WCL - Quest For The Historical Adam

[Cheerful Charlie]

William Craig Lane has a new book out. "The Quest For The Historical Adam". WCL has to accept modern science and evolution. Now how to reinterpret Genesis? How to save Christian dogmas? WCL tells us that
Homo sapiens, Denisovans, and Neanderthals had to have a common ancestor, homo heidelgergensis. The original Adam was a member of Heidelberg man, some 500,000 tp 750,000 years ago. Really!

In the following Youtube video, WCL explains his amazing discovery. The, errrrrmmm, good stuff is at 40:50 in.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Selling music to the choir.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Selling music to the choir.

Actually not. WCL in no uncertain terms abandons Bible literalism, creationism, original sin as orthodox Christains accept as dogma, and anti-science fundamentalism. This may be silly to us, but WCL is going to piss off a lot of evangelicals and Bible literalists.


"There is a fine line between clever and stupid."
- Spinaltap

 

[steve_bank]

Lucy

Lucy (Australopithecus) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Lucy specimen is an early australopithecine and is dated to about 3.2 million years ago. The skeleton presents a small skull akin to that of non-hominin apes, plus evidence of a walking-gait that was bipedal and upright, akin to that of humans (and other hominins); this combination supports the view of human evolution that bipedalism preceded increase in brain size.[4][5] A 2016 study proposes that Australopithecus afarensis was also to a large extent tree-dwelling, though the extent of this is debated.[6][7]

"Lucy" acquired her name from the 1967 song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles, which was played loudly and repeatedly in the expedition camp all evening after the excavation team's first day of work on the recovery site. After public announcement of the discovery, Lucy captured much public interest, becoming a household name at the time.

UC Berkeley Press Release

BERKELEY — Nearly 17 years after plucking the fossilized tooth of a new human ancestor from a pebbly desert in Ethiopia, an international team of scientists today (Thursday, Oct. 1) announced their reconstruction of a partial skeleton of the hominid, Ardipithecus ramidus, which they say revolutionizes our understanding of the earliest phase of human evolution.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Selling music to the choir.

Actually not. WCL in no uncertain terms abandons Bible literalism, creationism, original sin as orthodox Christains accept as dogma, and anti-science fundamentalism. This may be silly to us, but WCL is going to piss off a lot of evangelicals and Bible literalists.


"There is a fine line between clever and stupid."
- Spinaltap

I watched about a minute and a half of the vid. Maybe I'll watch a bit later but it's so juvenile and insulting.

What I meant by selling music to the choir is what McDowell touched on right off the bat, WLC's proclivity for writing and selling "tons of material." It's just his money game, his music, which the choir is gonna buy and support, regardless of whether it has valuable information. "Systematic philosophical theology" is what Craig says he is aiming for. He's just trying to spin spookology into science. Big woot. Why doesn't he do something productive?

Sorry to be so dismissive but I think I passed Craig in my late teens as far as appreciating science and the human condition, no spooks needed. "Atonement" and "theological anthropology" is what he's "boning up" on so he can produce his next work. Holy shit, the guy is right up front with his stupidity. Like I said, not being in his choir means I'll pass on his current and future grifting endeavors.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Some day, when you are bored stiff, try this interview again. At 40:50, WCL gets to the punchline.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Some day, when you are bored stiff, try this interview again. At 40:50, WCL gets to the punchline.

Curiosity and boredom got the better of me so I checked it out. Kudos and thank-you. That is truly funny shit. I'm left wondering why the Divine Inspirer took three billion years of earth time to get around to casting it's spell on our chromosomes. The guy is a kook who writes kooky stuff for kooky people.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

WCL disparages tall tales of magic fruit trees, talking snakes, as mytho-history. God does not walk in the gaarden with Adam. This will upset the literalists and fundamentalists.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

WCL disparages tall tales of magic fruit trees, talking snakes, as mytho-history. God does not walk in the gaarden with Adam. This will upset the literalists and fundamentalists.

I agree. Besides just milking the cash cow, Craig might actually be doing us all a favor by referencing actual scientific reality. There will definitely be a few out there curious about what he is saying. Let's face it, a brain is a brain, we really don't consciously control what it does so some of those fundy brains mired in ennui might latch onto bits of scientific discovery. Gives a person hope.

I often relate the story of my days living in Georgia. A crewmate, good guy but obviously influenced, seriously questioned me one day about "cavemen." He asked if I believed there were people in the past that actually lived in caves. He was obviously questioning something he'd heard in a spookology class and considered this damn yankee a credible source of information. So I told him that it seemed normal to me for people to find shelter wherever they could, not only our distant ancestors but in more recent and present times, that people are still sheltering in caves. I mentioned how the population of Vicksburg dug caves to live in while the city was under siege. My victory in the bible belt!

Speaking of walking in the magic garden with Adam, there is a BBC video running around on this topic. The author suggests that this story arose because of gardens that royalty built for their gods, complete with cherubim, ruins of which still exist to this day complete with carvings depicting same. If you're a divinely descended king you walk in the garden with your god. Pretty straightforward and a good argument against how people literally interpret bibles.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

The Eden myth's reason is obvious. A tall tale that explains why if there was a good God, life is painful, hard and laborious. How WCL plans to deal with this issue is going to be interesting to see.

 

[steve_bank]

I watched a show on the Eden myth.

The show used modern statelites mapping to identify old dry rivers and oter landmarks. and other myths.

It looks likes there ma have been a region refereed to as Eden and other names. It was a green spot on the Arabian peninsula.

Something I saw a few months ago on a Christian show. Science proves faith.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

William Craig Lane has a new book out. "The Quest For The Historical Adam".

Actually it is In Quest For the Historical Adam, which makes less sense than the version with the "The".

I look forward to the next book Looking For Abraham. And then the final piece of umm... to the trilogy, Where the Fuck is Moses?

WCL has to accept modern science and evolution. Now how to reinterpret Genesis? How to save Christian dogmas? WCL tells us that
Homo sapiens, Denisovans, and Neanderthals had to have a common ancestor, homo heidelgergensis. The original Adam was a member of Heidelberg man, some 500,000 tp 750,000 years ago. Really!

It sounds like the science in the movie Armageddon. Christian Apologia is a lot like crap Action films... the less they bring up science, the better. It does seem interesting that evolution is being embraced needlessly here, in order to solve a question that isn't real in the first place.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I watched a show on the Eden myth.

The show used modern statelites mapping to identify old dry rivers and oter landmarks. and other myths.

It looks likes there ma have been a region refered to as Efen and other names. It was a green spot on the Arabian peninsula.

Well yeah. They were describing stuff they knew at the time... then plopped a magic garden in the narrative because a garden that always grew was Warp Speed fiction for them.

 

[steve_bank]

A thread on Eden

The Garden Of Eden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqyez-PXDiY Just watched this on cable. A professor traded through the tales and mapped omto geography. One of the keys were satellite pictures that found the track of a river missing in the tale. A confluence of 4 rivers. The ancient Jews clearly plagiarized...

iidb.org

Looks like the video is gone.

Just watched this on cable. A professor waded through the tales and mapped omto geography. One of the keys were satellite pictures that found the track of a river missing in the tale. A confluence of 4 rivers.

The ancient Jews clearly plagiarized and adapted existing myths.

The conclusion was that ancient traders carries tales back to Santeria of a paradise.
Turns out it is probable it was a real location. A river trading town in a lush area.

8000 years ago the Arabian peninsula was green. The myth evolved of the region being the birthplace of humans.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I watched that same video not so long ago. Yes, quite interesting.

There's an expression that goes something like, "I'm speaking in english but you seem to be listening in dumbass." Craig just mixes the two to sell his tales.

 

[blastula]

William Craig Lane has a new book out.

Is the backwards name intentional?

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

William Craig Lane has a new book out.

Is the backwards name intentional?

Senior moment....

 

[blastula]

Ah, it wasn't just you though, so was wondering.

On the video, if he's going to invoke a miracle to mutate them to "fully human," why not just go for special creation? Such a weak miracle.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I'm sure Craig sees himself precisely as that special creation. Looking at his work he's a missing link between woo and science. He's graduated to understanding scientific thought but hasn't put aside the compulsion for practicing and spreading the power of woo.

Is he just doing it for the money? That's a large part of his motivation no doubt.

 

[bilby]

WCL disparages tall tales of magic fruit trees, talking snakes, as mytho-history. God does not walk in the gaarden with Adam. This will upset the literalists and fundamentalists.

I agree. Besides just milking the cash cow, Craig might actually be doing us all a favor by referencing actual scientific reality. There will definitely be a few out there curious about what he is saying. Let's face it, a brain is a brain, we really don't consciously control what it does so some of those fundy brains mired in ennui might latch onto bits of scientific discovery. Gives a person hope.

I often relate the story of my days living in Georgia. A crewmate, good guy but obviously influenced, seriously questioned me one day about "cavemen." He asked if I believed there were people in the past that actually lived in caves. He was obviously questioning something he'd heard in a spookology class and considered this damn yankee a credible source of information. So I told him that it seemed normal to me for people to find shelter wherever they could, not only our distant ancestors but in more recent and present times, that people are still sheltering in caves. I mentioned how the population of Vicksburg dug caves to live in while the city was under siege. My victory in the bible belt!

Speaking of walking in the magic garden with Adam, there is a BBC video running around on this topic. The author suggests that this story arose because of gardens that royalty built for their gods, complete with cherubim, ruins of which still exist to this day complete with carvings depicting same. If you're a divinely descended king you walk in the garden with your god. Pretty straightforward and a good argument against how people literally interpret bibles.

Most palaeolithic people probably never saw a cave in their life.

The few who happened to live in areas with extensive cave networks certainly used the mouths of those caves for free shelter; And many of them ventured farther in (though probably infrequently) for various ceremonial purposes, including making the famous paintings.

But the reason these cave paintings (and other cave finds) form so much of the known history of these peoples isn't that it formed a large or important part of their lives or societies; It's that caves are good at preserving the traces they left behind.

What we see is not what they did, but what survives of what they did, and that's a very different thing.

Sure, there were cavemen. But they were likely almost as weird and unusual to their peers as they are to us.

Most palaeolithic peoples were estuarine for large parts of their lives, and few estuaries have nearby caves. But estuaries are terrible places for the preservation of archaeology, so the evidence from them is scant, and difficult to identify. It requires specialist techniques not available to antiquarians or archaeologists until the last few decades.

And the popular picture of palaeolithic man comes from the C19th. Hence 'cavemen'.