Query for Glenn-Imaginative vs hard science??

Gladwin Joseph (josephg@ccmail.orst.edu)
Mon, 12 May 1997 17:41:11 -0700

Glenn wrote:
Broca's area of the brain which controls language....
fashioned statues....
made jewelry....
made flutes and whistles.....
dug post holes....
Built tents and huts....
Built walls.....
Constructed paved areas in their huts....
Made wooden spears....
committed murder.....
made clothing....
controlled fire.....
made idols.....
One Neanderthal site was called a sacrificial altar...
Engaged in REPRESENTATIONAL art....
Like humans many lacked the wisdom teeth....
Had a human pattern of birth and maturation....
Crossed the ocean in boats....
Planned for their future needs....
Cared for their fellow man....

No ape does these things!!

A question/comment. How much of this is "imaginative"
science and how much of this is "hard" science? Sometime
back in the journal Science there was a figure of a piece of
paleo-human bone with a scratch on it. The legend said
something like this "Evidence for cannibalism". I find that
imaginative story-telling masquerading as science. A scratch
could be caused by numerous sharp objects possibly in
unrelated events. One could get into futile and endless
quibbling over such scientific data. I found it disturbing
that it was presented as evidence in such a reputable
journal. NOTE: I do not have any theological problems with
Neanderthals being modern human-like.

Shalom

Gladwin