Re: Social problems and evolution

Steven Schimmrich (schimmrich@earthlink.net)
Tue, 10 Mar 1998 15:48:37 -0500

At 09:32 AM 3/10/98 -0600, Russell Maatman wrote:
>
>In our discussion of human evolution, you seem to depend on as-yet-unknown
>mechanisms to link the human race to other hominids. Aren't you falling
>into the same trap as the person who invokes God wherever there is a
>mystery? That person says our ignornace points to divine action; you seem
>to be saying that the fact we are presently ignorant about a gap tells us
>some scientific discovery will be made in the future. In the one case,
>ignorance is proof that God acts; in the other, ignorance indicates a
>mechanism will be found in the future.

Why do you claim the human race isn't linked to other hominids? We share
over 98% of our DNA with modern chimpanzees (not a hominid but a primate cousin)
and there is clear fossil evidence for hominids living in the past few million
years structurally far more similar to us than chimpanzees are (i.e. they
were bipedal).

- Steve.

--   Steven H. Schimmrich   Physical Sciences Department      schimmri@kutztown.edu (office)   Kutztown University               schimmrich@earthlink.net (home)   217 Grim Science Building         610-683-4437, 610-683-1352 (fax)   Kutztown, Pennsylvania 19530      http://home.earthlink.net/~schimmrich/