we're all from africa ?

[bebyjaystaa]

are we all originally from africa ? today&yesturday two of teachers were all saying that we were originally from africa.but then i asked my dad & he said that there's new research saying that the oldest person alive was from china. so ... ? :wacko: and the africa thing..that involves evolution right ? but i don't believe in that..cus i'm christian. but yea..so does that mean... erg! i'm confused! what do you guys think ?

[judes]

i'm confused about what you're asking.

if you're talking about the origin of humans as a species (homo sapiens) then there are several theories and yes, one of which involves humans originating from africa. there is also one where humans originated from the area that is china but of course there was no china back then, so they don't refer to it as china more like asia.

the oldest person alive right now may be from china, but that has nothing to do with evolution? unless you're talking about the oldest sketetal remains found, which i do not think was from china but i could be wrong and i'll have to ask my boyfriend. he's studying physical anthropology so this is his love.

there is a lot of evidence around for evolution, so just because you are a christian doesn't mean you shouldn't try to understand what evolution is and see if makes more sense than the idea that God created the world. who knows, maybe God created the process of evolution.

[jayx8318x]

It makes more sense that the origin of homo sapiens lie somewhere in the region that is now Africa: it's closer to the equator. So back then, the temperature would have been moderate enough for humans to live, hunt, and basically thrive. The area that is now Europe and Asia would have been too cold.

And does it really mean we're all from Africa just because they find some bones there? I mean China man could have hopped on his mammoth and rid to Africa where he falls off and dies. 10,000 years later we find his bones, OK so now we're all from Africa.

Sometimes I hate it too when this "we're all from Africa" or "we're all from China" stuff is usually said by people with some racial pride they wanna exhibit or tout, it just sounds so brazen to me...

Then there are those "we're all from God" people too. OK so everyone has an opinion on the egg, but where did the chicken come from?

[judes]

^ it's a good theory that makes sense. but there are so many other theories out there that it's difficult to judge.

i think that's why they try to find and date skeletal remains to trace the path of human origin. bones have been discovered in asia, but it's still unclear whether it's the oldest bones found or not.

i don't like the idea of "these bones were found in asia" or "these bones were found in africa" therefore countries make the illogical leap of "china is the origin of mankind" or "africa is the cradle of humanity". it just sounds like a political scheme to me. it's not like humans coming from africa automatically makes them dirty or coming from china automatically makes chinese people more important. the remains they found used to be the ancestors of ALL of us. it's a big obstacle in anthropology for many many years as people attempted to fake finds in europe that state europe is the cradle of all humanity just so none of us originated from "africa". i don't think that race distincts us all that much from another, it's the cultural boundaries that rope us in different categories.

another reason why i find the china/africa/europe/middle east/wherever the humans came from is therefore better idea is that the humans back then were significantly different from the humans that we know now. they still don't understand what process the neanderthals played in all of this and the reasons for their extinction. there are so many factors that play into this besides "humans come from africa" or "humans come from china", if we could invest enough efforts to find "the missing link" then the theory of evolution will cease to be a theory and all of this "God created the earth stuff and it had nothing to do with evolution" will be moot. but i'm not even going to touch on the God idea.

[lil~jo]

Karen jie
hahaha!!
the chicken came from the egg, of which came from the chicken, of which came from the egg, which definitly came from the egg....
sigh....

Well, saying we're all from God seems better than saying we're from a particular country. Because it doesnt show our racial pride.
And is the most possible way we all could have come about....Even if we were from africa....did we pop out of the ground?
This mystery still remains unknown....But God seems the most believable....as the big bang could not have created such diversity in the world...
Opinions opinions....it is all based on opinions....
We will not know until we die and see God or disappear into nothing....
of which I believe we will go to God and find out :sweat:

[bebyjaystaa]

lol the chicken and the egg thing. i remember asking my dad about it once too. but i forgot what he told me :shy: but yea..God creating evolution ? well...christians believe that adam was the first person..so how can it be possible that we were once monkeys ? :?

[judes]

^ couldn't it be possible that God created different versions of humans that didn't work? i mean how do you explain neanderthals existing if God only created humans? they have to be created/born/evolved somehow.

so you can't say that God created Adam and Eve and disregard evolution just like that since there is evidence for evolution. i'm not saying that i believe that God created the universe and humans but i'm saying that there may be a way for both religion and science to work today. because it's ridiculous to have a faith that doesn't work with the current ideas of science.

[bebyjaystaa]

well im not a scientist..and never plan to be.
why do i need to believe in what those scientists prove when i just believe in God. :shifty: i dont believe in evolution and i don't get why school teaches it because it conflicts with religion. they say it liek its true and everyone should believe in it. i dont get it. :wacko:

[judes]

^ even if you are not a scientist, you have an obligation to yourself to gain as much knowledge as possible about the world around you.

you don't need to believe anything that scientists tell you, but you cannot be ignorant to the facts that are presented to you. all you can do is read about things, learn about things, and try and figure out what seems right to you.

schools are usually run by public systems. there is a very, very important idea that religion and the state should never be run together. freedom of religion is important, so therefore no one religious thought is taught in public schools. it wouldn't be fair to teach your version of religion to the people in school, right?

and i don't agree with how they teach evolution as the absolute truth. i believe teachers should be educated in how to present evolution as a theory and not as the absolute, but there is still extremely convincing evidence that it is the best way we can explain the natural world as we know it.

i believe that even religious people should learn to think for themselves. i'm not interested when people say that they will only rely on their faith and that nothing else matters to them. that is a naive way to look at the world. if you have listened and attempted to understand the theory of evolution and you can bring up logical arguments against it, fine, i am more than willing to listen and learn from you. but just believing in god and discrediting evolution because a book and your church says so, that seems weird to me.

this is not a post against you but to people who are unwilling to learn about evolution because "their god says so". i used to be a christian and i used to believe in the bible, but learning about evolution and the process of how evolution works makes sense to me, therefore i was willing to interpret the bible in a different and not literal way, and my faith was still solid afterwards. my problem with the bible is not with the creation story but with a multitude of other things. still, be responsible for yourself, your opinions, in what you know. i'm still learning and it's been a great process.

[jayx8318x]

I agree with judes, just because you're "not a scientist" and don't ever plan to be, doesn't mean you should just ignore and discredit evolution. People have put over a hundred years in studying evolution, you can't deny that some of the claims and conclusions are VERY plausible and just makes a whole lotta gosh darn sense.

You're missing the big picture, evolution doesn't just say, oh we all came a big bang. It explains why we all have thumbs, why we walk on two feet, why you look like your parents, why Asian people have smaller eyes, etc....

So even if Adam and Eve were created by God, why is it that we ALL don't look like how Adam and Eve are always depicted? Because of evolution! People who live in colder temperatures have small eyes because over time it has evolved that way to keep out the cold air, ice and snow. Some people from Scandinavia (northern Europe) have small eyes that look very oriental too!

The major thing that is in dispute concerning evolution is whether God put us here, or a big ball of exploding gas. That aside, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't even consider learning and understanding evolution.

What is the major cause of conflict and misery in the world today? Ignorance.
Millions of people in Africa have AIDs because men there believe having sex with a virgin cures AIDs. That's why 13-14 year old girls get HIV, even babies are raped over there.

The path to tolerance is through education. So I suggest you be educated, it DOESN'T have to be in conflict with your beliefs. No one forces you to believe anything you don't want to believe.

And don't say you are not a scientist or ever plan to be. I doubt you came into this world knowing everything you know now. You learned what foods you liked by trying different things as a child, or what happenened when you touched the doorknob after walking across the carpet. Science is acquiring knowledge. So till you drop dead, you are a scientist.

[lil~jo]

I being a christian agrees too...
I'm open to all sugestions...and opinions...
maybe you should be too bebyjaystaa.
It doesnt hurt to know what others think you know...
And I find it interesting.

Just remember if you listen to others, others will listen to you.
So if you want others to listen to you about your belief of God...listen to them about science...

[bebyjaystaa]

ok i'm sorry for writing what i did cus i said it badly. i'm sorry for making it sound like i am totally stubborn :shifty: i am sometimes..and i admit that i am being it right now:shy: i am also very bad at debating..so i think whatever i say, i will just make it worse. i am totally up for any things you guys wanna discuss about. the reason i made this was because i am kinna confused about evolution. what evidence..besides fossils do they have ?

let's start over. :wave:

[HarmonyCloud]

I was reading some of the debates on this topic. My personal opinion is there is just no right answer right now because no answer could provide sufficiant information.

In religion according to the bible judes reply about God creating the first human, Adam is what a lot of christians believe but some people do not believe in this theory because of it seems to not provide any real evidence at all except what is written in the bible. Then there is the scientific outlook on the topic that we did indeed originate in an area in Africa (or at least that is what my teacher taught me while I was taking World History), I believe in the Jewish religion we believe this theory as well. It does from a scienfitic point of view make sense because while humans were very primitive the environment in Africa is an ample condition for the humans to surivive as jayx8318x pointed out.

My personal point of view, I think God may have created humans whether it was through evolution and where the first human was Adam or not we did some how become what we are now. I do feel that there is a high chance that Humans did originate in africa and then spread out to the different continents over the centuries and eventually evolve into the multicultural society we are today.

[BlueChaos]

Talking about human creation, even inside Christianity itself there are a lot of beliefs to the creation of mankind, especially from the scientific side. One theory that circulates on the idea of human being created by God is called Creationism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creationism).

Even inside Creationism themselves, there are many kinds of creationism that people believe. I myself, was studying the Young Earth Creationism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young-Earth_Creationism) with a geology professor in my campus back then in 2004. This theory threw the evolution theory out of the window and believes that the Earth is no more older than 6000 to 8000 years, there are many geological proofs concerning this theory. But in 2006, as the article stated, as of 2006, an estimated 95% of scientists and 90% of christian college professors rejected the idea of a young earth. Me? Stupid as it may be, I still hold this foundation of belief, but at the same time, I am still doing researches with my professor to this date. There are many theories about this such as the moon dust height (if the Earth is more than 100 million years, Neil Armstrong would have been swimming in moon dust), the receding distance of the moon and earth (due to the Earth gravity each year the moon is going closer and closer to the Earth and it is believed that if the Earth ages more than 100 million years the Moon would not be there today) and many more.

Personally, my stance is:
- Men created by God is true, and is created like how men is now
- There is no evolution (monkey to early prehistoric man to modern man)
- There is adaptation (men spreading over the Earth and adapting to enviroments leading to different races and characteristics, this is a true Biblical account too if you study on the Babel Tower incident carefully)
- There is the Great Flood, which ends the volcanic era with the dinosaurs and large animals

As for the real age of the Earth, right now I do not have a say on this.

The articles I gave should offer some interesting read from both scientific and theological POVS.

[KendoTiger]

I'm sorry, but I do not believe in creationism (in any of the forms mentioned to me as to date) in any way. Any scientists that offer "proof" of it are instantly discredited in my mind, although I will still review their work. For any one piece of "evidence" they find, I can find one hundred more to bury it.

*shrugs*

Getting back to topic:

Currently, based on genetic and fossil records (as I am aware), the current *probable* theory is that as a species, we originated out of Africa, spreading throughout the Eurasia land mass in a series of population movements.

Even today, neanderthals, despite distinct facial features, would be able to blend into a crowd without attracting attention. It is most probable that they interbred and eventually ceased to be a separate species. In fact, this one media person took part in an experiment in which the reconstructed his face to resemble that of a neanderthal (from fossil and facial reconstructive analysis) - and he took a stroll in the city. Only two women looked back at him, everyone else completely ignored him.

Quite a long time later, recorded civilization appeared roughly concurrently at four distinct points - Egypt, Huang He (China), Indus Valley (India/Pakistan), and Mesopotamia (Middle East). *possibly Elam - I have to do more research on this potential civilization*. It makes sense to assume that human settlement occured shortly before recorded history takes place.

Because it is unreasonable to assume that a society could exist for a great extent at any advanced scientific level without written records, it is safe to assume that other societies of any advanced state were not in existance elsewhere.

Oh - btw, I just started reading a book which proposes that the "Great Flood" from the Bible might have been a flood in which part of the Black Sea covered some of the Mediteranian land mass.

[Rurouni[X]]

Homo Sapiens.. love that word
Same as Single Celled Cro magnons..
Anyway.
As a firm christian. The bible states that we are all from the Garden of Eden.
Which sounds like africa lol.
Also my scientific brain speaking.
Humans evolved from Apes.
When we started walking and some random said "OMG look Fire" Now we can cook meat.. awww ahh eehh..
Anyway the Bible says we all come out of Ethiopia.. which WOULD Probably be modern day Africa.. not that we have any hard cold physical proof.
Human remains cant really say anything.
Humans supposedly materialised 300 years ago.. give or take a couple of years.
where ever those remaisn were found doesnt mean where we came from.
Dont forget that even stupid Nianderthals (Excuse my horrible spelling) can travel.
3000 years of human existence cant leave any time for continental drift theory.. so Screw that.
I dont really think we are all from Africa.
Cause why africa... its not like a place with a abundence of food and water.
Although Africa is the continent with the most Hunters.. meat eating mammels.
We could of possibly been evolved.
Modern science tells us that Evolution is a MUCH moore believable theory then.
"And then God made man and he said. I shall call though creation... Adam"
^^"

[BlueChaos]

As a firm christian. The bible states that we are all from the Garden of Eden.
Which sounds like africa lol.
Hmmm, I think the Garden of Eden was located in Persia, on modern day Iran if I'm not mistaken, based on the fact that there was a river there that looks quite like Tigris. It's quite far from Africa really, if you read the Bible they went far from Egypt (Africa) back to their homeland in the Book of Exodus.

[Rurouni[X]]

haha well Sorry.
But i didnt really base everything on that.
Question.
Jsut how does a neanderthal blend in?
He would look SO weird.
^^"

[seaweedpatchkid]

I watched a video in my SSC class the other day about the "Out of Africa" theory and how we all emerged from Africa and how Africa is the cradle of all human life.

It does make a lot of sense considering some of the oldest remains were found in Africa and I wouldn't be surprised if all of it was true.