Kingdom of Heaven.

However, because of original sin, man is on a speedy decline to become like savage animals. When the return rate for God’s plan becomes slim, Jesus will come back and the whole universe will meet a justified end.

Satan knows this and is in a race to corrupt and steal as many souls before Jesus returns.

I don’t know the dates but it’s obvious from the news we are nearing the end. I just pray the end won’t happen for at least another 3 or 4 generations, not because I am fearful, but because I’d like to enjoy the company in the eternal Kingdom of Heaven of my own propagation.

[Natufian]

Homo Sapiens Sapiens - about 200,000 years. There doesn’t have to be a ‘why’.

[BroJoeK]

DennisR: "just wondering how long the evolutionists on FreeRepublic believe man has existed on the earth and why."

All depends on your definition of "man".

If by "man" you mean:

• First man-like ape, then science suggests circa 4 million years.
• For biologically complete "modern man", science says around 200,000 years.
  
• If you mean "spiritual man", many claim those Cro-Magnon cave paintings of 17,000 years ago represented primitive religion.*
  
• If you mean "civilized man", then first agriculture, cities and writing circa 10,000 years ago.

• If you mean "fallen mankind", then the Bible suggests around 6,000 years.
  
• If you mean "redeamed men", that could be 2,000 years.

But if you mean perfected & resurrected humans**, well... we're still waiting...

;-)

*

**

[James C. Bennett]

If you took a man, and magically created a woman out of this man’s rib, then got the two to mate and produce children, then took these children and made them have sex with their own siblings through incest, and the children’s children were made to do the same, quickly, rapidly, enough genetic abnormalities will accumulate to not allow this arrangement to last more than a few generations. Definitely not enough to create 7 billion humans alive today, or the billions who died before them. If the starting pair had been somehow genetically “pure” enough to allow this, then why aren’t we seeing a generational decay in humans today? People are, in fact more or less more healthy today than a thousand years ago.

[Droso_Phila]

Hi there; I hope it’s ok that I created an account to reply to you; I’ve only been looking around the site for a week or two now.

Just for a bit of background, I’m a graduate student studying genetics - that is, I have a bachelors, and I’m working on getting a PhD. While I don’t want to bore you with the details, the short version is I work in a lab doing research on a specific aspect of yeast.

Anyway, to answer your question: I accept the scientific consensus when it comes to the age of humans. The short version is that means that I would say that humans have been around in our present form for a few hundred thousand years - I think 200,000 is the upper bound right now, though it may be as recent as 150,000 years ago - and by that I mean a body-shape that is effectively the same as our own. We have rather good evidence that humans have had the ability to think like us for around 50,000 years - that’s about when you start seeing things like pollen in graves (indicating burial with flowers), complex tool use (more than levers or wedges), and signs of abstract thought and composition. It’s not quite clear when spoken language first developed, but I personally would say that occurred around then as well.

From there, agriculture was developed about 10,000 years ago (~40,000 years later), writing at just under 6,000 years ago (based on the oldest writ we’ve discovered), and that’s where history takes over - history is technically the period which has had recording; everything before writing is literally prehistoric.

As to why I believe all of this, most of it comes from anthropology and paleontology, with a little geology and physics mixed in - basically, it’s based on the artifacts and fossils of early humans that we’ve found, the radiometric dating, soil conditions, sedimentary local, and so forth. It’s a bit of a list, but I’m pretty sure I can look up the references if you need them.

I understand that this...ah...probably differs from your view. If you have questions, I’d be more than happy to explain myself further, as I know this short post is a brief overview. Now, I don’t want to be attacking anyone’s personal beliefs if they’re not comfortable with that, so I’ll try to stick to scientific stuff and avoid bringing theology into it - that’s part of what I think makes me a good conservative; your business is your own, and I don’t want to butt into it without invitation.

[Yaelle]

The number of years is not the point. Gd has set up a genius system with genetics and epigenetics and things we have not even discovered yet. Judeo Christian philosophies are not mutually exclusive with biology. They can’t be because Gd created biology.

Words help us understand but words are limited. In different languages there are different meanings for things that supposedly translate perfectly. I speak 4 languages and I know that it isn’t so. Words come close but are not meanings themselves. They are tools. Our bibles are filled with truths but we may not be understanding them perfectly. We do the best we can.

There are wonderful things about this world and there are terrible. This week is an example of both. There are wonders and mysteries about us and our development both ontological and phylogenical. I think I just made up a word.

We aren’t meant to understand everything while we are here. But we have the curiosity to try.

[BrandtMichaels]

I take a strictly Biblical approach of approx 6,000 years. Afterall where has it been proven that God has lied to us through the revelation oh His Word?

Center for Scientific Creation - In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood
http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/IntheBeginningTOC.html