When Humans Faced Extinction

BBC ^ | 6-10-2003 | Dr David Whitehouse

[Mamzelle]

The Hans Vavink scientists of the origins of anything...

Poor data makes for junk science--and no accountability makes for poor data. These are unknowable things, yet the scientists make such outlandish assertions. Any time the theories run into rough patches, they are helped out by "Hans Vavink"--you know, "And zen a millions years happens" --with hands waving.

[CobaltBlue]

This is sort of OT but speaking of self-selection, have you read any of the recent research on human sperm? There are different types of sperm that have different functions - killers, blockers, and egg-getters.

[I got the rope]

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=9600951

I found this, but I also found that Vela Supernova occurred 11K yrs ago.This does not fall within the 70-140k window.

Would this be enough time?

[r9etb]

IF this is true, then I think it pretty much invalidates those Cro Magnon/Neanderthal genetic studies.

[Paradox]

That settles it then, the origin of mankind. Seems to me then that it was about 70,000 years ago that the Nommos came to earth, and hand selected these 2000 individuals to breed.

How do I know this? Well, because the Dogon say so! Hey, they've been right before....

[blam]

"This is sort of OT but speaking of self-selection, have you read any of the recent research on human sperm? There are different types of sperm that have different functions - killers, blockers, and egg-getters."

Yup, read that too. I had a discussion with my son( Dr blam) at Christmas.

I proposed to him that humans are evolving daily to comprehend pollution and all the other things that we're worried about these days. The 'selectivity' is occuring at the egg/sperm interface and post fertilization spontaneous abortions. If the mother's body is polluted, only the unions that can withstand the pollution will survive to birth. So...we're having births of stronger humans daily.

[onedoug]

Not necessarily inconsistent with Torah.

[SauronOfMordor]

I've been thinking that God breathing life into Adam might be an allegory for God bestowing souls on vessels that he had created through a process that would leave the fossil record we find. My first thought on reading this was that perhaps those 2,000 were that group.

From reading some Jewish Kabbalist references, there's some argument in those quarters that Adam and Eve were the first "spiritually aware" humans (which is used to explain things like "who did cain marry" and "who went to live in the city that he built", etc), and that non-spiritually-aware humans pre-existed

[RightWhale]

This is the first time I have seen the mention that the human race was so close to extinction aside from your own posts. So, it appears that we all emerged ancestrally from Africa, but not long ago and only because human life was extinguished everywhere else. I know some Chinese are not going to buy this hypothesis. They are taught in school that they evolved in China and that they were the earliest humans to evolve, and so are evolutionarily the most advanced.

[Aric2000]

You must be speaking of ID, either that, or anything that collides with your worldview is junk science.

[nightdriver]

"The small genetic diversity of modern humans indicates that at some stage during the last 100,000 years, the human population dwindled to a very low level."

In fact, it's interesting that the Bible gives a tantalizing glimpse into the past where a prophet says that man was completely eliminated long before Adam but the Earth was left intact.

[ffusco]

I've seen that study. Interesting to notice that certain clues indicate health and fecundity- facial symetry, clear skin, long legs.

[MEGoody]

One theory for the 'virtually identical DNA' among all humans is that, at one point, we were almost extinct.

Another theory that also fits is that we all came from Adam and Eve.

It all boils down to what one wishes to believe.

[MEGoody]

"In fact, it's interesting that the Bible gives a tantalizing glimpse into the past where a prophet says that man was completely eliminated long before Adam but the Earth was left intact."

Which prophet was this?

[JimSEA]

An interesting counter to this can be found in the special edition of Scientific American on human evolution -- Alan G. Thome and Milford H. Wolpoff "The Multiregional Evolution of Humans". The fossil record does not necessarily fit with the "out of Africa 70,000 years ago" senario. Perhaps this is an arguement withour end for the immediate future at least.

[stuartcr]

Or from one blob of protoplasm....

[nightdriver]

"Which prophet was this?"

Take a look at Jeremiah 4, along about verse 22-25 or so and tell me where you think the prophet is looking.

[FreedomCalls]

The Khosian Bushmen are physically unique among humans alive today. The ... men have a perpetual semi-erect penis.

Almost true. That physical characteristic also occurs among University of Florida freshmen.

[Doctor Stochastic]

It all boils down to what one wishes to believe.

The essential Post-Modernist-Deconstructionist point of view. The primary difference between the scientific viewpoint and that of the Creationist-PMD axis is that "it" doesn't depend on what one wishes to believe; it depends on the evidence whether one wishes for it or not.

[Mamzelle]

I suppose I use "junk science" in much the same way that skeptics refer to "superstition."

But if it can't be reproduced, it's not science. If there's no doubleblind, it's not science.

Another way you can tell real science from junk is the way the scientist qualifies his assertions. For instance, pharmeceudical studies are mazes of qualifications--that's because if the lab manager makes assertions too boldly, his medicines will kill people and his career will be over.

But the Carl Sagans and paleantologists can make such "it is understood that Nellie Neanderthal got a divorce from Hymie Sapiens oh...hans vavink in air...about ten million years ago." Who's to say the divorce didn't take place?