Thank you, indeed food for thought. Definitely we need more people who understand critical thinking. It it is needed in many walks of life and I hope the politicians can be kept out of the transition. As a grandmother I hope the ignorant can be led out of the wilderness into the light. Excellent lecture. Thank you from Australia.
Richard Leakey and Donald Johanson are legends in the field of paleoanthropology, and this conversation ought to debunk any and all Creationism claims to divine intervention in any literal sense in the process. Instead, religion ought to embrace modern science and incorporate it into religious thought. Leakey is quite right in noting that too many young scientists seem intent on making headlines and promoting themselves rather than focusing on finding the truth about human evolution. This temptation seems to be particularly great among cultural anthropologists who draw inferences from the very meager fossil record and limited DNA research. Speculation abounds. Modern values and perspectives are often imputed to earlier species on evidence less substantial than smoke, largely for the sake of headlines. The fossil record and DNA simply cannot tell us how earlier species lived and interacted. We simply don't know. Finally, Leakey is correct in admonishing students to see homo sapiens in context, as one species among many. There is a natural tendency for the uninformed to see evolution as a steady progress from simple life forms to more complex ones, ending in homo sapiens as the end and crowning purpose of evolution. That's nonsense, of course. Evolution has no direction. New species evolve from older life forms and adapt to ever-changing environmental pressures, seen and unseen. Evolution has not stopped. It is going on all around us, and within us, at molecular and genetic levels, changes too subtle to be seen in one or two generations, but that will gradually change what we are. We have only been around, as a species, a little over 200,000 years. In one million years, if our species lasts that long, future scientists may well look back at us with the same disbelief and smug superiority with which humans today look back at Neanderthals or Australopithecines. The defining characteristic of homo sapiens is higher intelligence, and it appears to be adaptive. But as we see every day in the headlines, intelligence is no guarantee of sound judgment. Homo sapiens is not yet truly wise, and our future as a species probably hinges on how quickly we can integrate intelligence and wisdom, before our own technological creations destroy ourselves.
Yeah true everyone goes on about how planets need to be XYZ which implies only our conditions will lead to life when somewhere else there could be people looking at Earth saying life "couldn't exist there it's under 300 centigrade and a quarter of our gravity without a single lake of mercury in sight."
Well, I also agree with you that this earth of our is so beautifully endowed the most essential Oxygen and Water which is the foundation of all other species a animals, plants and humans. Need is as Dr.Richard Leakey just pointed out that with the earth taking the burden of caring and nurturing about 9 to 10 billion people and empathy ,compassion lower in the 20 the century at the same time greed and gluttony at it's highest point.We need to feel much blessed to be creature of earth.
@@anuradhainamdar8967 Um...no...the earliest forms of life on Earth were actually killed off by oxygen because it is poisonous and highly reactive. Even humans will die if there's too much oxygen in the air. As for compassion there's only so many people you can care about, is just human nature to have in and out groups. The very traits that took us to the top of the food chain are the same traits that make us fight each other.
@@guywelsh9589 I am at present reading Dr. Donald Prothero book ' The story of life through 25 fossils " its starts which the fossils of Stromatolits" then " Tribolites" ,discovery of Crynobacteria and later the phylum Andropods ,second phylum Mollusc( the invertebrates) and our the vertebrates Cordata, now I am on the 8 chapter. The stromatolites were unicellular organisms and the Tribolites were mutlicellular. Yesterday only I saw it on a Google video you may also type this title on Google and find the talk given by Dr. Prothero. Or buy the book it's interesting.
Yes, however Who- what, created the Earth? How or WHY did the earth begin? Divine intelligence ? Accident? Divine intervention w free meteorologal movement? 🌟 Whatever you believe or see evidence of... Nothing matters if you can't get Amazon Delivery. 😃 M
This was such a great set of opening speeches from these two giants in the field, and a seriously enlightening snd hopeful conversation between the three on that stage! I've rarely seen anything to come close to equalling this, and would have loved to be able to go see it back when it happened!
I have seen Dr.Sanjay Gupta a number of times on CNN, but it was like a boon or wish come true to hear Dr.Richard Leakey and Dr. Donald Johanson. Their flawless power point presentation of the evolution story. Though I have read articles of Dr.Donald Johanson discovery of "Lucy" and also on Dr.Louis Leakey, Mary Leakey and Dr. Richard Leakey.It was great to hear them in Q and A session.
This may sound a bit ironic, but I thank God that I was born in the 50's and educated during America's great push towards scientific education. There's one good byproduct of the cold war, chasing the so called 'science gap'. My teachers would have laughed these creationists out the door! I remember when John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and Carl Sagan were held up as heroes of humanity... not Ken Hamm and David Imhoff. Oh how I weep for the future of the Republic!!!
I'm profoundly grateful for living in a time that allows this kind of talk, thinking, and research. Not long ago, men like this would have been executed as heretics. And, as a woman, I wouldn't have been allowed to even listen to these subjects let alone research or study.
Brian Garrow , you wrote, "This may sound a bit ironic, but I thank God that I was born in the 50's and educated during America's great push towards scientific education. There's one good byproduct of the cold war, chasing the so called 'science gap'. My teachers would have laughed these creationists out the door! I remember when John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and Carl Sagan were held up as heroes of humanity... not Ken Hamm and David Imhoff. Oh how I weep for the future of the Republic!!!" No doubt Leakey and Johanson are great story-tellers. Too bad for their fans that there is absolutely no science to back up their stories. As far back as the early 1970's we were informed that Lucy was just another ape: _"The australopithecine skull is in fact so overwhelmingly simian as opposed to human that the contrary proposition could be equated to an assertion that black is white." [Solly Zuckerman, "Beyond the Ivory Tower: the frontiers of public and private science." 1971, p.78]_ Modern genetic research by ENCODE and other genetic researchers has rendered the notion of Human Evolution to be virtually null-and-void. For example: _"In analysing the barcodes across 100,000 species, the researchers found a telltale sign showing that almost all the animals emerged about the same time as humans...Which brings us back to our question: why did the overwhelming majority of species in existence today emerge at about the same time?... another unexpected finding from the study-species have very clear genetic boundaries, and there's nothing much in between. "If individuals are stars, then species are galaxies," said Thaler. "They are compact clusters in the vastness of empty sequence space." The absence of "in-between" species is something that also perplexed Darwin, he said." [Hood, Marlowe, "Sweeping gene survey reveals new facets of evolution." __Phys.Org__, May 28, 2018, pp.3-4]_ _"'What we find is that less than 5% of the human genome can actually be considered as "neutral', says Fanny Pouyet, lead author of the study. "This is a striking finding: it means that 95% of the genome is indirectly influenced by functional sites, which themselves represent only 10% to 15% of the genome", she concludes. These functional sites encompass both genes and regions involved in gene regulation." ["A Genome Under Influence: The faulty yardstick in genomics studies and how to cope with it." Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, October 9, 2018]_ Even as far back as the 1990's there were strong indicators that the Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is only about 6,500 years old: _"The observed substitution rate reported here is very high compared to rates inferred from evolutionary studies. A wide range of CR substitution rates have been derived from phylogenetic studies, spanning roughly 0.025-0.26 /site/Myr, including confidence interva1s. A study yielding one of the faster estimates gave the substitution rate of the CR hypervariable regions as 0.118 ± 0.031/site/Myr. Assuming a generation time of 20 years, this corresponds to ~1/600 generations and an age for the mtDNA MRCA of 133,000 y.a. Thus, our observation of the substitution rate, 2.5/site/Myr, is roughly 20-fold higher than would be predicted from phylogenetic analyses. Using our empirical rate to calibrate the mtDNA molecular clock would result in an age of the mtDNA MRCA of only ~6,500 y.a., clearly incompatible with the known age of modern humans. Even acknowledging that the MRCA of mtDNA may be younger than the MRCA of modern humans it remains implausible to explain the known geographic distribution of mtDNA sequence variation by human migration that occurred only in the last ~6,500 years." [Parsons et al, "A High Observed Substitution Rate in the Human Mitochondrial DNA Control Region." Nature Genetics, Vol.15; April, 1997, p.365]_ That was confirmed by other researchers. This from a report by Ann Gibbons: _"Regardless of the cause, evolutionists are most concerned about the effect of a faster mutation rate. For example, researchers have calculated that "mitochondrial Eve"-the woman whose mtDNA was ancestral to that in all living people-lived 100,000 to 200,000 years ago in Africa. Using the new clock, she would be a mere 6,000 years old." [Ann Gibbons, "Calibrating the Mitochondrial Clock." Science, Vol.279, Iss.5347; Jan 2, 1998, pp.28-29]_ Why would researchers be "most concerned about the effect of a faster mutation rate"? The new clock, alone, debunks common descent. Combine that with the genomic studies of the past decade, and it becomes pretty solid evidence that "common descent" is just another just-so story. Dan
Just learned about Mr Leakey and Johansson in recent days.just in time to appreciate their contribution to humanity. Thanks for the efforts and keep up with the good work. From Hker worldwide
Yes and Leakey suggests we might have a far worse pandemic.. that would not attack humans but its 3 main crops that have an all too narrow genetical basement. How foolish our society is, dancing on a rope over the abyss
whether you believe in evolution dating back millions of years ago, it is, for sure, real. Every species evolves, itjust takes time. even now we are evolving, just really slowly
"The Bible is the word of God, it has always been, always is, and will forever be." That is nothing but an assertion. Do you remember when I asked you to demonstrate this? Muslims would essentially say the same thing for the Koran. How am I supposed to differentiate between your assertion and theirs? So far your only justification was that the Bible contains commands that were supposedly from God. To someone that doesn't already believe in the Bible this response is not very helpful.
On the question of why the poll numbers cited Dr. Gupta have not changed over 40 is simple, but not surprisingly, the answer eludes Dr. Leaky and Dr. Johanson. The answer has been recognized in economics and Gary Becker at the University of Chicago win a Nobel Prize for articulating it. In short... _Human beings are rational driven, we emotionally driven._ If you want change people's attitudes about evolution, you better find a way to reach them emotionally.
RU-vid chanell Innomind claims copyrights to this video ( they changed the videos name )could you do something about it as this kind of behaviour should not be tolerated thanks
Lol...only a female would notice that...my daughter transformed herself from a Polish girl to a German frauline with fashion moves.. fur collars were eliminated when we came back into Germany from Poland.
Damn... I must not be a woman, 😳 since I never even noticed the colors they dressed in! That will come as a surprise to my family, especially the two sons I birthed and raised. And my parents, had they still been alive. Then again, I've always seemed to end up answering those silly questionnaires in silly magazines so they claimed I was male, too, LOL! Always thought it was just 'cause I'm a tomboy. 🤨🤔😳
The natural world and the universe is full of wonders: scientific fall in awe. All kind of scientists. Always everywhere, whenever everything, living or not living, the tiniest and the biggest, without any hierarchy of any sort, all subjected to the laws. No creator of them, nothing over them or besides them. L.a.w.s the laws are wonderful. Just a little amazing question: the nature of s.p.a.c.e. amd its relation to t.i.m.e
I'm not an evolutionary biologist - I think they are better at answering your question. All I can say is that it is cells that builds the vessels. I don't know exactly what caused the cells to start building blood vessels, but I think it's reasonable that it started with a simple form pf vessel, maybe just a very short and simple one. What is your explaination of why life on Earth looks the way it does if evolution doesn't cut it?
The evidence for the development of species spans six fields of science and millions of independent and verifiable findings. Simply put, the scientific Theory of Biological Evolution is the most accurate and successful theory that explains the overwhelming evidence in its favor. There are no valid competing theories which could hope to better explain the evidence. To deny this overwhelming evidence is to completely reject the rational pursuit of knowledge. Let's not bicker about it.
0:00 to 0:02 ''Thank you,thank you very much....LIKE KING ELVIS PRESLEY IN THE '70S''....Very Good....Excellent and Brilliant Video and Discussion.Thank you very much for Uploading it to RU-vid.Increible y Buenisima Exposición;una lastima que ''Aún No Haya Sido Subtitulada En Español'' Para que Los Amantes y Seguidores de La Paleontologia y De La Evolución de Habla Hispana ''Que No Hablan Inglés'' pudieran Disfrutarla como se debe....anyway,thank you very much again American Museum Of Natural History....
I am profoundly seduced mesmerized by the scientific and spiritual perspective of Donald Johansson. I must read all of his books.. not the smallest dogma has been left, after his long journey through the records of nature. This is so refreshing.. when i remember the awful stupidities that i had to hear at school.. about humans.. so disgusting.. so narrow-minded And Richard Leakey is so sympatically sarcastic.. towards main stream thinking... Once more books to read... Love that
But we have seen evolution happening. The experiment with the Anolis lizards that were brought to a caribbean island and they adapted and changed based on their environment, evolution.
More recently, SOME of the cave art thought to have been painted by either EARLY MODERN HUMANS and/or the artists inside the very small CRO_MAGNON communities.... was painted by Neadertals. Ideas also emigrated up from the lush, green Sahara region in Africa, in addition to very fast, gracile peoples and tribes in the plural. My earlier, longer remark is a few thoughts about some of the debates we have had over the past decade or so. ART existed inside many Neandertal communities, just as we truly know that many of our Early Modern Human ancestors had their creative moments of sheer brilliance! The YOUNGER DRYAS again needs to be looked into. All over the planet the seas rose. We are that much closer to seeing by mid-century WHETHER a Dust Bowl like the one in the 1930s returns to the Great Plains of the USA. Will archeology triumphantly venture into the continental shelf areas of nearly all our continents over the next few decades? Will we get answers before the enviornment changes in a very drastic and/or dire manner?
Mmmh two... The journalist, a sympathetic young man is way out not as smart as Leakey and Johansson (His remark on "computer". No hint on psychology and neuroscience as it seems). Leakey and Johansson have a high level of integration in their perspective on humanity (geografic and time scales as well as the cultural range, not to mention the geological, ecological and biological contexts)
@JungleJargon The fact that mutations produce variation and that natural selection acts on these variations to improve the fitness of the population in its particular environment is all well-established by evidence I already presented in my previous comments. I also addressed every point you made that had even the remotest coherency. Your responses now are the equivalent of "nuh-uh".
The main answer of what it means to be human is consciousness (when mammals became conscious of their own thinking (thinking about their own thinking)! Self-Consciousness is what separates humans from apes, even before we started to reflect upon the past in anticipation for the future, develop language, & a writing system. Since we are not the only race to make tools we need to know what it was that made us think metaphorically and symbolically
Would that be the "remnant church" that emerged from TWO failed prophecies about the apocalypse, one in 1842 and one in 1844? White herself made several predictions about the return of Jesus and the last days that singularly failed to come off. Meanwhile, evolution can be used to make exact predictions of the location and characteristics of fossils and actually find them where they're predicted to be, like Tiktaalik discovered in Devonian strata on Ellesmere Island. Science is the better prophet
@JungleJargon Yes evolution is based on facts. And none of what you said made any sense. I can't address anything until you make a coherent point. That was just flapping a bunch of undefined nonsense about "ordered information". As I said earlier any sequence of DNA of any non-zero length can be made into any other sequence of DNA of any length through known types of mutation. So mutation produces heritable variation and natural selection acts on that variation to produce adaptive change.
Dawkins means that we have not observed really big changes, like land mammals into whales, but we dont have to observe it because we can see it in the fossil record.But evolution of new species from a common ancestor has been observed, its the rock of todays biology.Just one question, are you a young earth creationist, because if you are this conversation is over, i dont debate crazy people that go against everything we know in science.
Addendum: This is not a leap in our understanding but rather a show of technological expertise and thus is landmark. While there was hype much of which was perhaps overstated, this does not diminish that this is the first cell that is controlled entirely by human assembled instructions.
Everyone will migrate away from the coasts. We have done it before. Problem is the low Asian countries going north to Siberia. That will not be pleasant. I agree we are flexible and adaptive.
from 45 minutes onwards I don't understand the point. instead of asking about stupid questions whether evolution is real or not the host should have asked more interesting questions on the topic of archaic humans. what's the point of brow beating people who will never change their mind on evolution. get into more interesting topics instead
While so very elucidating it's also humbling and frightening. We're just an ape out of Africa and just as vulnerable as any other species on earth. We're not immune to the roll call of extinction. We better had start taking better care of our planet .
@JungleJargon For an example I just read before coming here check out "Parallel bacterial evolution within multiple patients identifies candidate pathogenicity genes" in this month's Nature Genetics. Researchers have actually been keeping track of mutations and which mutations have been under selective pressure and then using that to find genes that affect virulence and antibiotic resistance, a potentially life-saving application of evolutionary theory.
The history of the world is perfectly documented in the present, a person merely has to look well enough to see it. Much has been seen and learned, this is why we know that the universe is billions of years old. Rather than deny what people say, investigate it.
@JungleJargon No, the genome does NOT remain limited to the information it already has. New variations are introduced by mutation. I have already explained this to you several times and gave an example of an experiment demonstrating this.
As an anthropologist, I believe that humanity evolved with religion. We are religious beings. Culture is an adaptation to the environment and helps us survive as a way to explain the unknown and creates laws for survival. One religion and culture is not better than another. I disagree that the religious belief of creationism needs to be “educated out”. To me, that would be like saying Native Americans need to be re-educated from their creation myths and their belief system is problematic. This would be ethnocentric. To say that you can be scientific and also be religious, but creationism is an invalid view, is ethnocentric. Keep in mind I work in traditional agriculture and mainly work with Mennonites. Their lifestyle is incredibly sustainable. I respect creationism as a religious belief.
I have read an article based on a paper of lingualists who tried to follow up oral traditions in different forms. 1. Fairy tales. The oldest they found was cinderella and they found the origin in mesopotamia app 4000 years old. 2. Some tales closely connected to survival handed down in form of singing and dancing and essential for survival. Especially in australia. It is essential for survival there to know the areas and what where to find there to survive. Some of the tales are older than the holozän since they preserved some geolocical and other details that only existed in the time of huge glaciers. So at least 10000 years old. 3. Myths. thats the oldest. The oldest they traced down was about the hunter in the sky we call orion. All humans have a kind of tale about that they traced down with changes in the languages and root languages including small changes in the story. They are quite sure that the story about orion left africa with the modern people app 70000 years ago. How many year prior to that they don't know. I still wait for another paper to confirm that.
@Mogley52 You're confusing the AL 129-1 Australopithecus afarensis knee joint with Lucy (AL 288-1) who was found a year later and does not have a complete knee joint unless you take bilateral symmetry into account since the left femur and proximal end of the right tibia were found. The shared age and morphology allow the AL 129-1 knee joint as well as many other fossils to be identified as A. afarensis. From the multiple specimens virtually the complete skeleton is known.
And in what way are you critical in your opinions if I may ask? You disagree with things that are considered scientific facts, and that makes you a critical thinker? Well, critical thinking in and of itself isn't a virtue unless you can use your intellect to disprove the other side. Welcome to do so when it comes to evolution. Looking forward to seeing you at the Nobel prize dinner. :)
knowing what a human being is is critical as a basis for managing the world we live in such as the environment/education/climate/ agriculture/government/education and on and on! and unfortunately we don't even teach our kids in school that we are animals!!
Totally, 100% agree with Dr. Leakey on the non-interference with how people show faith, but the insistence that we teach science in the best way we possibly can. Forcing religion on people and forcing non-religion on people are equally grievous sins in my opinion - the important word there is not "religion"; it's "force." That's the thing to be avoided.
Pretty good, TED had a speech about evolution recently. Since we pretty much control our environment we may not evolve anymore at least in a natural way.
Thank you Joe Viola, Yes, you are around the 20th person to bring up the example of the lizards as observed evidence for Evolution. Please let me ask one question: What were the lizards called at the end of (or currently) the experiment?
We should go a step further and select genes and combinations of genes which have passed a stiffer test than merely surviving to just past puberty. Freeze gametes of the young and select genes of people who have made it to seventy in robust mental and physical health, if necessary borrowing genes from other family members or even wider afield. We don't have the science to do such selection reliably yet but we should thrash out the arguments so we're ready for it when we do.
As humans we create stories about ourselves and use these stories to increase our dominance. As a consequence we are restricted by these stories and react with violence to stories in conflict with our own. This means that we are naturally (inheritently) genocidal and have been since the origin of language which accounts for the extinction of all other hominids. Our other characteristic is weak dentition which suggests we require our food to be pre-digested, that is cooked, so we have had fire for a very long time and we could say the possession of fire and its use is fundamental to social development . We tended the fires as defense, sat round it consuming our cooked food and telling stories.
Wow!!! What a treat! Thank you Drs Leaky and Johanson. May God reward you abundantly for your years of scientific study and research. The scientists of today are the prophets of tomorrow. Bless you.
I've actually used sandbags, and dried out the area of the Leaky tracks in Glenrose Taxes years ago. We saw and put our feet into the human tracks and could see the theropod tracks. It was amazing to see. We gradually added small amounts of water to bring out the detail of each track. Truly amazing 🥰
The family of George Adams, who claimed to have found human footprints in the Glen Rose Formation, later admitted that Adams' and some others' fossil footprints were a hoax. Zana Douglas, the granddaughter of George Adams, explained that during the 1930s' Great Depression her grandfather and other residents of Glen Rose made money by making moonshine and selling "dinosaur fossils" The faux fossils brought $15 to $30 and when the supply ran low, they "just carved more, some with human footprints thrown in."
@@spatrk6634 sorry, as I stated. We went there, sandbagged the area and saw them ourselves. People will say anything in the scientific community to make a name for themselves and if the money is right. Otherwise, it craps all over their field of study. They will lie till they die to protect their work I know what we all saw. If it was allowed, you could literally pull back the top sedimentary layer that the prints are under, and I'd wager you'd find even more well preserves prints heading in a north to north west direction. Look, no amount of me explaining will convince you. I know what I saw, and I know scientists have to cover their own work to protect their position in the community. All I can say is... If anyone ever gets the money, and the state would allow it, there's a treasure trove of Jurassic footprints under a simple layer of dirt. Saw it, believe it..that settles it for me.
@@gsgidney its a scam. no humans living amongst dinosaurs, except birds. but creationists will say anything to their sheep just to make money if you think that removing the top layer will reveal even more footprints is showing how clueless you are there are dinosaur footprints there. but no human footprints amongst them
@LeedgesX And for good measure, 'Evolution' doesn't cover the origin of life. Only the development. However, Abiogenesis happens to cover abiogenesis, if you'd like to look into that.
I’m truly interested in human evolution and have been ever since I was a kid. One thing that perplexed me is that we still don’t have scientific fossil evidence of whom homosapians evolved from. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong with proven scientific fossil records. Thank you
Homo sapiens evolved from a precurser of all great ape species, as also have all great apes. It is not possible - when there are, as there are, a number of distinct lines of great ape evolution - to be certain of from which actual distinct evolutionary line we Homo sapiens evolved - we may get close, we can never know for certain how close we are
We didn't evolve. There may be micro-evolution at best, but not evolution from other species. Homo sapien sapien is unique and has been on the earth approximately 100,000 years.
@@DMac-uv1bl Likewise... It's true. They're ever waiting for the illusive "missing link" fossil. There was much excitement in the early 20th century over piltman in Britain and that of course turned out to be a hoax. Lucy is simply a hominid, a totally separate species. There were hominids on the earth simultaneously with humans for thousands of years, and that is the reason there was a bit of interbreeding with neanderthals and denisovans, based on recent genetic research. But that is not evolution based on natural selection. If anything there might be "microevolution" because of some inter-breeding. Notwithstanding, homo sapien sapien did not go from species to species. But don't tell that to pro-Darwinists. Remember, it is a religion. It has to be because it is not based on hard sciene.
@JungleJargon "If you had evidence of evolution, you would have presented it." I did. See previous comments. "What is the mechanism for evolution since it is not mutations, insertions, deletions or natual selection?" It is all of the above. As well as genetic drift. "There are no beneficial human mutations that have no side effects" Nobody said there were no side-effects. Every organism is a trade-off.
Humans are more adaptable than any other animal on a genetic basis. . Humans also have the advantage of being able to adapt the environment to our needs. No other creature has ever been able to do both, and no other creature can survive our control. We may not be able to survive this, especially if we over react without considering the consequences. Excellent program.
Humans lack l.o.v.e. for life. Humans lack humility. The hybris of humanity is dangerous. Nature experiments with giving us powers. This experiment could well ends with extinction. Humans are not wise but foolish and will cry all the tears out of their heart one day. Creatures do find a response and profit from our foolish errors: bacteria, archea and viruses. (Some insects, and fungi could) They count. They make up a huge part of the living mass on earth, not to mention the number of genes, They have been dwelling our earth for 4 billions years and fill our bodies from birth to death. They reach to 6 km deep under the crust.
Perhaps SloveintzWend misread my previous post. That is OK. "Evolution has never been observed while it is happening." That is a direct quote from Richard Dawkins. Gravity and atoms have been observed in action (while happening) which is why we know they are scientific observations. In contrast, Evolution has never been observed while it is happening, meaning that Evolution is not science, but a belief system.
it IS because it contradicts their beliefs...they find any way they cant sound like they are making a sound argument but what they are actually arguing against is logic itself..
Does anyone know that they absolutely disagree, over whether Lucy is our ancestor or not? Leakey doesn't. I agree with him. Read Meave Leakey's book, "The Sediments of Time".
IIUC intelligence went down with the rise of agriculture. Genes for disease resistance became more important than intelligence. Intelligence for the average people was often counter survival.
No, it doesn't involve our planets. That's the topic of astronomy and physics. Evolution involves itself ONLY with living things on Earth. Not the first cell, not the planets or space, only things that are alive and were alive.
