Not sure I understand this. I am a Christian and it is no embarrassment to
me to find out Neandertal, for instance, was alot more humane than he was
originally given credit for. If he were made in the image of God, as I
believe, that precisely should be the case.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.. Pr. 3:5
Ron Chitwood
chitw@flash.net
----------
> From: David J. Tyler <D.Tyler@mmu.ac.uk>
> To: evolution@calvin.edu
> Subject: Re: Image of God: Magic among the Neandertals and other tales
> Date: Wednesday, May 27, 1998 8:54 AM
>
> On Mon, 25 May 1998, Glenn Morton responded to Jim Bell:
>
> > At 12:35 PM 5/25/98 -0400, Jim Bell wrote:
> > >Great point! In all of the debate raging about the humanity (or not)
of
> > >Neanderthal, the issue clearly is the definition of humanity. Glenn
and
> > >others point to evidence of Neanderthal's reflective consciousness
(e.g.,
> > >burial sites) or "art" (such as it is) as, perforce, evidence of
humanity.
> > >
> > >This, however, may be based on an erroneous definition of "humanity."
If
> > >so, the house of cards crumbles.
> Glenn has given further support for his position, concluding:
> "If Neanderthal didn't have the image of God, he did a fine job of
> faking one." I would like to add a few comments, based on a
> newspaper story.
>
> Headline: Caring cave dwellers were early 'new men'
> Author: Rajeev Syal
> Source: The Sunday Times, 19 April 1998. page 15.
>
> The article is based on a book by Richard Rudgley with the title
> "Lost civilisations of the Stone Age", to be published this Autumn.
> Rudgley is an Anthropologist at Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.
>
> The "caring" description is supported by the discovery in northern
> Iraq of a badly disabled man (withered right side, one eye, severe
> arthritis) who lived to 40. "This suggests that his community not
> only accepted him but also cared for him until he was prematurely
> killed by a falling rock. " This discovery was dated at 46,000 yrs.
>
> Another evidence, this time from Italy, was of a dwarf. "...
> surprising because most anthropologists believed dwarfs were
> abandoned to die".
>
> "... according to Rudgley, Stone Age man learnt to analyse the
> movements of the stars and interpret the moon's cycle. Scientific
> analysis of 30,000-year-old engraved bones in Africa reveals groups
> of 28 notches signifying the days of the lunar month."
>
> There's much more! Rudgley does not appear to make too much of the
> different races of ancient man - although that may be the reporter's
> slant on the book.
>
> It seems to me that the more we look, the more we find evidences of
> Stone Age men thinking and behaving in very human ways. Glenn is
> right, IMO, to point out that this is an embarassment for Christians
> who want to exclude Neanderthals, Homo heidelbergensis and Homo
> erectus from the Basic Type of humanity.
>
> Best wishes,
> David J. Tyler.
>
>
>
> *** From David J. Tyler, CDT Department, Hollings Faculty,
> Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
> Telephone: 0161-247-2636 ***