re: Fossils in Greece Suggest Human Ancestors Evolved in Europe, Not Africa

I came here to watch idiots arguing with idiots.

This species of alligator gar is considered a living fossil



LINK

2 species of gar (alligator and spotted) that separated over 100 million years ago and still are able to produce viable offspring

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Evolutionists believe that humans share a common ancestor with the great apes of Africa.

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You are a metabolic organism.
As such, you are basically a collection of replicative proteins that function according to metabolic chemical reactions and processes. A virus is similar, in that it too is a replicative protein complete with mutable DNA and RNA, just as you have. But viruses lack metabolism, and so may not be considered to be alive in the same manner that you definitely are.

You are a eukaryote.
All remaining organic life is distinguished by structural differences at the cellular level between different groups of prokaryotes (which are essentially bacteria) and the eukaryotes (us). Unlike bacterial or viral cells, our cells have a nucleus. Hence, all non-viral / bacterial lifeforms are as we are; eukaryotes.

You are an animal.
Now I've heard a few creationists argue that there are plants and there are animals and then there are human beings. And that none of them are actually related to one another other than through a common creator. They adamantly argue that we are not animals, as if there is some insult in that association. But you are one of only about a half-dozen kingdoms of eukaryotic life forms. Unlike those of most other biological kingdoms, you are incapable of manufacturing your own food and must compensate for that by ingesting other organisms. In other words, your most basic structure requires that you cause death to other living things. Otherwise, you wouldn't have a means of digestion. This, along with some very specific anatomical differences in the chemical composition of our metazoic cells, are the factors that define and distinguish an animal like yourself from all other kingdoms of life. Given the alternative choice between plants, molds, or fungus, animalia should seem reasonable even to the most adamant fundamentalist.

You are a chordate.
You have a spinal chord and every other minute physical distinction of that classification. You also have a skull, which classifies you as a craniate. Note: Not all chordates have skulls, or even bones of any kind. Once one of the chordates has enough calcium deposited around the brain to count as a skull, all of its descendants will share that. This is why absolutely all animals with skulls have spinal chords. And that is yet another commonality that implies common ancestry as opposed to common design.

You are a vertebrate.
Like all mammals, birds, dinosaurs, reptiles, amphibians, and most fish, you have a spine. Not everything with a spinal cord has a spine to put it in, but everything with a spine has a spinal cord in it, implying common descent.

Every animal that has a jaw and teeth (Gnathostomata) also has a backbone. And of course, you have both as well, again implying common descent.

You are a tetrapod.
You have only four limbs. So you are like all other terrestrial vertebrates including frogs. Even snakes and whales are tetrapods in that both still retain vestigial or fetal evidence of all four limbs. This is yet another consistent commonality implying a genetic relationship. There certainly is no creationist explanation for it.

You are synapsid.
Unlike turtles (which are anapsid) and "true" reptiles, dinosaurs and birds (which are all diapsid), your skull has only one temporal fenestra, a commonality between all of the vast collection of "mammal-like reptiles", which are now all extinct without any Biblical recognition or scriptural explanation either for their departure or their presence in the first place.

You are a mammal.
You are homeothermic (warm-blooded), follicle-bearing and have lactal nipples. And of course, not all synapsids are or were mammals, but all mammals are synapsid, implying common descent.

You are eutherian.
Or more specifically, you are a placental mammal, like most other lactal animals from shrews to whales. All eutherians are mammals, but not all mammals are eutherian. There are six major divisions in mammalia, only three of which still exist; those that hatch out of eggs like reptiles (monotremes), marsupials, that are born in the fetal stage and complete their development inside the mother's pouch, and those that developed in a shell-like placenta and were born in the infant stage, as you were. Your own fetal development seems to reveal a similar track of development from a single cell to a tadpole-looking creature, then growing limbs and digits out of your finlike appendages, and finally outgrowing your own tail. Some would consider this an indication of ancestry. Especially since fetal snakes, for example, actually have legs, feet, and cute little toes, which are reabsorbed into the body before hatching, implying common descent.

You are a primate.
You have five fully-developed fingers and five fully-developed toes. Your toes are still prehensile and your hands can grasp with dexterity. You have only two lactal nipples and they are on your chest as opposed to your abdomen. These are pointless in males, which also have a pendulous penis and a well-developed ceacum or appendix, unlike all other mammals. Although your fangs are reduced in size, you do still have them along with some varied dentition indicative of primates exclusively. Your fur is thin and relatively sparse over most of your body. And your claws have been reduced to flat chitinous fingernails. Your fingers themselves have distinctive print patterns. You are also susceptible to AIDS and are mortally allergic to the toxin of the male funnel web spider of Australia (which is deadly to all primates, but only dangerous to primates, which is why you'd better beware of these spiders). And unlike all but one unrelated animal in all the world, your body cannot produce vitamin-C naturally and must have it supplemented in your diet, just as all other primates do. Nearly every one of these individual traits are unique only to primates exclusively. There is almost no other organism on Earth that matches any one of these descriptions separately, but absolutely all of the lemurs, tarsiers, monkeys, apes, you, and I match all of them at once perfectly, implying common descent.

You are an ape.
Your tail is merely a stub of bones that don't even protrude outside the skin. Your dentition includes not only vestigial canines, but incisors, cuspids, bicuspids, and distinctive molars that come to five points interrupted by a "Y" shaped crevasse. This in addition to all of your other traits, like the dramatically increased range of motion in your shoulder, as well as a profound increase in cranial capacity and disposition toward a bipedal gait, indicates that you are not merely a vertebrate cranial chordate and a tetrapoidal placental mammalian primate, but you are more specifically an ape, and so was your mother before you.

Genetic similarity confirms morphological similarity rather conclusively, just as Charles Darwin himself predicted more than 140 years ago. While he knew nothing of DNA of course, he postulated that inheritable units of information must be contributed by either parent. He rather accurately predicted the discovery of DNA by illustrating the need for it. Our 98.4% to 99.4% identical genetic similarity explains why you have such social, behavioral, sexual, developmental, intellectual, and physical resemblance to a bonobo chimpanzee. Similarities that are not shared with any other organism on the planet. Hence you are both different species of the same literal family. In every respect, you are nearly identical. You, sir, are an ape.

You linked to "evolutionnews"

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You linked to "evolutionnews"

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I know, right? What business do Christians have doing science? Amirite? Well, you should probably learn the history of modern science. It began with theists like Galileo, Newton, Kepler, and Boyle- to name a few. They believed not only that the universe was intelligible, and must conform to a discernible set of laws, but that they; being created in the image of the Intelligent Designer, the Law Giver, would be able to identify these parameters, and that it was considered a form of worship of the Creator. In regards to the site I linked, and the content creators thereof- check their credentials. Compare them to your own, and report back.

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It is due to red-light shifting of the light from distant stars in space.

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Is the universe expanding faster than the speed of light?

So, two of the same “kind?”

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Is the universe expanding faster than the speed of light?

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In a sense, yes. You can choose two points in the universe sufficiently far apart such that light can never travel from one point to the other (at the current rate of expansion).

It is important to understand that the "speed" of expansion is not through space but of space itself.

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Every single thing in this world contains information

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I agree. Where did that information come from?

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Are you only considering something to be information once it is observed?

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No. Information exists independently from recognition. But it is always created by an intelligent mind.

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What is a rock if not the sum of information that it contains?

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Again, I agree. Where did that information come from?

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I guess it's not as inescapable as you think

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Not if you deem it to be an illusion. Do you think your car is an illusion? Or was it intelligently designed?

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What parts are improbably finely-tuned?

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Seriously? Have you never looked into this? The finely tuned parameters of the universe

Some popular examples are subject to dispute. And there are some complicated philosophical debates about how to calculate probabilities. Nevertheless, there are many well-established examples of fine-tuning, which are widely accepted even by scientists who are generally hostile to theism and design. For instance, Stephen Hawking has admitted: “The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers [the constants of physics] seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life.”

Cosmic Constants
-Gravitational force constant
-Electromagnetic force constant
-Strong nuclear force constant
-Weak nuclear force constant
-Cosmological constant
-Initial Conditions and “Brute Facts
-Initial distribution of mass energy Ratio of masses for protons and electrons
-Velocity of light
-Mass excess of neutron over proton
-“Local” Planetary Conditions
-Steady plate tectonics with right kind of geological interior
-Right amount of water in crust
-Large moon with right rotation period
-Proper concentration of sulfur
-Right planetary mass
-Near inner edge of circumstellar habitable zone
-Low-eccentricity orbit outside spin-orbit and giant planet resonances
-A few, large Jupiter-mass planetary neighbors in large circular orbits
-Outside spiral arm of galaxy
-Near co-rotation circle of galaxy, in circular orbit around galactic center
-Within the galactic habitable zone
-During the cosmic habitable age-

Explanations to all of the above, and more, in the provided link.

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The first one

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Fair enough. How so?

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You mean the unchanging word which is many versions and translations removed from the original text? And which has had books added and removed over the course of centuries? The Bible has evolved quite a bit over the years.

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That’s a very broad, sweeping statement. Narrow it down, be specific, and let’s talk about it. I used to think the same thing. Until I really looked into it.