They don't have to. The fact that they believe this was a primitive burial
ritual, says all I need to know theologically. An idiot savant, is
theologically fully human even if he is quite different mentally from you or
me. These people were aware of death in a sense unlike any animal.
> At most, they would call it incipient humanity, which unfortunately
>is not enough to support your theory. This is the eternal struggle you have
>when citing evolutionist sources. Frankly, I don't see how you can ever get
>out of it.
>
I don't have to have the evolutionist agree with me. I don't know why you
continue to think I do. I can cite their fact, e.g. the fact of special
mortuary practice, and then interpret that fact within my own framework. If
we need to have an evolutionist agree with us before we cite them, then
neither you nor I should ever cite anyone. So, Jim, stop quoting those
evolutionists.
><< This is the
>same issue each of us must face as sinful beings before an almighty God. If
>they were struggling with these issues, as we do, why is this not evidence
>of spirituality, more than 300,000 years ago, among the pre-Neanderthal
>populations, like the Sima people?>>
>
>"Struggling" with these issues? It sound like you have them sitting around,
>brandy snifters in hand, contemplating the immortality of the soul. This is a
>vast interpretive leap.
Burial ritual is something no animal does, not even the elephants or the
dolphins who are supposed to be so smart. The act of special burial ritual
is ipso facto a contemplation of the fate of the soul--whether or not they
had brandy sniffers.
>
><<The ritual treatment of the bodies has resulted in this single site
>providing 90 percent of all pre-Neandertal bones ever found in Europe>>
>
>Somehow I don't think bodies thrown in a pit is real strong evidence of
>"ritual burial," or professorial bipeds "struggling" with the issues of
>existence. It was more likely the best way to keep the old homestead clean.
>Would you want rotting carcassas all over your neighborhood? (I'm not from
>Texas so I can't answer that last one).
>
They had to carry the body deep into the cave (which pit is now about 1600
feet from the present entrance. That is a lot of carrying. And even if
there was a nearer entrance at that time, men do not go into dark caves
without torches. Besides, carrying those bodies is a lot of work. What
animal carries dead bodies that far???
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm