Don't sell Mankind short, though flawed to the core, we still achieved mighty things long ago. PART TWO

 

Don't sell Mankind short, though flawed to the core, we still achieved mighty things long ago. PART TWO

 

 

Mankind did not arise from some lower life form hominid creature. In fact, many of our supposed progenitor species did not evolve into another “higher” and more developed hominid. They actually overlapped one another in the fossil record. They are steadily found to have existed longer and found to be much older than believed. Homo erectus spread all over parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe. Read on . . .

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/apr/03/earliest-known-skull-of-homo-erectus-unearthed-by-australian-led-team

An author confirming my early suspicions about today's vogue history of man is Jeffrey Goodman. Inquiring skeptics do not appreciate this "errant" anthropologist spreading his highly speculative opinions. Goodman's independent style and willingness to uniquely approach the issue of human origins is refreshing.

 

To begin, let's consider some points raised in his book, The Genesis Mystery. 

 

They are:

1)  Coexistence of various hominid species

2)  Lack of change within species over time

3)  Evidence of recent dates for species assumed extinct

4)  Evidence of "modern" man further back in earth history than accepted

5)  Macroevolution's failure to produce Homo sapiens 

6) Interventionary theory

 

 

I will briefly list some "coexistence" material Goodman presents in The Genesis Mystery:

 

   •Hominoid animals living together in time, (stratigraphic, geographic, and/or radiometric clues) lead one to suspect Louis Leakey was right in seeing no simple evolutionary scenario leading to man.

•Australopithecines, Homo habilis, Homo erectus overlap in time!

   •H. erectus, Neanderthals, and modern man coexisted.

 

If vaguely interested, you are urged to check into Goodman's book. 

 

Goodman mentions "God," yet if only a tinkerer toying with pre-existent matter, any "ex nihilo" concept slips back into nothingness itself. Who needs such a god? Goodman's research is warranted but his conclusions are the fruit of certain inherent evolutionary views he seems desirous to set aside.

 

At this point I offer further relevant data on both Neanderthal man and H. erectus. Classic Neanderthal man was  noticeably different in bone structure from modern man. It is now without dispute that Neanderthals and Cromagnons coexisted. Enough cranial specimens of Neander man exist that demonstrate a mosaic of features blending typical "Neanderthalness" and "modem" looks (less of the ''robust'' specialization), all in one individual. Endocast studies and controversial simulated vocal-tract studies of Neanderthal man do not prove him a dim and dumb brute. Ralph Holloway in  Ancestors: The Hard Evidence,  after allometrically revised endocast studies of various Neanderthal crania observes that Neander man is unjustly subjugated and stereotyped. Specifics of his work suggest Neander man had a brain basically resembling yours and mine. "Primitive" brain aspects are not present when all factors are considered.

Again from Origins of Modern Humans and Ancestors: The Hard Evidence, arises the realization that H. erectus is also a markedly divergent creature in cranial structure. In certain skulls the "classic" features can melt away in to wide polymorphism from continent to continent. Gradations into Neanderthaloid traits and in some areas  (Australia), even the hint of H. sapiens is evident. This has led some to postulate dropping the species designation of erectus and create H. sapiens erectus as has already happened with Neanderthal man.

Most authorities balk at the idea of a H. erectus variant coexisting with modern man. However, the late Louis Leakey, Jeffrey Goodman, Myra Shackley, and this author have taken to this view. Such an idea is not sweeping paleontological circles as yet. A few more years, a few more bones, and I predict coexistence will strike again.

H. erectus crania in its most robust, "archaic," or highly specialized morph appears ape-like. Tool use is ascribed to this rugged hominoid breed. Have we a tool-using pongid or simply a hominid? If we span the opposite end of this  hominoid's polymorphism spectrum, something else could be surmised. Specimens of H. erectus are known now (which those needing to do so), and conveniently being tagged "archaic" H. sapiens. From the Kow and Mungo swamps of Australia, recent, less specialized cranial morphs of H. erectus have been set on the table of debate. 

During a phone conversation with a certain "authority" at Duke University, I was excitedly, emphatically, and emotionally informed that H. erectus NEVER made it to the Australian continent. I still question how this fellow knows such.

Finally I met with a comfortable balance of reason and speculation in a Dr. Matt Cartmill, Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology at Duke University, while discussing this case of H. erectus in Australia. After an informative and balanced discussion, I was directed to recent material on the issue. Why can't more people involved in such research be as helpful? In a 1987 paper, "One Hundred Years Of Paleontology," Dr. Cartmill co-authored with Drs. David Pilbeam and the late Glynn Issac, it was observed,

"...scientists who study human evolution have saddled themselves with the paradoxical job of explaining how causes operating throughout nature have in the case of Homo sapiens produced an effect that is radically unlike anything else in nature."

 

Yes. Neanderthals were finally added as a variety of Homo sapiens now referred to as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. They were much more advanced than once thought to be. 

 

Let's leave the bones and skulls of contention discussion now.

But the biggest thing is this – there are no missing links between all these supposed ancestors to “modern” man. We in fact are recent and sudden appearances on this planet in comparison to its vast age. We spread all over the Earth from one locale and it was not Africa. It was in the Middle East that we first came into being.

Now the other thing we need to realize is this – we were not knuckle-dragging brutes. We understood the Creation in very deep ways. We were brilliant and creative. We built vast cities, huge megalithic structures, and domesticated animals and cultivated crops. We initially lived for centuries and were able to acquire many skills and even more knowledge in our extended lifetimes that we passed down to our children.

We forged metal tools, created musical instruments, developed laws and understood mathematical principles. We were able to accurately track movements of celestial bodies. We understood the seasons and when and what to plant for food and other uses.

We hunted not just for food but also for pleasure. We did not go through the hunter-gatherer stage first and then eventually learn agriculture. We already knew all that. Sure, at some point and in some areas – many of us splintered off and became hunter-gathers by choice as a life style. Perhaps huge calamities and upheavals on the planet in some places completely eradicated earlier knowledge. That is very possible and therefore evidence of this way of existing would be discovered. We in fact still have tribes that exist like this to this day. But their ancestors were not like this -- millennia ago.

Read this earlier blog post for more information:

https://genericchristianmystic--returns.blogspot.com/2022/12/dont-sell-mankind-short-though-flawed.html