The Third Chimpanzee

Evolution does not prove there is no god. It does not prove there is. I really consider it an explanation of a process by which there is no need for a creator who is constantly intervening and that's the upsetting part to some people. It leaves earth as part of a natural set of consequences where one thing leads to another which fits well with another of my core beliefs-- actions have consequences.

What are the evidences for evolution? Plenty but if you want a simple book that helps you get the basics in a way laymen can grasp, I suggest The Third Chimpanzee (that would be us) by Jared Diamond. It helps lay out the evidence today for how mankind may have come to be although there are plenty of unanswered questions along the way. There are long periods of not much change and then great leaps in development. There are debates over what has led to this or that aspect of mankind. It's really quite the story.

For the basics, here's the theory of evolution based on fossils, bones, DNA, and observation. For those who have studied this more extensively, it might seem too simplistic and I'd be fine with comments that add to it where I might have skimmed over something important.

The earth is basically 4.5 billion years old. Scientists have determined this as approximately when our Solar System came into being [Geologic Time: Age of Earth]. By radiometric dating of rocks, they have an approximation of the oldest earth rocks but that's less reliable than determining when this Solar System began. That doesn't mean living beings were on this earth as it was anything but habitable even by bacteria for a considerable span of time as it cooled. It was also bombarded constantly by space debris; so it was in transition a long while.

Skipping down earth's history to about 3.4 billion years ago, we come to when the first living organisms arose from inanimate matter: [Origin of Life on Earth]. Or another theory is the seeds of life arrived on space debris. One way or another this was more organisms than beings with personality.

The photo at the top is from the Yellowstone geyser basin where they have found living bacteria even within these boiling pools. These basins look much like the earth must have appeared for a long while, a burning sun in the sky and a very hot earth below. There is a quote from Jurassic Park that fits what happened next-- 'Life will find a way.'

Earth went through many stages of life, the age of the reptiles, age of the dinosaurs and finally 60 million years ago began the age of mammals which is where man will eventually enter the picture.

All mammals share a lot of DNA in common but for man there is none closer than the pygmy and common chimpanzees where we share all but 1.6% of the same DNA. Just think-- that tiny bit of DNA explains our human physical characteristics, the ones that identify us as a human and not an ape.

Chart scanned from page 35 The Third Chimpanzee

The interesting question is how and why did modern man emerge from this as a distinct species. For many many years life didn't change a lot. The tools these ancestors used to kill animals and satisfy their other needs for survival didn't change much from what the apes used. Our early ancestors didn't look at all like us. Six million years ago they stood up and from then on humans separated from chimpanzees physically-- even if our DNA can't be fooled.

How do we prove this happened? Human remains aren't very large and the likelihood of many bones surviving from 6 million years ago is slim. Not surprisingly the remnants are few and partial but there are some and anybody interested can research the available evidence. An interesting place to start would be Homo habilis.

Anthropologists find tools these 'protohuman's used back then but it took a long time before they would be considered firmly human. The more sophisticated tools start showing up 1.7 million years ago with Homo erectus, who had a larger brain. He could eat plants and animals, and by virtue of his tools, he was beginning to dominate the life around him to the point of extinction of the other competitors.

About a million years ago, Homo erectus, who was at that time the only protohuman on the African continent, began to expand his territory. That's when stone tools and bones showed up in the Middle East, Far East (Peking Man and Java man), and Europe.

Half a million years ago there were [Homo sapiens] who looked like men but with thicker skulls and brow ridges. The progress of man to dominate his world didn't happen instantly even from there. Man's ancestors did spread across the continents but it took time. He evidently either killed or forced Neanderthals to be unable to survive as this is when they disappear in most places where they had been. Homo sapiens produced art, sophisticated tools, and if you can call it progress were able to eliminate whole species of animals by their hunting techniques.

40,000 years ago is when Homo sapiens made what is called The Great Leap Forward as his technology began to improve. He could now kill mammoths and secure his food supply. These people, who looked much like modern man, have been named Cro-Magnons from the French site where their bones were first discovered. The tools found were ones enabling a kill from a distance, bone and antler tools, needles for making clothing, nets and rope. By this time artifacts found included not just those needed for survival, but ornaments, cave paintings, the Venus figurines of women which are probably religious in purpose, and even musical instruments. Life was changing fast.

Cro-magnon men were living longer and some of their skeletons indicated some lived into their 60s which was a big survival advantage over Neanderthals, who lived much shorter lives. It enabled them to have those in their community who remembered earlier events and could use that knowledge for current problems.

Although most recently there has been DNA evidence to indicate Neanderthals and Cro-Mangon man may have inter-mated, they were different in form and at the time of Cro-Magnon coming into their territory, there were Neanderthals and then none. This happened at different periods of time depending on the geographic area but always when the Cro-Mangons improved their technology-- especially where it came to killing.

So briefly, two million years ago there were several protohuman lineages in the world until something happened to leave only one standing. What enabled that one to conquer and basically either exterminate or out compete the rest?

The likely quality that enabled one group to excel over the others was language skills. It doesn't show up in DNA though. It's not in the bones, but what else could explain the ability to work together for higher purposes? Just making sounds doesn't do it. It takes being able to explain complex ideas and argue through superior paths to take.

Many other species of animals on earth today can communicate to a limited degree but none like man who has only increased this ability to transfer ideas from one person and group to another. It goes way beyond a few sounds to a language and with that language comes advancement sometimes at a startling rate.

At a certain point a group of those on the ancestral tree of man today were born with something in their DNA enabling them to use their tongues, larynx and the muscles required to speak words. When that happened, everything changed. Words and language freed Homo sapiens to develop in ways the other animals couldn't even imagine.

When we look at the reason it matters to study evolution, it's not all about history. It is also about lessons learned to get man to where he is today-- in a position to destroy all of life on earth through the very thing that got us where we are-- our technology. As there are lessons in the theory of creationism, there are lessons from evolution and those come next.