Re: [asa] First human

Hi Murray, Your most recent posts have become more hypothetical and poetic, so I need first to ask a simple question, before moving to other issues: Are you actually *suggesting* polygenesis or just proposing it as an open possibility that desreves more exploration (by theologians)? The idea of 'special' or 'imago Dei' obviously looks, sounds and feels quite different from a 'multiple origins' scenario, I'm sure you'll admit. - Greg  p.s. No, you're mistaken if you believe i am making a physical science [i.e. Darwinist] assumption. I am not. This simply is not the case at all. 'Logic' is not a physical science. Perhaps you are missing some philosophy in what you're suggesting? ________________________________ From: Murray Hogg <muzhogg@netspace.net.au> To: ASA <asa@calvin.edu> Sent: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 11:04:03 PM Subject: Re: [asa] First human It's in the very nature of dating of archaeological evidence that there are very broad uncertainties on the measurements - so "at about the same time" means precisely that. The important point is that there is NO line of descent between the various cultural developments in question - so it doesn't really matter whether they happened at precisely the same moment or over the space of hundreds of years. What matter is this: if one chooses to define "human" by appeal to cultural phenomena of the sort in question (a more or less "socio-cultural" rather than "biological" or "theological" definition), then this would be inconsistent with the idea that there is a first human pair from which all humans are descended. Which, needless to say, gives lie to the claim that humans NECESSARILY descend from an original pair (actually, I'm surprised that Greg, given his HSS perspective, doesn't recognize the physical science [i.e. Darwinist] assumption he HIMSELF is making in his argument for a "first human" - but there you go). All that needs to be added is that (1) one could still argue for common ancestry if one chooses another definition; and (2) it could be argued that this sudden development in human cultures came about due to some divine activity occurring at more than one place among more than one group of people - so I think it quite possible that one could argue theologically that "at about the same time" to mean "simultaneously." Blessings, Murray __________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Canada Toolbar: Search from anywhere on the web, and bookmark your favourite sites. Download it now http://ca.toolbar.yahoo.com.

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Received on Tue Oct 6 16:13:49 2009