We’ve had many threads over the years about evolution. None has changed my mind, to me it’s a ridiculous notion. The questions about our evolution into ■■■■ sapiens are numerous and unanswered, and I don’t believe they can be answered. But instead of focusing on the evolution leading to ■■■■ sapiens, I would like to explore history AFTER we arrived. There are lots of questions that come to my mind that still demonstrate the absurdity of evolution which don’t involve the science stuff like DNA or mutations, dominant genes etc.
For this discussion, let’s assume we’re in the first generation of ■■■■ sapiens, newly evolved. Put this in time wherever you wish.
I believe there had to be a small time frame when the first generation appeared, so how did we get from that point to civilization? How long did the first generation live? What are the historical events, the time of these events that took us from newly evolved to civilization? From there to here, what do you believe?
We know species evolve, there are however huge gaps when it comes to proof of species evolving into new species particularly with humans.
To be a completely new species the newer version would be incapable of breeding with and producing viable offspring and recent advancements in genetics show that wasn’t the case with modern humans and Neanderthals.
The best evidence we have today is that they did interbreed and produce viable offspring so either we need to change the definition of speciation or admit that while humans have advanced it’s more of a move from one subspecies to the next.
Our understanding of human civilization goes back roughly 10,000 years BC. Which I’m still trying to learn. There’s about 150,000+ years to go before that - when we likely were nomadic hunter / gatherers with limited language. Sexual selection may have provided pressures on art and language. As we developed better tools and were able to efficiently hunt, we likely had more downtime to and energy to establish ‘civilizations’ which were more leisurely activities in terms of contextual evolution.
There are some interesting theories that we once inhabited Antarctica during a warmer period (going off ancient maps) and that relatively “advanced” civilizations existed before the ice age.
Yes there certainly are, hence the term “missing link”. We actually have multiple missing links and no evidence the new “species” could not interbreed with others/pre existing producing viable offspring.
Species don’t “just appear” in evolution. It isn’t linear. It’s a branching, more like a tree. We don’t really know how many or what all the sub species were. It’s possible that different species in our ancestry worked together in a common ecosystem, like others do today.
We likely evolved “civilization” in some form of:
Hunter / gatherer tribes → tools / weapons → agriculture → bronze / copper / iron / stone ages → industrial age → technological age.
You can see the cultural religions evolve along with each of these phases, where fertility gods of ancient civilization have now been replaced with more abstract concepts of humanism (we don’t pray to the rain Gods or the thunder gods in the hopes of a harvest)
Note that tool making and language are observed in some ape species, currently, along with social hierarchies of power.
I believe prior to the flood that the earth wasn’t tilted on its axis as it is now. This would have meant a temperate climate all over. I also think the oxygen content was considerably higher. The earth was essentially a big barometric chamber. This allowed for the gigantic creatures to grow and exist all over the world.
Human beings are born of a woman as the result of a sexual act. You say they didn’t just appear, yet they had to essentially do just that. Conditions had to be the same in terms of the time evolution had already been underway. The climate had to be favorable everywhere humans were emerging… There had to be a window of time that allowed us specifically to appear. Given our frailty and the short lifespans that would have been likely, it couldn’t have been a long process.
Cycles of civilization. Over the course of the Sapien Saga, we have shared this planet with at least a half dozen other species of human.
Every so often in our history, we have survived an extinction event (like the one following the Younger Dryas events), and there are less species of humans as a result.
Currently, we’re the last survivors. There are no more Denisovans, Neanderthals, Hobbits, etc… When we’re gone, that’s it.
No, that’s not how evolution works. Speciation is a very long and gradual BRANCHING process of slight variations - not linear, out comes a new species. I remember explaining in another thread…
If 2 populations of the same species A diverge, call them A1 and A2 (by diverge I mean geographically):
A1 gives birth to B1, slight variation
A2 gives birth to C1, slight variation
A1 can mate with B1
A2 can mate with C1
But B1 an’t mate with C1.
Genetic relations aren’t transitive in terms of reproductive ability. It’s more likely that humams gradually appeared tgrough a long branching process if slight variation.
The theory is that we came out of Africa and slowly migrated into Asia and Europe. What is this “everywhere” you speak of?
What frailty? Have you ever watched the NFL? The human body is capable of much strength.
Moreover, bipedalism brough mamy survival advantages. It’s not likely we lost our muscular strength in the furst generation. Neanderthals were very muscular.
