The tip of a girl’s ’s finger from a cave in Siberia’s Altai Mountains says the neanderthal genome lives on! see Nature
Now what will our friends the creationists do? and what is there about the French and the Han having a common ancestor?
In the meantime: “PRINCETON, NJ — Four in 10 Americans, slightly fewer today than in years past, believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago. Thirty-eight percent believe God guided a process by which humans developed over millions of years from less advanced life forms, while 16%, up slightly from years past, believe humans developed over millions of years, without God’s involvement.”
Meanwhile, back in England ..
Congratulations, Great Britain!
Category: Godlessness
The country has passed a significant threshold. Christians, you’re officially a minority now.
Every year, researchers from the British Social Attitudes survey ask a representative sample of British people whether they regard themselves as belonging to any particular religion and, if so, to which one? When the survey first asked these questions in 1985, 63% of the respondents answered that they were Christians, compared with 34% who said they had no religion (the rest belonged to non-Christian religions).
Today, a quarter of a century on, there has been a steady and remarkable turnaround. In the latest 2010 BSA report, published earlier this month, only 42% said they were Christians while 51% now say they have no religion. Admittedly, some other surveys – including the last census – have produced different findings on these issues, usually to the advantage of the religious option. There is also a margin of error in all such exercises. All the same, and particularly since the trends in opinion over time seem well set, it is hard not to feel that this latest finding marks a cultural watershed.
This Christmas, for perhaps the first time ever, Britain is a majority non-religious nation.
The article notes that it only took a generation to shift from 34% non-religious to 51% non-religious. There’s hope for the United States yet; I don’t think we’ll see a majority non-religious in my lifetime (but surprise me!), but we can make a relatively rapid change.
To paraphrase what Eugenie C. Scott (head of the National Center for Science Education) says: The creationists are constantly evolving. When they lose a major battle, they invent a new tactic, sometimes a new strategy. I expect they’ll come up with something to try and explain away this latest … er … revelation.
The sad thing to me is that they miss out on the continuing revelation from God or any other concept of reality.
Why can’t they or won’t they se ehow amazing this new tree of life is?
I for own will make abet. As more and more of us have full genomes, we will find neanderthal genes and I suspect they will have a profound effect on those of us who do and those who do not share that history.
Look at the tree! Africans, according to this, may have split off BEFORE Homo Sap bred with Homo Neander! What does that mean? Are non-Africans superior because they inherited genes from the Neanderthal?
Of curse as a Semite, I am in an amazing place. We know that Neander and Sap lived together caves in Israel! Maybe all the Chinese and French are descendants of acts of love in an Israeli cave?
errr ahhh .. does this remind anyone of the question of who Cain fucked after the AdamandEve family were thrown out of the garden?
Evolution is not an upward vector!