I was also checking out comments, but probably skimming a bit more than Allen, when a post from our friend @vjtorley caught my attention.
Hi Rod,
Professor Swamidass’s hypothesis is consistent with the scientific evidence, but highly idiosyncratic.
For starters, Professor Swamidass doesn’t maintain that the Adam and Eve couple whom God created 10,000 years ago were the first human beings. On the contrary, he freely grants that there were earlier human beings who were made in the image and likeness of God, and who evolved, sharing a common ancestor with chimpanzees and gorillas. Swamidass is not a materialist, so I presume he believes that at some point in the past (possibly around 320,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens emerged, or possibly about 600,000 years ago, when Heidelberg man, the alleged common ancestor of Homo sapiens , Neanderthal man and Denisovan man appeared), any biologically human individuals living on the planet at that time were endowed by God with rational souls, but it would have been en masse , which means that tend of thousands of individuals became rational human beings at the same time.
@swamidass, would you say this summary is accurate?
Whoops… looks like I missed a lot when I didn’t first see the “read more” button. As might be expected (
), Vincent does have a lot more to say. He also left a link to PS there!