The Definition and Description of a "Transitional"

The Definition and Description of a "Transitional"Let me ask you a few questions.First is a chimp different than a human?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

The avatar IS me. Bad hairday.Well, I see a bipedal critter. Two hands on ends of upper arms. Five fingers on each hand. Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, all basically the same.Is there some other difference?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Okay, let's look at the points you raised. But you haven't heard any humans speaking chimpanzee either. Also, how do you think language might show up in the fossil record? Look a little closer. Odds are you have as much hair on your body as a chimp. It is differnt in length and thickness but still there. Also, how do you think hair might show up in the fossil record?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

But you are still avoiding the question. How are a human and a chimpanzee different?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

I'm trying to get an idea of how you can tell a chimp from a human.you gave a list: Some of those might be useful, for example habitat, but others, for example size, can vary greatly form individual to indiviual.But let's start working with your list.There are habitats where both chimp and human live. If you find a skeleton there, how can you tell if it's a chimp or human?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

You said: There are a couple things in that statement that may indicate a basic, low level misunderstanding.First, you say, "It's obvious". Whenever that crops up my first reaction is to dismiss the statement because very, very seldom is anything that's correct obvious. Usually that means someone is saying "I think it's true".The second part that shows a possible missunderstanding is using the word "Update". That seems to imply you think that evolution is some trend from worse to better. That's not the case. There is no directionality to evolution. All we can see of evolution is one result, "Did the critters live and reproduce or did they die off". Because we are not updated versions. Again, evolution is not a trend, it's a history.Evolution has nothing to do with getting better. The new version might not do the old things.So back towards the topic, you find two skeletons. How do you identify whether they are humans or chimps?This message has been edited by jar, 12-04-2004 01:03 PM

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Believe jazzlover.Let's really look at that list because there are actually three subjects there and if we are to make any progress towards defining a transitional we need to get some of them out of there.First, there is the existence of the universe. That is the field of Cosmology and has nothing to do with whether or not any life ever evolved. The Big Bang is one of the theories involved in Cosmology.Second is the origin of life. It is mostly a question of chemistry.Finally, there is evolution. It deals with what happened with life after it started, but it doesn't address or care how life started. Life may well have started through natural processes or by divine intervention. Regardless, once life started it changed over time. That is the area of Evolution.The folk at AIG and ICR love to try to blur the three, but they are simply wrong. The three are different, seperate and totally unrelated. Nope. All I see is an attempt to confuse folk. Almost nothing in the long quote is true or even has anything to do with evolution or transitionals.There are many examples of convergent development. Often it is driven by the environment, sharks and whales have similar shapes but they most definitely developed independantly.So I asked, "So back towards the topic, you find two skeletons. How do you identify whether they are humans or chimps?"to which you replied: For now, let's assume that we have complete skeletons.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion