>> Recall a suggestion I made some time ago that God could have used hominid
>> species as "ecological placeholders" for human beings. Here is a Bible
>> verse that confirms that God works in this fashion. If God retained the
>> Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites in the land in order to maintain an
>> ecological balance favorable to the Hebrews, might He not have created
>> neanderthals and cro magnon to maintain an ecological balance favorable
>> to the descendants of Adam? In this regard, it is interesting to note
>> that the more similar such a "placeholder" species was to human beings
>> the more effective it would be in such a role.
Nice idea, but it doesn't seem to fit the data. Australia and the
Americas didn't have any such placeholders, and humans adapted just fine
to those places. What ecological niche would the placeholders have
filled? Agriculture? None of the other hominid species are thought to
have practiced that. In what way would having Neandertals hunting
before them have helped the later Cro-Magnon arrivals? The hunting
would probably be better if there were no previous inhabitants.
BTW, Cro-Magnons are us: Homo sapiens sapiens. Maybe you know this; but
it isn't obvious from your wording.
-- Jim Foley Symbios Logic, Fort Collins, COJim.Foley@symbios.com (303) 223-5100 x9765 I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel. -- Edmund Blackadder