More Denton: Reply to Tony (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, August 08, 2015, 08:08 (3185 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

Dhw: I understand your unwillingness to be drawn on this issue, but DNA is not the only factor involved. Enough is known of the australopithecines to tell us that they were bipedal - a crucial difference between apes and humans - whereas their brains and craniums were closer to those of the apes than to ours. They are clearly not modern humans, but they are not apes either, and even evolutionist palaeontologists can't agree amongst themselves which “species” might have been man's ancestor. But if I've understood you correctly, you regard them all as variations on an earlier form of human. My apologies if I've got this wrong, but if I haven't, my question remains: do you think God created them and modern humans separately, or modern humans evolved as “variants” from these so-called pre-humans?
-TONY: http://erectuswalksamongst.us/Chap9.html
http://johnhawks.net/explaine... In general, they are saying that they are all very similar to modern humans when the overall size and stature of the individual is taken into account. Also, that last link calls into question their claims of splitting species as well. 
I think that humanity was created in the same prototype fashion that I believe other creatures were created. They have a baseline set of variables, components, and behaviors that can be recombined in unique ways to produce a wide variety of results, but at the end of the day, they are all human.-The first two websites only deal with modern Africans, Asians etc., and the last two with homo erectus. Their concern and yours seems to be with establishing the fact that despite variations, all of these are humans. For some reason, however, you continue to fight shy of the earlier forms I keep referring to. There is a tiny passage in the last of these articles that puts the whole evolutionary argument with admirable clarity:
 
"In the Middle Awash, we see a chain of ancestors that is powerful evidence for evolution," White said. "As we step back in time, we see more and more primitive technology and anatomy, all the way back to six million years ago, where we see almost the anatomy of an ape."-The australopithecines are believed to date back about 4 million years - i.e. halfway between homo erectus and earlier possible ancestors. Even researchers you recommend seem to accept the basis of Darwin's theory.