Re: Sub-human

Dick Fischer (dfischer@mnsinc.com)
Mon, 14 Jul 1997 16:45:16 -0500

Bill Hamilton wrote:

>I'm with Glenn and Burgy on this one. Plenty of mischief has already been
>worked in the past by virtue of one race or ethnic group deciding that
>another is "backward", "primitive", "less-evolved" etc. I'm loathe to
>repeat those mistakes. Since we are not now in possession of objective,
>replicable criteria for differentiating human from nonhuman or subhuman in
>the fossil record, why not just give _all_ potential ancestors of modern
>day humans the benefit of the doubt? If such criteria ever become
>available, we can change our minds, but like Burgy I am doubtful they will.

After reflection, count me in. Now what is Lucy, human, sub-human or
non-human?

Dick Fischer
THE ORIGINS SOLUTION
http://www.orisol.com