RE: questions about the descent of man

I suppose one can summarize your question by representing the fossil record by a set of points. What are the suppositions made when connecting the points in a particular, temporal order?

Moorad

________________________________

From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu on behalf of Travis Marler
Sent: Thu 6/1/2006 9:57 AM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: questions about the descent of man

I guess first I should introduce myself. I'm Travis. Hi. :) Okay, I'm an
aspiring theologian and Biblical scholar first, but I have a drive for
understanding the world around me and integrating Christian faith with other
fields of study because "all things were created by him, and apart from him
not one thing was created that has been created." (John 1:3) I believe that
the author John understood completely what he was committing to when he
wrote this: the Truth, but at times a confounding mystery full of apparent
confutations and contradictions for humanity. I'm not a YEC, or an OEC, or a
progressive creationist, or necessarily a theistic evolutionist. I just try
to understand the world around me beneath some overarching theological
principles- 1. God is Alpha and Omega, first and last, beginning and end; 2.
God is both Creator and Redeemer, and I tend to believe the two are probably
not completely distinct concepts, but are organically united in some way; 3.
God likes to call light from darkness, bring order from chaos, and bring
good from what was meant for evil; 4. God likes to work in process, just as
His Word has come down to us in progressive revelation culminating in
Christ.

Okay...so that is basically where I'm coming from. :)

I have a lot of honest questions about the descent of man, but don't know
where to turn for answers. First of all, by what criteria do evolutionary
scientists differentiate between human-like species? ie- what
characteristics separate H. sapiens from H. erectus from Neanderthals,
etc... How were those criteria decided upon? Is the criteria valid for
separating human-like fossil remains into entirely different species? How
many fossil remains do we have of the accepted different species? How do we
date them? Among others...

I know that these are questions that aren't going to be easily answered in
an email. ;) Each subject could probably have a multitude of books written
on it. But if anyone could provide some basic answers and then maybe direct
me to some good books on the subject, I'd really appreciate it. :)

Thanks!
Travis Marler
Received on Thu Jun 1 10:50:40 2006