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Did Early Man Have a Soul?
CEH ^ | April 8, 2009

Posted on 04/09/2009 8:33:10 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts

Did Early Man Have a Soul?

April 8, 2009 — Some recent discoveries are surprising paleoanthropologists by how much some early ancestors seem – well, human.  We’re talking about ancestors half a million years old in the evolutionary scheme.  They were supposed to be prior to Homo sapiens and the Neanderthals, but they seem to exhibit intelligence and compassion.

A report on New Scientist inferred that these early humans cared for the disabled.  The skull of a child found in Spain suggests it was mentally retarded.  To be able to live to age 12 indicates its parents or the social group cared for the individual.  They claim the skull is 500,000 years old.

Another find surprised evolutionists.  Ann Gibbons reported in Science Now the earliest stone tools ever found – said to be 500,000 years old.  “Paleoanthropologists working in Africa have discovered stone blades more than a half-million years old,” she wrote.  “That pushes the date of the earliest known blades back a remarkable 150,000 years and raises a question: What human ancestor made them?”  A little history lesson shows just how remarkable this is:

Not long ago, researchers thought that blades were so hard to make that they had to be the handiwork of modern humans, who had evolved the mental wherewithal to systematically strike a cobble in the right way to produce blades and not just crude stone flakes.  First, they were thought to be a hallmark of the late Stone Age, which began 40,000 years ago.  Later, blades were thought to have emerged in the Middle Stone Age, which began about 200,000 years ago when modern humans arose in Africa and invented a new industry of more sophisticated stone tools.  But this view has been challenged in recent years as researchers discovered blades that dated to 380,000 years in the Middle East and to almost 300,000 years ago in Europe, where Neandertals may have made them (ScienceNOW, 1 December 2008).

Now it appears that more than 500,000 years ago, human ancestors living in the Baringo Basin of Kenya collected lava stone cobbles from a riverbed and hammered them in just the right way to produce stone blades.

It should be remembered that all of recorded human history, in which man went from stone tablets to interplanetary space flight, covers just 10,000 years.  Scientists must be shocked at this announcement; “the discovery of blades this early suggests that these toolmakers were capable of more sophisticated behavior than previously thought,” Gibbons wrote.  She ended by hinting that maybe even older blades are waiting to be found.

The evolutionary picture of early man has stretched credibility way, way beyond the breaking point.  Every year it seems to get worse for them.  Who could possibly believe that beings as anatomically close to us, with brains our size, just sat around in caves caring for retarded children and making tools without learning how to ride a horse, farm, write and build cities for 450,000 years – 45 times longer than recorded history?  How much longer before the scholarly community rises up and tells these storytellers they have no idea what they are talking about?


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: creation; evolution; godsgravesglyphs; goodgodimnutz; idjunkscience; intelligentdesign
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1 posted on 04/09/2009 8:33:10 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts
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To: All

2 posted on 04/09/2009 8:33:34 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts
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To: GodGunsGuts

Adam did, and he’s the earliest :>)


3 posted on 04/09/2009 8:33:45 AM PDT by irishtenor (Beer. God's way of making sure the Irish don't take over the world.)
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To: metmom; DaveLoneRanger; editor-surveyor; betty boop; Alamo-Girl; MrB; GourmetDan; Fichori; ...

Ping!


4 posted on 04/09/2009 8:34:18 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts
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To: MrB

I tried your advice on resizing the CEH cartoons, and it worked!


5 posted on 04/09/2009 8:35:13 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts
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To: GodGunsGuts

I’m not even sure that everyone I meet on the street has a soul.


6 posted on 04/09/2009 8:35:45 AM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 80 of our national holiday from reality.)
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To: irishtenor

Cool tagline!


7 posted on 04/09/2009 8:35:49 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts
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To: null and void

They have souls. They may have a totally seared conscience that doesn’t function anymore, but they have souls.


8 posted on 04/09/2009 8:38:14 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: GodGunsGuts
RE :”A report on New Scientist inferred that these early humans cared for the disabled. The skull of a child found in Spain suggests it was mentally retarded. To be able to live to age 12 indicates its parents or the social group cared for the individual. They claim the skull is 500,000 years old.

WOW. Big discovery. I remember finding a baby bird on the street as a kid and wanted to help it and the mother kept circling me screeching to scare me away. I guess this is scientific proof birds have souls. Stop trying to prove your beliefs, it's called “Faith” for a reason. Have faith.

9 posted on 04/09/2009 8:39:45 AM PDT by sickoflibs (RNC Party Theme : "We may be socialists, but they are Marxists!")
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To: GodGunsGuts

Thanks, and oh so true :>)


10 posted on 04/09/2009 8:40:57 AM PDT by irishtenor (Beer. God's way of making sure the Irish don't take over the world.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

*shrug* YMMV.


11 posted on 04/09/2009 8:42:09 AM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 80 of our national holiday from reality.)
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To: GodGunsGuts
"Did Early Man Have a Soul?"

Saw a tagline that read;

You are a soul.

You have a body.

12 posted on 04/09/2009 8:44:07 AM PDT by freedom9
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To: GodGunsGuts

Is the soul separate from self? No, you are your soul.


13 posted on 04/09/2009 8:44:09 AM PDT by Islander7 (If you want to anger conservatives, lie to them. If you want to anger liberals, tell them the truth.)
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To: GodGunsGuts
"Did Early Man Have a Soul?"

Saw a tagline that read;

You are a soul.

You have a body.

14 posted on 04/09/2009 8:44:27 AM PDT by freedom9
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To: GodGunsGuts

Thanks for the ping!


15 posted on 04/09/2009 8:47:25 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: SunkenCiv

GGG ping — hopefully not a crevo thread


16 posted on 04/09/2009 8:47:55 AM PDT by Fractal Trader
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To: sickoflibs

I guess our having just elected a retard President proves we have soul ...


17 posted on 04/09/2009 8:49:48 AM PDT by sailor4321
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To: GodGunsGuts
By definition, the soul is not measurable, cannot be scientifically detected. Animals have minds, care for their offspring etc. They do not have souls/free will. That we have souls and free will is based not on observable behavior alone but on religious/philosophical belief. Science cannot say one way or the other that we have (do not have) souls--even with regard to living, breathing, observable people today. To claim that we do not is to make a religious statement. To claim that we do is to make a religious statement. To claim that we do not have souls and to claim that science shows that we do not is to make a self-refuting statement that shows one knows neither science nor philosophy.

Much less can we, therefore, decide whether ancient hominids had souls. There's no way to tell, based on fossil remains.

Period. End of discussion.

Scientists who claim that man originated from these hominids usually simply bypass the soul question because they don't believe in souls. If one does not believe in the human soul, then one can readily say, we originated directly from these hominids. But if one believes in a soul, then the origination can at most be indirect, with the God-created soul being added at some indetectible point.

18 posted on 04/09/2009 8:52:27 AM PDT by Houghton M.
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To: GodGunsGuts

Soul = Intellect + Will + Emotions


19 posted on 04/09/2009 8:56:39 AM PDT by Cedric
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To: null and void

OK, that’s pretty funny.


20 posted on 04/09/2009 8:56:45 AM PDT by utahagen
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