03Oct 2025 by Post

Skulls from China Said to Push Origin of Homo sapiens Back to 1 Million Years 

Ann Gauger, BBC, China, Chris Stringer, Denisovans, Evolution, fossil record, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo longi, Homo sapiens, homoplasy, Human Origins, Human Origins and Anthropology, Intelligent Design, Live Science, London, Middle Pleistocene, Natural History Museum, Neanderthals, Ola Hössjer, paleoanthropologists, paleontology, Science (journal), skulls, Yunxian skulls
How many times have we been told that some new paleoanthropological find is “rewriting the story of human evolution”? Source
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04Apr 2025 by Post

Decline and Fall: A Vision of a Human-Free Planet

Adrian Woolfson, Albert Einstein, anti-human exceptionalism, artificial general intelligence, bioethics, Children, Christianity, computers, Denisovans, Edward Gibbon, Foundation for Economic Education, Green Revolution, Henry Gee, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonensis, human exceptionalism, human extinction, humans, Lawrence W. Reed, natural selection, Neanderthals, Neuroscience & Mind, Science (journal), The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire
As the author of the review, Adrian Woolfson, says, the coming human eclipse originated in a sin against Darwinism. Source
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12Nov 2021 by Post

Traditional or Not? Assessing William Lane Craig’s Model on Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve, Aeon, Annual Review of Anthropology, Bernard Wood, brain size, Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, chimpanzees, Denisovans, DNA, Donald Johanson, Evolution, Evolutionary Anthropology (journal), Faith & Science, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo sapiens, Human Origins, In Quest of the Historical Adam, Joshua Swamidass, Lucy, Mark Collard, Middle Pleistocene, most recent common ancestor, Neanderthals, nonhuman hominins, paleontology, pseudogenes, Review of Craig's In Quest of the Historical Adam (series), Science (journal), total energy expenditure, william lane craig
I’m having trouble making sense of exactly what his model holds. And it seems I’m not alone. Source
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10Nov 2021 by Post

Is Genesis “Mytho-History”? As a Guide to Scripture, William Lane Craig’s Book Falls Short

Adam and Eve, Ancient Near East, biblical flood, Christianity, Denisovans, dinosaurs, Evolution News, Exodus, Faith & Science, Genesis, gospels, Hebrew, hominids, Homo sapiens, Human Origins, In Quest of the Historical Adam, John Oswalt, Mesopotamia, Middle East, mytho-history, Neanderthals, Noah's Ark, Old Earth Creationists, Persian Gulf, Review of Craig's In Quest of the Historical Adam (series), Satan, scripture, Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda’s Thumb, William Laine Craig, Young Earth Creationists
As an old earther, I was dismayed by Craig’s failure to engage with common old earth interpretations of Genesis. Source
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30Apr 2020 by Post

A Disappointing Decade for the Study of Human Evolution

Addis Ababa, anagenesis, ancient DNA, Ann Gauger, annus horribilis, Associated Press, Australopithecus afarensis, Australopithecus anamensis, Berhane Asfaw, Bernard Wood, BIO-Complexity, David H. Koch Hall, Denisovans, Ethiopia, genetic diversity, germline mutations, gradualism, Günter Bechly, Homo sapiens, human evolution, Human Origins, Mark Grabowski, Nature (journal), Ola Hössjer, paleoanthropology, population genetics, primates, punctuated equilibrium, Single-Origin Couple, Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Magazine, Tim White
The 2010s was a bad decade for the study of human evolution. Smithsonian Magazine recently published an article titled “These are the Decade’s Biggest Discoveries in Human Evolution.” It opens by saying: Human evolution is one of the most vibrant areas of scientific investigation. In the past decade we’ve seen many discoveries that add to our understanding of our origins. To mark the 10th anniversary of the Smithsonian’s “David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins,” here are some of the biggest discoveries in human evolution from the last 10 years. What are the big discoveries of the decade? Did they reveal new and compelling evidence that humans evolved from lower primates? Some of these big discoveries actually turn out to be instances where the evidence for human evolution weakened, and the rest…
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09Jan 2020 by Post

Reflections on Our Ancient Past

Africa, ancient past, BIO-Complexity, bottleneck, coalescence, de novo creation, Denisovans, DNA, genetic diversity, Homo erectus, Human Origins, methodological naturalism, Neanderthals, Ola Hössjer, population genetics
This past October, Ola Hössjer and I published a paper, “A Single-Couple Human Origin Is Possible.” Writing in the journal BIO-Complexity, we described a model that used standard population genetics methods but refined in a new way to permit calculation of larger data arrays deeper in time. Using this model we were able to demonstrate that an initial couple could indeed give rise to the modern human population. That paper discussed the possibility of a first couple, but it did not distinguish between two alternatives. The single couple could have had a de novo origin, meaning to start from the beginning. This alternative is one most scientists choose to ignore since it does not fit with methodological naturalism (MN), the philosophical position that only “natural” explanations are allowed in science.…
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