holding to the more recent dating. Dawkins in *River Out of Eden* seems to
have no problem with the 200,000 year ago date. Here's a *brief* line from
Niles Eldredge "Dominion" (1995) suggesting that the criticisms that Glenn
has been citing were premature.
"...They concluded that the diversity of mitochondrial DNA patterns
converges on an African configuration--one that must have been present in
an African *Homo sapiens* woman who lived sometime between 150,000 and
200,000 years ago. What better name than Eve?
"Wilson's work has been sharply criticized. There were problems with
samples and the statistical techniques used to compare the different
genetic sequences. Yet in general the results seem to be holding up. And
they agree so well with what the fossils themselves seem to be telling us."
(p. 80-81)
Concerning Glenn's reference to the Golan Venus--I'm not willing to
conclude anything from such an artefact other than that those hominids
could make from rock images that looked like people. To say that the
existence of such a thing implies idolatry and thus religious sensibilities
and thus image of God seems a bit excessive.
As an aside I might add that in my theology, human beings aren't the only
creatures with religious sensibilities. "The heavens declare the glory of
God..." "They look to Him for food..."
TG
_____________________________________________________________
Terry M. Gray, Ph.D. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Calvin College 3201 Burton SE Grand Rapids, MI 40546
Office: (616) 957-7187 FAX: (616) 957-6501
Email: grayt@calvin.edu http://www.calvin.edu/~grayt
*This mission critical message was written on a Macintosh with Eudora Pro*