Re: The wrong horse in evolution education

Philtill@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 4/12/2006 8:37:53 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> pruest@mysunrise.ch writes:
>
> Yet the problem of the "archeological-cultural big bang" around
> 40,000 years ago
> remains if you place Adam in the Neolithic where he belongs.
>
> Peter
>
> Peter, I don't understand. What is the problem you reference in regard
> to this "big bang"?
>
> Phil Metzger

Hi Phil

I am sorry I failed to explain this expression. I found something like it in
Fazale Rana with Hugh Ross, "Who was Adam? - A creation model approach to the
origin of man" (Navpress 2005, ISBN 1-57683-577-4), p. 249: "The archeological
record reveals a veritable explosion of human culture - anthropology's 'big
bang' - which marks the appearance of God's image." (I formulated it in my own
words from memory, without looking it up.)

In fact, it is noticeable that the record of the hominid tool industries found
begins with about 1 million years of Oldowan (H.ergaster or habilis) with hardly
any change, followed by 1.4 million years of Acheulean (H.erectus) with hardly
any change, then 200,000 years of Mousterian (H.sapiens neandertalensis or
archaic H.sapiens) with hardly any change, and finally, starting between 60,000
and 40,000 years ago with the Aurignacian (H.sapiens sapiens, Cro-magnon) with
the beautiful cave art, possible evidence for religious consciousness etc. and
lots of rapid change, like a radiation in the fossil record.

Although I think Rana's interpretation of fossils and genetics (he is a
biochemist) are very reasonable, I don't agree with his rejection of evolution
(the creation model of Reasons to Believe is an old-earth-creationism
non-evolutionary one). Rana even discusses the transposon evidence for common
descent quite convincingly as lacking persuasive evolutionary implications (he
argues that some of the common "errors" have been shown to be functional, and
all of them might be).

Peter

-- 
Dr. Peter Ruest, CH-3148 Lanzenhaeusern, Switzerland
<pruest@dplanet.ch> - Biochemistry - Creation and evolution
"..the work which God created to evolve it" (Genesis 2:3)