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WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THE HUMAN ORIGIN? PHL 103 BY SADIA GHOURY. HISTORY OF HUMAN EVOLUTION.
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WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THE HUMAN ORIGIN?PHL 103BYSADIA GHOURY
HISTORY OF HUMAN EVOLUTION • Perhaps the most essential questions we can ask ourselves are Who am I? Where do I come from? and Where am I going? Scientists would have us believe that we developed from a cell-like entity through random genetic mutations and the continued survival of the fittest forms, which eventually evolved into apelike beings, then primitive hominids, and finally Homo sapiens. • Before this the Bible and its creation story were relied on, so that remains of extinct animals and men were not recognized or acknowledged for what they were. • Early in the nineteenth century Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology described uniformitarianism, a principle which Darwin used in his Origin of Species, introducing the idea of gradual evolution of one species into another under the influence of natural selection. In his Descent of Man Darwin suggested that man descended from an apelike being, probably in a tropical area. • In the search for human ancestors, scientists focus on factors that supposedly show whether the remains are human or not. But bipedalism, brain size, tool making, and language do not give a full explanation, and scientists have not fully defined what Homo sapiens are.
Belief in evolution is a remarkable phenomenon !! While the details of human origin are still quiet controversial among paleontologists , the emerging consensus is that there have been at least five species of humans, all of them evolving in Africa, and four of them migrating out in successive waves to Europe and Africa. WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THE HUMAN ORIGIN?
Evolution & Culture • The survey presented in 2009, at the World Conference of Science Journalists in London by the British Council as part of its international program Darwin Now, asked more than 10,000 adults across Argentina, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Great Britain, and the United States about their knowledge and acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution. • Although the majority of adults surveyed in India (77%), China (72%), Mexico (65%), the United Kingdom (62%), Spain (61%), and Argentina (57%) accepted the theory of evolution as scientifically founded, only 48% did so in Russia, 42% in South Africa, 41% in the United States, and 25% in Egypt. • Acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution didn't necessarily correlate with a rejection of creationism. The three countries with the greatest proportion of people (43%) believing that life on Earth was created by a god and has always existed in its current form were the United States, South Africa, and India. • The country that showed greatest support for the idea that evolution without a God guided the development of all life was China (67%), followed by Mexico (42%), the United Kingdom and Spain (38%), Argentina (37%), and Russia (32%). In Egypt, however, half of the adults surveyed believed in the evolution of human life in a process guided by a God.
DID OUR SPECIES EVOLVED ONLY IN AFRICA? • The first species of humans Homo Habilis , evolved in Africa a few million years ago. • A second bigger-brained species, Homo Erectus spread out of Africa to Asia, Europe and rest of the world. • Later, migration of Homo Erectus spread out only to be replaced by our species, Homo Sapiens. • Some research suggests that not all our species evolved in Africa, only Homo sapiens evolved in Africa and then migrated out.
What sets us apart from other Animals? • Human Socialization • Learn norms of our culture • Ability to take another person’s perspective • Mind-reading skill (begins with joint attention) • Language
Slow-growing Frontal Lobes • Compared to other parts of the brain, frontal lobe development is on a delayed timetable. • As frontal lobes mature throughout childhood and adolescence, our ability to think through, inhibit, and plan our actions gradually improves. • The brain of a chimpanzee has been measured at ~337 cc~393 cc,with a general range of 282–500 cc. Human brains, in contrast, have been measured as being three times larger, variously reported volumes include ~1,299 cc, ~1,158 cc and averages of ~1330 cc. • Human brain vs. an Australopithecus!!!
Primate Observations!! • The scientific name for the Chimpanzee I studied was Pan Troglodytes. The chimpanzees belonged to the Haplorhine suborder. Chimpanzees are great apes that live in the tropical rain forests of Africa from Sudan and Tanzania in the East to Senegal and Angola in the West. • Chimpanzees are the most social of all the apes living in communities. • Travel mostly on the ground (terrestrial) by knuckle walking. • Chimpanzees use tools to gain access to food, such as fishing for termites with sticks fashioned for the job and cracking open nuts with anvil-like rocks. • Chimpanzees have a long mother-infant dependency period where infants will nurse on their mothers for 5 years and stay with their mothers several more years learning to care for younger siblings. Infant: Birth to 5 years (nursed and carried by mother) Juvenile: 5 to 8 years Early Adolescence: Female - 8 to 10 years Male - 8 to 12 years Late Adolescence: Female - 11 to 14 years Male - 13 to 15 years Maturity: 16 to 33 years Old Age: 33 years to death
Opposition of EVOLUTION By Bryan 1925 • When William Jennings Bryan took on evolution in a courtroom in Tennessee in 1925, in the famous Scopes “Monkey” trial, he acknowledged that he did not fully understand the theory of evolution, but said that he fully understood the theory’s dangers and misuse: how it threatened to leave students feeling lost in an uncaring universe, how it could lead to sterilization of the abnormal and diminished concern for the survival of the “unfit.” Bryan cheerfully ignored the evidence for evolution, explaining, “I would rather begin with God and reason down than begin with a piece of dirt and reason up.” • By 1920, Bryan identified evolution as “the most paralyzing influence with which civilization has had to contend during the last century.” The next year, he stepped to prominence on the issue when he published a full-fledged attack on evolution in a pamphlet, “The Menace of Darwinism.
Evolution Is Not Happening Now First of all, the lack of a case for evolution is clear from the fact that no one has ever seen it happen. If it were a real process, evolution should still be occurring, and there should be many "transitional" forms that we could observe. What we see instead, of course, is an array of distinct "kinds" of plants and animals with many varieties within each kind, but with very clear and apparently unbridgeable gaps between the kinds. That is, for example, there are many varieties of dogs and many varieties of cats, but no "dats" or "cogs." Such variation is often called microevolution, and these minor horizontal (or downward) changes occur fairly often, but such changes are not true "vertical" evolution.
Info on the net…….. • DEALING WITH ANTIEVOLUTIONISM • EUGENIE C. SCOTT • DEFUSE THE RELIGION ISSUE • http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/fosrec/Scott2.html • Non-religious opposition to Darwinism • Posted by athen on April 6, 2013 at 1:40am in Science • http://www.atheistnexus.org/forum/topics/non-religious-opposition-to-darwinism http://www.evolutionandislam.com/faq
My Evaluation • My overall experience for the investigation of human origin was very thrilling and interesting. It helped me look at the similarities between chimps and humans in more detail and observing their behavior was very enlightening. However another factor that can enhance my data collection in primatological research would be carrying out the field experiment in their natural habitat. I would prefer studying chimps in greater detail and over a longer period of time as the observations we carried out had certain limitations attached to it. The habitat was not natural therefore the influences were outnumbered and also the results we got while observing a group of chimps is not generalized to the entire primate population. Also the main focus of my project was to obtain enough evidence to prove how we as a human race are so similar to apes and in fact has evolved from them; however the research evidence I have collected is not enough to prove anything. I still am a firm believer of evolution being the cause of our Existence however there are bigger facts, research and studies carried out that can easily contradict my beliefs.
