Ah, but the trap will not be sprung. Notice that I say envision.
Hopefully a creationist can take the same liberties as TE's and dream a
little!
The obvious point being that when we attempt to attach humanness to
Neanderthal we must also be willing to accept the God-breathed spirit
and personal relationship that God created with and in man (Adam). To be
human is to be a personal, rational, and moral being holding the
knowledge of God. Anything short of this is simply not human in my
opinion. Do you disagree?
For the sake of argument, if one holds that Neanderthal preceded Adam,
than he cannot be human by this definition. Any attempt to associate
psycho-social God-breathed human qualities to something which does not
have the image of God is not fruitful toward an understanding of the
true evidence needed to establish humanness. It smacks of simple
anthropomorphism. It also opens a host of questions about when and where
evolution ends and the God-breathed life and spirit in man begins.
Time is immaterial to the argument at this juncture. If eventually a
picture and evidence of Neanderthal humanness that reflects the
knowledge and spirit of God develops, then, yes, Adam had to have
preceded Neanderthal. It was Adam who first experienced God. What a
marvelous model to seek to piece together.
The time argument is all too often served up as a red herring that
distracts us from coming to a conclusion on the origin of man. We have
become obsessed with it. I believe that the first man was specially
created by God and that that creation did not include evolution. When it
occurred is not as important to that discussion.
GR>One of the things I have been trying to do with my researches into
GR>anthropology is to show just how weak the answers christians have given on
GR>these issues
Than I have a question for you... Were Neanderthals human as I have
defined?
God Bless,
Paul Durham
to: IN:GRMorton@gnn.com
cc: IN:evolution@calvin.edu