Fossils challenge old evolution theory
I notice several other blogs picking up on this significant evolutionary discovery, so I feel obligated to comment on it. As stated in the article:
The old theory is that the first and oldest species in our family tree, Homo habilis, evolved into Homo erectus, which then became human, Homo sapiens. But Leakey’s find suggests those two earlier species lived side-by-side about 1.5 million years ago in parts of Kenya for at least half a million years.
As stated in EvolutionBlog however:
The fact that erectus and habilis coexisted for a substantial period of time hardly implies that the former could not have evolved from the latter. It is certainly possible that both evolved from a common ancestor, but these two fossils hardly force such a conclusion. There is nothing implausible in suggesting that a species managed to coexist with one of its evolutionary descendants.
Now the author of EvolutionBlog doesn’t believe in God, but here is the thing. Let us suppose that Homo Habilis had a small change in one member’s DNA that made him/her able to mate with other habilis, but made their offspring (eventually Homo Erectus) capable of mating only with each other. I realize that this has never been observed, but let us set that aside for a moment. What would it mean? It would mean that we now have two groups that cannot mate with each other. Suppose the new group was also better equipped to survive. What would we see? Eventually, the new group would outlive the other.
Now, let us get back to the fact that what I am suggesting has never been seen before. What if the reason we have never seen it is because it cannot happen in nature on its own? Does that mean it didn’t happen? No. It only means that Darwinian evolution was not the driving force behind it. It would mean such an event could only happen with God. So, could God have taken some habilis, and mutated them into erectus? Absolutely. In fact, I propose that’s all this discovery is saying. It’s pointing to God’s active role in the “evolution” of mankind.