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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: jec41
Adolf Hitler was a Christian and most of Germany was Christian including Christian schools. He may have believed in a God but not God of the Bible, or else he would have known that the Jews are Gods chosen and that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed.

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. You got me that would not be variation of the same kind <(:~]

In the life sciences, evolution is a change in the traits of living organisms over generations
If that statement were true you would see new kinds walking out of the water, new kinds taking to the air, new kinds of hominids walking out of the woods. Oh wait let me guess there is a projected date for the next evolve 2346 right?

You except the religion of evolution and it is not proved. Your examples are of variation and not macro evolution.

As to a public forum this is a public forum and all you have talked about is your GOD
And I will until I am persecuted till dead by those who would have me not.
161 posted on 04/18/2006 7:28:54 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: Liberal Classic
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.

So those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and are men of the physical sciences are not valid because their beliefs are contrary to those who wish the universe to be old. You speak for them to ?
162 posted on 04/18/2006 7:31:58 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

Do you know what the fallacy of the excluded middle is?


163 posted on 04/18/2006 7:33:44 PM PDT by Liberal Classic (No better friend, no worse enemy. Semper Fi.)
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To: Coyoteman
Those are cool. But you know what they do not prove a thing. You can jump, cry, call me names, hold your breath.

Those are dead bones and nothing more. There is not one single shread of evidence that they gave birth to anything. You can assume, presume, conjecture, suppose, dream, wish, but there is no proof. Just because a guy went and dug them up and wrote a paper about them means nothing, specially because the men that did it had a presupposition that they were scion to a monkey.
164 posted on 04/18/2006 7:37:28 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 still more. How many more bones do you want?

I can't do billions and billions, like Carl Sagan and the stars, but I still have a few more bones in stock. And this guy is really good looking, too; pretty handsome brow ridges. Don't you agree?



Fossil: KNM-WT 15000

Site: Nariokotome, West Turkana, Kenya (1)

Discovered By: K. Kimeu, 1984 (1)

Estimated Age of Fossil: 1.6 mya * determined by Stratigraphic, faunal & radiometric data (1, 4)

Species Name: Homo ergaster (1, 7, 8), Homo erectus (3, 4, 7, 10), Homo erectus ergaster (25)

Gender: Male (based on pelvis, browridge) (1, 8, 9)

Cranial Capacity: 880 (909 as adult) cc (1)

Information: Most complete early hominid skeleton (80 bones and skull) (1, 8)

Interpretation: Hairless and dark pigmented body (based on environment, limb proportions) (7, 8, 9). Juvenile (9-12 based on 2nd molar eruption and unfused growth plates) (1, 3, 4, 7, 8). Juvenile (8 years old based on recent studies on tooth development) (27). Incapable of speech (based on narrowing of spinal canal in thoracic region) (1)

Nickname: Turkana Boy (1), Nariokotome Boy

See original source for notes:
Source: http://www.mos.org/evolution/fossils/fossilview.php?fid=38

165 posted on 04/18/2006 7:40:24 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: Liberal Classic

I am amused that you would ask. I think you should ask the question to yourself. I went to public school I learned the theory of monkey loution.


166 posted on 04/18/2006 7:40:30 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: Coyoteman

Sorry buddy there are only about 1500 human type bones in know stores. And they are not complete.


167 posted on 04/18/2006 7:41:53 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

Cman,
Speaking as a Christian, have you considered that there is room in Genesis ("...the earth was formless and void") for any amount of time before development on earth begins? Have you considered that the earth may have been created with age - as Adam and Eve were created as adults? Have you considered that the genealogies tell us what God wants us to know about that specific time period in the history of His chosen people?

What the Bible specifically says does not negate that which it does not say. Have you considered that too?

For example, if I were to say to you that I am a man who is 6'1" tall, this does not mean I was always this tall or was always a man. Or especially it does not mean that I'm not married or any of a thousand other details that are true but that I did not want to tell you.

This is not an attack on you. I am sincerely asking if you have considered these possibilities?

best,
ampu


168 posted on 04/18/2006 7:43:49 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion (outside a good dog, a book is your best friend. inside a dog it's too dark to read)
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To: Coyoteman
Typing too fast, or did Freud rear his ugly head?

I must be reverting back to what I evolved from. Maaah maaah.
169 posted on 04/18/2006 7:45:35 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: Thalos

To what end? If our species is essentially "perfect,"then we need to focus on
what it is now. The assumption that evolution theory can tell us much about man can lead to nasty conclusions, such as racial theory, which are leaps to judgement about the worth of certain kinds of human being. There has been since Darwin a tendency not to recognize that between the chimp and the human is a giant leap. But this is to depreciate the gifts of the chimp as well as those of the man. Human intelligence and animal intelligence are, all the evidence shows, of different kinds. But it is more just to recognize that the chimp is a chimp and not a defective man, and the human being is not a super chimp.


170 posted on 04/18/2006 7:45:55 PM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: Creationist
Dead bones are not evidence they prove nothing except that something lived and died.

Have you actually studied the explanations behind the conclusions of common descent? If so, why do you believe them to be false?

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.

What interpretation of the visible evidence compliments the Bible? I am familiar with claims that you have made on this subject, but they were not convincing. You may assert that the lack of acceptance of your claims is a belief that the Bible is not "100% true", but that is not the case. In fact, your explanations were founded upon factual errors and incorrect analogies.
171 posted on 04/18/2006 7:47:46 PM PDT by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: Creationist
Those are cool.

Then we agree on something!

But you know what they do not prove a thing.

The do not prove anything because science does not deal in "proof." However, taken collectively, with the other sciences, they contribute to a preponderance of evidence for the theory of evolution.

You can jump, cry, call me names, hold your breath.

Sorry, tonight is my night off from those things. Check back in a couple of nights maybe we can work something out.

Those are dead bones and nothing more. There is not one single shread of evidence that they gave birth to anything. You can assume, presume, conjecture, suppose, dream, wish, but there is no proof. Just because a guy went and dug them up and wrote a paper about them means nothing, specially because the men that did it had a presupposition that they were scion to a monkey.

That's ape, not monkey. And there is a preponderance of evidence. It is just that you have blinders on and cannot allow yourself to see it. You have a worldview that excludes these things, and nothing can intrude upon that worldview.

But your mistake is to try to pass this worldview off as science. It is not science. It is a belief system shared by only a small percentage even of Christians.

So, since you also appreciate them, here is one more. Then I really need to turn in.



Fossil: KNM-ER 3733 Site: Koobi Fora (Upper KBS tuff, area 104), Lake Turkana, Kenya (4, 1)

Discovered By: B. Ngeneo, 1975 (1)

Estimated Age of Fossil: 1.75 mya * determined by Stratigraphic, faunal, paleomagnetic & radiometric data (1, 4)

Species Name: Homo ergaster (1, 7, 8), Homo erectus (3, 4, 7), Homo erectus ergaster (25)

Gender: Female (species presumed to be sexually dimorphic) (1, 8)

Cranial Capacity: 850 cc (1, 3, 4)

Information: Tools found in same layer (8, 9). Found with KNM-ER 406 A. boisei (effectively eliminating single species hypothesis) (1)

Interpretation: Adult (based on cranial sutures, molar eruption and dental wear) (1)

See original source for notes:
Source: http://www.mos.org/evolution/fossils/fossilview.php?fid=33

172 posted on 04/18/2006 7:51:41 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: RobbyS
If our species is essentially "perfect,"then we need to focus on what it is now.

By what standard do you measure "perfection"?
173 posted on 04/18/2006 7:55:20 PM PDT by Dimensio (http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif <-- required reading before you use your next apostrophe!)
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To: elkfersupper

creationasm (akin to Gorbasm) bookmark.


174 posted on 04/18/2006 7:57:08 PM PDT by elkfersupper
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Cman,
Speaking as a Christian, have you considered that there is room in Genesis ("...the earth was formless and void") for any amount of time before development on earth begins? Have you considered that the earth may have been created with age - as Adam and Eve were created as adults? Have you considered that the genealogies tell us what God wants us to know about that specific time period in the history of His chosen people?

John 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (KJV)

The Bible is the Word, therefore it is God.

Genesis 1:5

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (KJV)

There is no mistake in the reading here evening and morning were the first day. No time periods, no gaps. Just a day passing.

The genealogies when reversed from Jesus back only go to Adam, about 6000 years. No mistake no gaps Just years passing. And many life lessons.

Yes I know that Adam and Eve and everything on the planet and universe had an apparent age. Everything fully mature ready to propagate after their own kind. The Stars fully visible to their eyes.

175 posted on 04/18/2006 8:00:55 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
Adolf Hitler was a Christian and most of Germany was Christian including Christian schools. He may have believed in a God but not God of the Bible, or else he would have known that the Jews are Gods chosen and that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed.

He was a Catholic and read the Catholic bible. Read his words Mein Kampf.

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. You got me that would not be variation of the same kind <(:~]

Evolution is ongoing change like it or not.

In the life sciences, evolution is a change in the traits of living organisms over generations If that statement were true you would see new kinds walking out of the water, new kinds taking to the air, new kinds of hominids walking out of the woods. Oh wait let me guess there is a projected date for the next evolve 2346 right?

Wrong only you might expect that. However if such were true it would evidence against evolution not evidence for evolution. Evolution is by minute changes.

You except the religion of evolution and it is not proved. Your examples are of variation and not macro evolution.

Science does not prove anything. It observes material facts. Religion is faith and belief. Evolution and science is a fact. Darwin never spoke of micro evolution. You really need to acquire some knowledge to support your opinions.

As to a public forum this is a public forum and all you have talked about is your GOD And I will until I am persecuted till dead by those who would have me not.

Who's persecuting you. You can be as you wish or maybe the persecution is in your mind.

176 posted on 04/18/2006 8:01:48 PM PDT by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: Creationist
Sorry buddy there are only about 1500 human type bones in know stores. And they are not complete.

http://www.mos.org/evolution/fossils/fossilview.php?fid=19

Note this specimen, KNM-WT 40000. This stands for Kenya National Museum, West Turkana region, specimen #40000. (40000--that is more than 1500 right there.) Now, not all are hominids, but a lot are.

There are a number of other fossil producing areas in Kenya.

There are a number of other fossil producing countries in Africa.

There are a large number of other fossil producing countries in the world.

Your contention of "1500 human type bones" is up in smoke. Sorry. Relying on those creation sites has again led you astray.

You really should try examining some of the real science sites if you are going to try to argue against science. Otherwise, you just make silly mistakes and forfeit your credibility.

177 posted on 04/18/2006 8:02:03 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: Dimensio
The crocodile is "perfect," Its design is sufficient for it to survive in its environment. Of course if that changes radically, there will be extinction. But of course, man has created tools that extend its capabilities, machines that leverage our strengths in a way not animal can depend on. "Evolution" theory only serves us by showing how microscopic life adapts radically.
178 posted on 04/18/2006 8:03:45 PM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: Coyoteman
Well.

What I meant was 1500 human type bones in know store and most of them are incomplete skeletons.

Your forty thousand is only number of bones not complete skeletons.
179 posted on 04/18/2006 8:06:22 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: RobbyS
To what end? If our species is essentially "perfect,"then we need to focus on what it is now.

Perhaps, but it is applicable now. For one thing, a virus that changes from using bird cells to using human cells is making a huge leap. It is as if a rabbit one day abandoned vegetables and started eating horse flesh. For another thing, nothing says our species is perfect. It is impossible to be perfect when the world around you is constantly evolving new ways to kill you, such as new diseases.

The assumption that evolution theory can tell us much about man can lead to nasty conclusions, such as racial theory, which are leaps to judgement about the worth of certain kinds of human being.

This is only true if someone wants to believe that white men are superior, starts from that assumption, and uses whatever means necessary to "prove" it. Someone who starts from basic premises will realize that the current domination of the European and Asian cultures and people is because of an enormous head start they had on the road from hunter-gatherer to modern civilization. Of all the important domesticable animals, only one (the llama) occurs outside of Europe, Asia, or Northern Africa. Of all the major crops, only one occurs outside those regions, and corn took thousands of years longer to evolve because its ancestor was barely useful as a food source. The enormous head start of having almost all the useful crops and animals directly resulted in the history of the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia being the history of the world.

There has been since Darwin a tendency not to recognize that between the chimp and the human is a giant leap. But this is to depreciate the gifts of the chimp as well as those of the man. Human intelligence and animal intelligence are, all the evidence shows, of different kinds. But it is more just to recognize that the chimp is a chimp and not a defective man, and the human being is not a super chimp.

Why do you blame Darwin? Do you think ignoring the truth would make us better people? If someone takes a theory and misuses it, it is the fault of the person, not the fault of the theory. Or do you believe in gun control laws? What about legalized abortion? Why did you suddenly conveniently forget about personal responsibility?

180 posted on 04/18/2006 8:08:00 PM PDT by Thalos
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