01Nov 2022 by Post

Human Origins: All in the Family

art, Australopithecines, burial, chain mail, Creativity, Culture, Donald Johanson, Erik Trinkaus, footprints, fossil record, Fossils and Human Evolution (series), Francesco d’Errico, habilines, Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens, Human Origins, Nature (journal), Neanderthals, Oxford University Press, paintings, paleoanthropologists, paleontology, Siegrid Hartwig-Scherer, Stephen Molnar, symbolic thought, Technology, total energy expenditure, University of Bordeaux, Washington University
If a Neanderthal walked down the street, appropriately dressed, you probably wouldn’t notice. Source
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20Sep 2022 by Post

Gene Sharing Is More Widespread than Thought, with Implications for Darwinism

bacteria, bioRxiv, Ceratopteris, co-evolution, convergence, Current Biology, DNA, Doug Soltis, Duke University, Evolution, ferns, Florida Museum of Natural History, Foresight (book), gene flow, heredity, horizontal gene transfer, human evolution, Intelligent Design, introgression, kleptomania, Lingchong You, Neanderthals, North Carolina State University, plants, University of Tübingen
Evidence is growing that organisms share existing genetic information horizontally, not just vertically. 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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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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