Posted on 07/22/2009 3:53:18 PM PDT by rdl6989
Let’s come out with a more honest headline:
“Evidence Suggests Neanderthal Man Died.”
Time travel—so easy, even a modern man can do it?
Actually, I don’t think “evidence suggests” is terribly accurate. A speculative deduction suggests this conclusion.
But even the degree of caution contained in “evidence suggests” will be forgotten as this speculative theory makes its way into textbooks, as I guarantee it will.
Young skulls full of mush will read in their world history textbooks about how the early humans killed off the Neanderthals because they had acquired the spear-throwing ability and the Neanderthals had not. It will become simple fact reported in textbooks, I guarantee it.
And the same people that spout this as solid fact will get all up in arms about even the slightest claims about religious belief in textbooks, religious beliefs that mesh well with empirical observation of how people have lived and thought over many centuries (e.g., the Ten Commandments or an ordered universe suggesting an Orderer).
Not to mention the Black Legend about religion causing all wars or the evil Christians compared to the noble Muslims over the centuries that are taken as fact in textbooks when plenty of evidence suggests otherwise. There, I mentioned it.
“The speculation that humans drove neanderthals extinct is an attractive one, despite the scant amounts of evidence.”
Attractive to whom? Some people are attracted to the speculation that Marilyn Monroe was murdered by RFK or that Zero was born in Kenya. There’s evidence for both of these, of differing levels of probative force.
That humans drove Neantherthals to extinction is speculation. I don’t mind it being reported as speculation. But the problem is that when scientists speculate (create theories, explanatory models based on data) they are automatically granted a kind of authority that they do not always deserve.
If scientists would just police their own neighborhood and not claim “science” for near total speculation but only for theories or explanatory models well-tested and verified by sufficient evidence, I’d be happy. People see “scientist” and they blindly give credence, far more blindly than the supposed stoooooooppppiiiiidddd peasants of the past gave credence to Christianity. Some “science” is 99% speculation, some is $.0009 percent speculation but the practitioners of the former get a free ride on the practicing of the latter. And they know it and take advantage of it.
Talk about a cold case.
additional:
Prehistoric cold case shows hints of interspecies homicide
Duke University | Jul 20, 2009 | Unknown
Posted on 07/20/2009 2:43:00 PM PDT by decimon
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2296945/posts
related sidebars, from the archives:
Were Neanderthals stoned to death by modern humans?
New Scientist | Thursday, November 20, 2008 | Ewen Callaway
Posted on 11/20/2008 6:21:58 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2135699/posts
Neanderthal Weaponry Lacked Projectile Advantage
Discovery | Jan. 14, 2009 | Jennifer Viegas
Posted on 01/15/2009 5:18:56 PM PST by decimon
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2165443/posts
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Gods |
Thanks rdl6989.To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127] |
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