Question for the well-educated Christians or other religious folks.?

Question

What do you think of fossilized remains of other early hominid species, such as Neanderthal? Do you believe that they are remains of earlier human species, or that they are ape remains of some sort?

I didn't really ask about evolution per se. What I am asking is how do you characterize the fossil known as "Lucy", for example

I wish some of you would study physical anthropology. There's so much more to the physical differences than slightly different shapes of faces. There are many Neanderthal remains which have MANY differences from humans.

Answer 1

Neanderthal actually are not earlier human species according to scientific fossil records and current evidence. The scientific belief and understanding is that Neanderthals are a seperate species all-together and are not linked to the human species. In order for them to be the link to human species, humans would have to have evolved from Neanderthals and there just is not enough fossil evidence to fill in missing links and prove this assumption. Scientists hypothesis that humans evolved from sub-species but there just aren't enough true fossile records to point to our exact ancestors.

You may have seen drawings of primitive man in stages leading up to what we currently call human, but these are artist reditions and are not supported by actual fossil records. It is possible, but there are still many links missing that will tell us who are true primitive evolutionary ancestors were.

In order to get a clear idea of the evolution of humans, one of two things will need to happen.
1) substantial fossil evidence of clear evolution from one species into another.
2) 100% translation of the currently finished mapping of the Human genome.

Happy hunting. ^_^

Answer 2

I believe in micro evolution, species change throughout time, that is not a stretch. There are people today who slightly resemble the neanderthals. I don't see those "other" skeletons as contradicting the Biblical account of creation. They could simply be humans that were ugly, deformed, or sure, we could have evolved some over time. I still don't believe that we all evolved from other species like apes, that does contradict the Bible, and it doesn't make logical sense to me anyway. It would require a drastic mutation at some point and that isn't feasible.

Answer 3

I was just having a discussion about this the other night. I won't pretend to be educated on the topic, but I'll put my two cents in.

I believe that Neanderthal remains are probably human remains. I don't, however, believe in the theory of evolution. Carbon dating has been proved to be worthless over the past few years and even if it's accurate it can only be accurate to a certain date. Scientists are finding more ways to prove that they've got it wrong rather than prove they're right - but you won't hear about it on the Discovery Channel.

One scientist in particular, I can't think of his name, he has found fossils of dinosaur footprints with a human footprint in the middle. I think it's shady, this whole evolution theory which is shoved down our throats. I don't believe I came from a monkey, no matter how similar our DNA is.

Answer 4

I don't know whether I am 'well educated' or not, but I can answer your question.

I believe in the Gap Theory of Genesis 1:1 - 1:2. I have personally retranslated those verses and found that the traditional translation isn't the only way to translate those verses. If the Gap Theory of Genesis 1:1 - 1:2 is true, then the Earth can be untold years old. And I think that it is.

Answer 5

Some of them are probably different kinds of apes.

But some of them are different kinds of humans.
Today there are a number of body types of humans.
There are Africans who are near 7 foot tall.
The pygmies are under 4 foot tall.
The Aborigines have a different body type also.
Some one who is observant or has done some studying could give you more examples.

Some of these fossils also came from the time of the flood (or around that time). Things where much different than. There was about twice the air pressure and oxygen levels we have today. This helped people to live longer, and when people live longer there develop different characteristics, like a thicker forehead, broader feet, things that do not look a little different than what we see today.

Answer 6

Oh, that's what I get for minoring in Cultural Anthro instead of Physical! Oh, well. I still do know a bit about it.

It helps to keep in mind the idea of a family tree and how not everyone in your family is a carbon copy of the others. If your family is homogeneous, then please present yourselves for scientific study immediately!

My understanding is that Lucy was not a Neanderthal, but another earlier form of hominid. But that's not really what you want to know, is it?

IF you were to *assume* that evolutionary theory is correct in its current form, then you need to keep in mind that family trees branch off and extended relatives lose contact over time. For example, there are probably millions of people in this country related to an ancestor of mine that settled in North America about 350 years ago or so. I know about 10 of these people well and 50 of them vaguely - about the number we see at reunions. The remaining over 1 million people could be different in so many ways that there could be radical differences between two people with the same last name, such as race, political leanings, economic status, criminal inclinations, and so on. In fact, I'm pretty pale, but I recently met someone with very dark skin with the same last name... and yet there were some familiar facial features...

So substantial changes in human beings can happen in just 350 years. Can you imagine 5000 or even one million years? If we are honest with ourselves, the answer is NO. I have a tough time with 350-400 years. For example, no electricity or flush toilets anywhere?? No thank you!

Anyhow, even if current evolutionary theory were correct, Lucy might not even be related to us at all. She might be a distant cousin of a line that died off just as the Neanderthals were counsins that ultimately died off... or interbred with homo sapiens sapiens because, after all, we are much hotter. Can you imagine the hairy big forehead Neaderthals getting a date today in our culture? Sorry. Terminal bachelorhood for you unless you can be insanely funny constantly. I mean, look at how hard that poor caveman has it on those insurance ads! People are denigrating his intelligence, no girlfriend, and he even needs his mom to help him with his counseling sessions. Does this sound like someone that's going to reproduce?

I'm not sure why you are asking Christians here. I doubt many self-respecting well-educated Christians use Yahoo!Answers what with all the bonehead people doing such an awful job of representing. I'll bet you get a lot of answers that don't even answer your question and just blather on and on about how God is great. Or how about the Muslim answers with about 20 citations from the Koran that have NOTHING to do with the question at all? Can you imagine having an actual conversation with these people? Actually, I can. It's exactly that sort of obnoxious behavior that led me to decide that I would be better off studying the Bible and Koran and many other religions on my own. It tried a number of different churches, but the obnoxious people seem to be everywhere! :P

Answer 7

They are a form of man departing the Garden of Eden where by once everything was prety much harvested as was found now the knowledge of Good and Evil and over all just increasing knowledge led them down a path of responsibility. I go with the gap view of the Bible as I merge scientific discoveries with the Word in a way that agrees with the Bible and Science as best possible. Yes I do not believe everything I hear scientists say but search it out myself and try and separate their opinions and the facts. If we do not search it out our selves we are ignorant and have no excuse. More than likely they were just another partition of man kind as their genetic similarity was similar to us already but the differences arose because of our separation. I think its likely that later they again mixed their genetics again just as america is a melting pot of genetics. The differences are from adaptations to their environment which arose from very harsh and strict survival requirements. There are also humans who are adapted to their envionmentment in ways that there are 3 types of ways to survive in extreme altitudes. That dosn't prove that all life had a common ancestor. They still do not know if multiple forms of life started and grew together partitioning together. They also do not know that it is easy for God to tweak genes making it look perfectly natural and giving rise to new species as he sees fit. Only tell tale sign would the the extreme rarity that this much variety of life should exist by pure chance.

Answer 8

i believe God created humans just as much as other animals, such as apes could have evolved as well. God didnt say animals had to stay in one shape obviously.. the remains are parts of the middle area between apes and humans that they are evolving from.. lucy is proof of the middle road

Answer 9

It is possible to come across imaginary drawings everywhere: in a daily newspaper, in a popular science magazine or in an encyclopedia. These imaginary drawings, which do not rely on any scientific fact, are made simply to mislead people.

The absence of fossils to support the theory of evolution causes evolutionists to resort to window-dressing. They draw totally imaginary creatures that have never existed and use these illustrations as a propaganda tool. There is no fossil record indicating that the half-man half-ape creatures in these drawings ever existed. These drawings are intended to mislead people who have limited knowledge on the subject.

Answer 10

It seems that the remains never really look like half ape, half man... they either look like an ape or a man. Jaw structures vary some but we see that even in modern man. My best friend has a strong square jaw line, mine is sloped and pointed near the front. Surely our skinless jawbones would show a big difference but it doesnt mean one of us is more ape than man or born hundreds of thousands of years apart. If bones, skulls and teeth vary so much now, there's no reason to think they didnt thousands of years ago also.