Aliens on Earth

[JamesW]

jimslip wrote:

> I'm sure there are whole libraries of books that appear to
> shoot everything I've written down in flames, but they have no
> more, "Proof" than I have.


You did not ask for proof. You asked "how could" it have happened.

There is a well documented scientific explanation of how the eye could have evolved, so therefore if you were to read those books you would find that your question of 'how could it have happened' has been fully addressed and answered.

[eroticartist]

Have you read Chariots of the Gods or any of Von Daniken's books?

[eroticartist]

!cool!

[eroticartist]

Jim,Thank you for an interesting comment which I enjoyed reading.

My own personal theory is that alien males were trapped on the Earth and were forced to cohabit with chimpanzees in order to survive. Incidentally humans have 99per cent simian DNA.

[andy at handiwork]

I read the first of his books (well, as much of it as I could without demanding a refund for taking hours from my life I wont ever get back) and am familiar enough with his oeuvre to know its a complete load of specious, shoddily researched rubbish, that considers ancient peoples to have been unable to have achieved things through their own intelligence and abilities, trivialising their civilisations and thus demeaning them and humanity in general. He panders to the credulity of people for whom rationality could well be a stranger. His work belongs in the fantasy section of a book shop's comic section and not on the shelves of anyone with a scintilla of faith in the ascent of man. Jacob Bronowsky must be turning in his grave. Its like the Enlightenment, and the release from irrationality it set in motion, never happened.

[bamboo]

So in summary then, you're saying we're all descended from monkey rapists... Brilliant.

You might wish to believe you're related to an ape molester but don't tar us all with the same banana smelling brush.

[jimslip]

OK so where are all the mistakes that nature made on the way? Let's not just keep it to our species, what about mistakes made during the eveolution of the millions of other species?

We make a tiny mistake with Thalidamide and the repercussions are there for all to see for all time, deformed skeletons which will be uncovered in years to come. Or how did Man evolve at exactly the same time throughout the whole of the Earth. Errm don't tell me, cavemen and women made boats out of empty coconuts lashed together and then circumnavigated the Earth whislt dropping off their offspring at every land they visited!

Don't tell me there is a book that explains all this in detail. I'm sure there were a mountain of books that explained why the World was flat and other studies that explained why air travel wouldn't be possible. There were also studies that, "Proved" supersonic flight would result in death and studies that showed disease was spread by, "Unclean air".

It is so easy for authors to make evidence to fit their mindset, (This is a notorious problem in police inverstigations) but so much more difficult and braver to dispute "Evidence" handed down from previous authors. Oh how they laughed at Erich Von Daniken, how they mocked and scoffed............why? Nothing really to do with his theory, it was to do with someone daring to propose such an outlandish proposition and challenge the status quo.

[JamesW]

jimslip wrote:

> Or how did Man evolve at
> exactly the same time throughout the whole of the Earth. Errm
> don't tell me, cavemen and women made boats out of empty
> coconuts lashed together and then circumnavigated the Earth
> whislt dropping off their offspring at every land they visited!


Man didn't evolve at exactly the same time throughout the whole of the Earth. Man evolved in East Africa. Our original home is roughly the area that's now covered by Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania, with present day Kenya being the main location of early humans.

The dispersal of humans throughout the whole world may seem remarkable, but human appearance in every land of the world (bar Antartica) only works out to a geographical expansion in human population of about one mile a year, so maybe it's not as remarkable as it first appears. We actually dispersed quite slowly.

You have to bear in mind also that much human migration took place during the last Ice Age, when sea levels are much lower than today and there were many land bridges in the world that we just don't see now. Our own country for example was attached to the continent, as a land bridge joined East Anglia with the Netherlands, so you wouldn't have needed any coconuts to cross the North Sea. You could walk it. The Red Sea is another example. It's 12 miles wide today, but early humans could probably have paddled across it.

[eroticartist]

Dawkins like other well known evolutionary biologist purports to know the secret of life like other eminent professors but I find his opposition to creationism unconvinciing because understanding the origins of the Universe and humankind are beyond the comprehension of humans.

ALthough I believe in no Patriarchal religion I feel that the answer is supernatural.

[JamesW]

On the subject of human migration, it's probably worth adding that the only real challenge facing humans was in reaching Australia.

We know this, not only from looking at a map of the world, but from the fossil record. In Europe and Asia for example several 'pre-humans' made the journey and were there long before modern man. However, none of these were smart enough to make it to Australia, as before modern man made his appearance in Australia the fossil record shows no evidence of any 'homo' species ever being there. No doubt modern man had enough seafaring skills to make it to Australia when no previous 'homo' species had ever managed to, despite these other species making it across the rest of the world.

It's a testament to the human spirit is it not? That from an original population in East Africa of something like 2,000 to 5,000 people we started to disperse into other areas and eventually managed to 'colonise' practically the whole world. Well done us!