http://player.theplatform.com/p/2E2eJC/nbcNewsOffsite?guid=f_fossils_150910
By David McKenzie and Hamilton Wende, CNN
Updated 6:49 AM ET, Thu September 10, 2015 | Video below source: CNN
Rising Star Cave, South Africa (CNN) When an amateur caver and university geologist arrived at Lee Berger’s house one night in late 2013 with a fragment of a fossil jawbone in hand, they broke out the beers and called National Geographic.
Berger, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, had unearthed some major finds before. But he knew he had something big on his hands.
What he didn’t know at the time is that it would shake up our understanding of the progress of human evolution and even pose new questions about our identity.
Two years after they were tipped off by cavers plumbing the depths of the limestone tunnels in the Rising Star Cave outside Johannesburg, Berger and his team have discovered what they say is a new addition to our family tree.
The team is calling this new species of human relative “Homo naledi,” and they say it appears to have buried its dead — a behavior scientists previously thought was limited to humans.
Berger’s team came up with the startling theory just days after reaching the place where the fossils — consisting of infants, children, adults and elderly individuals — were found, in a previously isolated chamber within the cave.
The team believes that the chamber, located 30 meters underground in the Cradle of Humanity world heritage site, was a burial ground — and that Homo naledi could have used fire to light the way.
Read further and watch a video in CNN
Additional Reading
Charles Darwin: An Epiphany for the Muslims, A Catastrophe for the Christians
Every new discovery favoring human evolution reconfirms that Adam and Eve were not the first human couple and therefore there was no ‘Original Sin’ and there is no Christianity; only Judaism and Islam.
Suggested reading:
Book Review: Saving the Original Sinner: How Christians Have Used the Bible’s First Man to Oppress
@ Zia Shah: Interesting “logic” you have there. I use the term loosely of course.
I’m also not sure why someone secure in their own religious belief would feel the need to go out of their way to try to rubbish someone else’s
It is not to rubbish anyone. It is only to shake up people a little so they are open to reexamine their theology and be open to other theologies or world views; even if agnostic or atheistic.
Hmm, I’m not sure how writing “…there is no Christianity; only Judaism and Islam” encourages people to be open to other world views. It just sounds a bit petty.
It’s also a statement that will offend many, but I would of course defend your right to make it. I hope you too would defend the right of others to offend your beliefs.
In any event, most religions have fanatstical and ridiculous elements. Picking out one from a specific religion while ignoring the others doesn’t mean other faiths are any more credible.
You just offended and had the freedom to offend.
Right. Although I’m not sure what that has to do with anything I’ve written…
It is all in good humor.
Zia, I have heard this nonsense before and we had a debate on it. At that time you quoted the works of Ghulam Ahmed in support of your contention. But I pointed out to you that what you quoted actually supported original sin. Your reaction? “WHY DID THEY NOT FIND A BETTER METAPHOR FOR IT”. Check your archives.
If there is no Christianity, then the quran which refers to it is based on lies. If other parents existed, then the quran which refers only to ‘Adam and his wife’as the first human, was written by a god which is deceitful and not all-knowing for it would have known that there were other original parents. In effect, you are saying that your allah does not exist otherwise it would not have made such monumental mistakes.
There are copious references in muhammadan literature on original sin. People only stick to stereotypes because it suits their fancy.
I challenge you to reopen the debate on this.