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Media Overblows Claims of "Human Evolution": Examining the Newest "Missing Link"
Evolution News & Views ^ | April 14, 2006 | Casey Luskin

Posted on 04/16/2006 11:29:43 AM PDT by JCEccles

Recently I highlighted how the coverage of Tiktaalik revealed the fascinating phenomenon that only after discovering a new "missing link" will evolutionists acknowledge the previously paltry state of fossil evidence for evolution. This behavior is again witnessed in coverage of the discovery of Australopithecus anamensis fossils in Ethiopia. The media has also exaggerated and overblown claims that this evidence supports "human evolution."

The latest "missing link" is actually comprised of a few tooth and bone fragments of Au. anamensis, an ape-like species that lived a little over 4 million years ago. Incredibly, claims of "intermediacy" are based upon 2-3 fragmented canines of "intermediate" size and shape. This has now led to grand claims in the media of finding a "missing link." Because some bone fragments from Ardipithecus ramidus and Australopithecus afarensus were also found in the area, MSNBC highlighted these finds on a front-page article calling this "the most complete chain of human evolution so far." Media coverage of this find thus follows an identical pattern to that of Tiktaalik: incredibly overblown claims of a "transitional fossil" follow stark admissions of how previously bleak the evidence was for evolution. Moreover, claims that this find enlightens "human evolution" are misleading, as these fossils come from ape-like species that long-predate the appearance of our genus Homo, and thought to be far removed from the origin of "humans."

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(Excerpt) Read more at evolutionnews.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: crevolist; darwinism; evolution; fossils; hominid; id; idjunkscience; link; missing
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To: Creationist
And I to am curious a billion lemmings following after evolution, that are possible wrong on the subject.

Is this supposed to be an argument?
141 posted on 04/18/2006 6:25:44 PM PDT by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: Thalos
God created Man on the 6th day. The creation process was complete. Yet also on that very same day God created a Garden and put Adam in it. With all the plants that were good to look at and eat. The then went about creating the kinds of animals for Adam to name. This does not mean every one only the kind. Dog kind, cat kind, ECT. Variations excluded. Genesis 2:4 is a summary of the creation not a forward of the next verses. The next verses are of Adam and Eve in the Garden on the 6th day. Not a different account of creation.

This is what those who believe in evolution will have you, I and everyone else to believe. This is so that can instill doubt in believers
142 posted on 04/18/2006 6:29:26 PM PDT by Creationist (If the earth is old show me your proof. Salvation from the judgment of your sins is free.)
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To: Creationist
If we do not know how far they [the stars - LC] are away then we do not know that it takes billions of years for the light to get here.

The *smack* sound you just heard was the palm of my hand striking my forehead.

The distance to supernova 1987A can be measured using trigonometry:

radius = 6.23 x 10^12 kilometers = 0.658 light-years
angle = 0.808 arcseconds  = 0.000224 degrees
distance = 0.658 light-years ÷ tan(0.000224)
distance = 0.658 light-years ÷ 0.00000392
distance = 168,000 light-years

We should take note here that SN1987A is in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, which is the second closest galaxy to the earth. There are millions of other galaxies in the universe. So 168,000 years simply represents a very small lower limit. In other words, the universe must be much, much older than 168,000 years, because astronomers can literally observe events like SN1987A in these other far more distant galaxies, events that correspondingly have taken place much farther in the distant past.

source

143 posted on 04/18/2006 6:29:30 PM PDT by Liberal Classic (No better friend, no worse enemy. Semper Fi.)
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To: Creationist

Neanderthal buried their dead. If the earth is billions of years old and Neanderthal was around 100000 years ago where are some of the billions of bones that should be around.


144 posted on 04/18/2006 6:31:34 PM PDT by Creationist (If the earth is old show me your proof. Salvation from the judgment of your sins is free.)
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To: Creationist

You are confusing the Bible with God. The terms are not interchangeable.


145 posted on 04/18/2006 6:31:50 PM PDT by stands2reason
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To: RobbyS

It matters to those who want to understand the evidence of the world around them. It matters to those who want to understand the way the world works. It matters to those who are religious and want to understand how God created the universe.


146 posted on 04/18/2006 6:31:51 PM PDT by Thalos
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To: Creationist
I find it interesting how many sites that claim to believe in God but do not believe the Bible 100%.

Why so? Your assumption that this is impossible is illogical.

147 posted on 04/18/2006 6:40:02 PM PDT by stands2reason
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To: Creationist

Fine. Let's ignore verse 2:4 for now. That leaves us with:

no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up ... the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground.

That is very precise: Man was created before the plants. The process was *not* complete, as depending on your interpretation either no plants existed at all or none of the food plants existed yet. It does not say there were no plants "on the earth where the Garden would eventually be", it specifically says "on the earth."


148 posted on 04/18/2006 6:42:37 PM PDT by Thalos
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To: Liberal Classic
Your picture is pretty yet it is way out of proportion, that angle is way to big. Makes it look close. The lines if drawn in perspective would be almost indistinguishable.
The circle could not be measured in one night. The numbers all work I do know trig. I was top in my class. You precieve a old universe because the visible phenoma appear to have happened billions or millions of years ago.

It appears that some can not grasp that God would have created things with precieved age for us to look at and wonder at his abilities
149 posted on 04/18/2006 6:45:44 PM PDT by Creationist (If the earth is old show me your proof. Salvation from the judgment of your sins is free.)
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To: stands2reason

As is with your assumption.


150 posted on 04/18/2006 6:47:19 PM PDT by Creationist (If the earth is old show me your proof. Salvation from the judgment of your sins is free.)
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To: Creationist
If the earth is billions of years old and Neanderthal was around 100000 years ago where are some of the billions of bones that should be around.

Here are a few. Want more?

Figure 1.4.4. Fossil hominid skulls. Some of the figures have been modified for ease of comparison (only left-right mirroring or removal of a jawbone). (Images © 2000 Smithsonian Institution.)


151 posted on 04/18/2006 6:51:42 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Interim tagline: The UN 1967 Outer Space Treaty is bad for America and bad for humanity - DUMP IT!)
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To: Creationist; Dimensio
Are you completely incapable of accepting that you might possibly be wrong on the subject?

If Creationist is wrong, then his whole religious view would crumble. So he cannot be wrong.

Creationist, fair warning -- the ID'ers will not be happy to see you posting here. They like to think people like you don't exist.

152 posted on 04/18/2006 6:52:09 PM PDT by stands2reason
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To: Creationist

What percentage of bones do you think are fossilized in non-arid regions? Where did the Neanderthals live?


153 posted on 04/18/2006 6:54:02 PM PDT by stands2reason
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To: Dimensio
Assumption is not evidence. Dead bones are not evidence they prove nothing except that something lived and died.

Over paid by my tax dollar Professors and field jocks prove nothing except that they can find dead bones and make assumptions. Geologist can interpret the land with presupposition and come up with a old planet.

Yet when those who believe in Jesus, and are experts in these very same fields give a interpretation of the visible evidence that compliments the Bible, evolutionist can barf out the degradation and vial comments because of their disbelief in God and the Bible as 100% true.
154 posted on 04/18/2006 6:55:56 PM PDT by Creationist (If the earth is old show me your proof. Salvation from the judgment of your sins is free.)
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To: Creationist

If it's not impossible to believe in God and not the Bible, why are you surprised when you come across said belief?


155 posted on 04/18/2006 6:56:06 PM PDT by stands2reason
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To: Right Wing Professor

http://www.ga.gov.au/pdf/Corp0083.pdf

So if Pb were incorporated into zircons, how could it be incorporated in such a way as to give a consistent radiogenic age for both isotopes, and without affecting the amount of the other two isotopes?<BR><BR>I do not know enough about the subject but this site seems to believe there could be a problem. Appears that leaching can have an effect.

HUM.

http://www.tcd.ie/Geology/MAIN-PAGE/VAMP/pdfs/Posters_pdf/Gould_etal_2004_VMSG_IGRM_Poster.pdf

And it appears to be formed from what, oh magma.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1616059/posts?page=106#106

156 posted on 04/18/2006 6:57:23 PM PDT by Creationist (If the earth is old show me your proof. Salvation from the judgment of your sins is free.)
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To: Creationist
Here are some more bones. Want more?




Fossil: Sts 5 Site: Sterkfontein Cave, South Africa (1)

Discovered By: R. Broom & J. Robinson 1947 (1)

Estimated Age of Fossil: 2.5 mya * determined by Stratigraphic, floral & faunal data (1, 4)

Species Name: Australopithecus africanus (1, 2)

Gender: Male (based on CAT scan of wisdom teeth roots) (1, 30) Female (original interpretation) (4)

Cranial Capacity: 485 cc (2, 4)

Information: No tools found in same layer (4)

Interpretation: Erect posture (based on forward facing foramen magnum) (8)

Nickname: Mrs. Ples (1)

See original source for notes:
http://www.mos.org/evolution/fossils/fossilview.php?fid=24

157 posted on 04/18/2006 7:02:32 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Interim tagline: The UN 1967 Outer Space Treaty is bad for America and bad for humanity - DUMP IT!)
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To: Creationist
Christians are not against science. Chemical reactions are real, biology is real, physics is real, ECT, all observable and testable.

Then why the protestations of Christians on this thread against science.?

Evolution is not real, not observable and testable. Adaptation and variation are not evolution.

Evolution is a fact, I observe it every day, and it is testable. Darwin did not use the term evolution. He the terms slight change and difference. Evolution is a new term to include both. The most accepted definition of evolution below;

In the life sciences, evolution is a change in the traits of living organisms over generations, whether by reproduction or nature and including the emergence of new species. Since the development of modern genetics in the 1940s, evolution has been defined more specifically as a change in the frequency of alleles in a population from one generation to the next .In other fields evolution is used more generally to refer to any process of change over time.

Adaptation and variation are changes and evolution whether you accept the definition or not.

Evolution can be observed as a fact in the human population. 6.7 billion people and no two are exactly the same but changed and different by reproduction. No clones have been observed.

It is testable. Get a picture of your ancestors and stand in front of a mirror. If you can observe any change or differences, no matter how small some evolution has occurred. If you can observe no change or difference then no evolution has occurred and you are clone. Differences are not possible without some method of evolution as evolution is defined. Suggest you take some science or read Darwin as to the definition of change difference and evolution.

You believe that I should and it is not in the Constitution pay for public schools and the lies of evolution.

It is not in the constitution that we should either have or not have public schools supported by taxes. However it is in the constitution that congress has the right to make, determine, and enforce laws and support them with taxes. Congress passed a law concerning public education and supported it with taxes. States also have the same right concerning schools.

One of the beliefs in the communist manifesto is public schools. Adolf Hitler raised up a generation of Nazi's through public schools.

Adolf Hitler was a Christian and most of Germany was Christian including Christian schools.

I am not for the government enforcing my belief or you evolutionist beliefs upon anyone.

Yes you are , you want evolution out of schools, and some want faith and belief of ID and creation taught as science. Evolution is a fact observed by science. Religion is a faith and belief and has presented no new facts or knowledge in thousands of years.

You proselytize your religious belief in a system of random mutations upon everyone who reads this, the Government is allowing you to do it. Yet you who fought for my right deny me the gift of freedom to speak, and fight for the right of my God to herd in a public forum and at public schools.

I neither accept or deny any religious faith and belief by argument of philosophy including atheism or any other argued philosophy. They remain unknown!!!! Nobody has denied you the right of freedom or speech. You had the freedom to send your post. You also had the right to accept or refuse knowledge and the choice that one makes affects their credibility. You also have the right to go to any school board and request your beliefs be taught in school and you can vote for your school board member. That doesn't mean you can make them believe as you do nor does it mean that you or them can violate the law. As to a public forum this is a public forum and all you have talked about is your GOD.

158 posted on 04/18/2006 7:09:53 PM PDT by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: Creationist
and fight for the right of my God to herd in a public forum and at public schools.

Typing too fast, or did Freud rear his ugly head?

159 posted on 04/18/2006 7:16:57 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Interim tagline: The UN 1967 Outer Space Treaty is bad for America and bad for humanity - DUMP IT!)
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To: Creationist
Your picture is pretty yet it is way out of proportion, that angle is way to big. Makes it look close. The lines if drawn in perspective would be almost indistinguishable. The circle could not be measured in one night. The numbers all work I do know trig. I was top in my class.

The circle could be measured in one night. The key piece of information is knowing the time between the initial explosion of the star and the illumination of the rings around it. Supernova 1987A was studied for years after the event. About eight months after we detected the nova, the rings became visible. We know the speed of light by independent analysis. Knowing how far the rings are from the star gives us the radius of the circle. The rest is trigonometry.

You precieve a old universe because the visible phenoma appear to have happened billions or millions of years ago.

Every science man has devised supports the notion of an old earth. If you reject the age of the earth, you're not just rejecting evolution -- you are utterly rejecting all of modern science.

160 posted on 04/18/2006 7:26:50 PM PDT by Liberal Classic (No better friend, no worse enemy. Semper Fi.)
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