>> Writes Jim Foley:
>> < I meant that the Cro-Magnon cultural burst
>> occurred roughly between 40 and 30 thousand years ago. We don't know
>> the exact timing, but it's reasonable to assume it may have taken some
>> thousands of years (not necessarily 10000 yrs).>>
>> I guess that's where we differ. It is NOT reasonable to assume this, in my
>> view.
Why is my view unreasonable?
>> <<Exactly my point. The "Cro-Magnon explosion", for want of a better
>> term, was a cultural event, powered by human intelligence (in my
>> interpretation).>>
>> But you're missing my point. I'm not talking about the development of culture.
>> I'm talking about the actual appearance of modern man. I think you got hung up
>> on your Industrial Revolution analogy. The "explosion" I'm talking about is
>> sudden apperance on the scene of a creature that cannot be explained by any
>> natural means.
There is no such appearance. Physically modern humans existed tens of
thousands of years prior to that, and are at least as old as 100,000
years. While being slightly more robust than the average modern human,
they are Homo sapiens sapiens. If you include the more archaic Homo
sapiens specimens, they go back to a few hundred thousand years.
Further back is Homo erectus. The boundaries between these are somewhat
arbitrary; modern man appears gradually, not suddenly.
If you are saying that *mentally* modern humans appeared suddenly (by
an act of God), fine. I don't think any physical evidence could
contradict that position.
>> As Goodman notes: "Modern man is an extraordinary phenomenon, a
>> complex system of distinctive physical and mental traits, a whole
>> considerably greater than the sum of its parts. Physcially and
>> mentally he took a great leap beyond his predecessors, a leap which
>> cannot be explained by the demands of the environment or random
>> mutation."
I don't know who Goodman is or what his qualifications are, but if you
don't accept Homo erectus as human (as I assume you don't, since you
seem to be claiming that "biblical man" appeared only 30-40,000 years
ago), the physical differences between them and us are minor. And the
mental differences aren't that major, in so far as we we can detect
them; Homo erectus used fire and made stone tools, both of which we
think of as human activities, even if they didn't have the full range of
modern human activities.
-- Jim Foley Symbios Logic, Fort CollinsJim.Foley@symbios.com (303) 223-5100 x9765* 1st 1.11 #4955 * "I am Homer of Borg! Prepare to be...OOooooo! Donuts!!!"