> ...
> I don't think it is a stretch, unless you think non-spiritual apelike
> hominids, with no soul, are able to make musical instruments. Remember this
> flute is a multi-tone instrument like many (but not all) of the Upper
> Paleolithic flutes. If that is your position, then I would have to disagree
> that nonspiritual, apelike hominids have those capabilities. I simply do not
> find it plausible to say that people who have the same capabilities that I do
> are not descendants of Adam. ...
I think, Glenn, that you are guilty of an equivocation here. Grant
that early hominids made significantly complex musical instruments. Does
that prove they were "spiritual" in the sense of having knowledge of God
or being able to relate to God? Your evidence would only support a sense
of "spiritual" meaning something like "able to express emotions."
The Venus figurine is of no help either. Isn't it possible that early
hominids with a sufficiently evolved mind would do just what Christians
are often charged with doing--"inventing" God? That these people "had
religious beliefs"--still a conclusion only weakly supported by the
evidence, in my opinion--does not entail that they "have the same
capabilities as I do." *That* they had religious beliefs entails nothing
about *what* they believed. It is certaily possible to agree with you
about their capabilities, and still deny that they were descendents of
Adam, because we just don't know (and, in the nature of the case, very
likely never will) *what* they believed. Idolatrous practice does not
entail Adamic descent; I find nothing implausible about this.
Garry