Thursday, September 11, 2003

What we know about human evolution that just ain't so

In last months Discover Magazine there are articles on recent developments and discoveries in the field of paleontology. When I was going through grad school in Anthropology ten years ago, the earliest bipedal precursor to modern humans was Australopithecus afarensis, of which "Lucy" is an example. A. afarensis bumbled about the ancient outdoors around 3.5 million years ago. Paleontologists found a few bones last year, however, that shoved that date back to 7 million years...they DOUBLED granny and grandpa's age with a couple of dusty fossils.

Same thing happened with the dates placed on the earliest model of modern Homo sapiens...pushed back from 30,000 years bp to 90,000 years bp with the recent discovery of a few skeletal bits and pieces. I give evolutionary theory quite a bit of credence, considering the fact I'm a big believer in Creation by a divine Deity, but this is a prime example of how evolutionary scientists like to make grandiose claims about what we Know that just ain't so. Of course, at least the scientists are willing to say they were wrong.

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