Richard Wein wrote:
>From: Cliff Lundberg <cliff@cab.com>
>
>>Somewhere there must be a web site listing all the latest crank theories
>>about evolution that are pouring in. Perhaps Richard has run across a URL
>>in talk.origins.
>
>Try http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/cranks.html
>
>(This page is limited to human evolution only. Otherwise, I would have
>submitted Cliff's site for inclusion.)
The site lists 8 theories:
1. Phrenology [a 19th Century idea]
2. Dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA], Melatonin, & Testosterone in Human Evolution
[This sounds too complex to be a really cranky theory]
3. Ed Conrad's rock collection [Ed thinks they're human fossils; not much of a
theory]
4. Homosexuality was crucial to human evolution [No doubt an exaggeration,
but homosexual behavior is exhibited by many social animals and therefore
might have some role in their evolution.]
5. Could Neandertals be the Nephilim (Genesis 6:4) mentioned in the Bible?
[What if they were?]
6. Homo Summetros [a cult for those who think they're an evolutionary advance]
7. "All of the "hominid" fossils are upright-walking primates, better known
under
such names as the Yeti and Bigfoot. [I guess anybody with a new idea in
evolutionary theory might as well be a Bigfoot enthusiast.]
8. "Dawn Races of Early Man ... from the Urantia Book." [I'm not going to
bother looking this one up]
I haven't commented here about the specialized field of human evolution
but I have to say this short list of crank theories, some from the 19th
Century,
does not support the notion that evolutionary theory is perpetually bedeviled
by crackpots with wild new ideas. It only seems that way to some people, for
reasons only they can explain.
--Cliff Lundberg ~ San Francisco ~ 415-648-0208 ~ cliff@cab.com
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