When Did Modern Human Brains—and the Image of God—Appear?

I am attaching a paper which talks about saltatory jumps in brain sizes. The paper points to such events @1.8 mya; 300k to 400kya and @100kya.
It also points to the point where modern language developed (I had shared a paper earlier about vocal chords. This one refers to changes in the brains "vocal"areas leading to the appearance of fully functional language approx 50kya.

Having said that, there are those who argue for a slow increase over times as opposed to punctuated equilibrium.However, Dr Ranas argument was based on teh fossil record… and other scientists agree with his interpretation.

brain size and cognitive ability doesn’t correlate.

Not anymore with new findings since then. Especially given all of the ancient genomes sequenced and the mating between species.

It seems that brain size is the best way to corelate with cognition. Atleast thats the argument made in the paper i shared.

As only limited insight into behaviour is available from the archaeological record, much of our understanding of historical changes in human cognition is restricted to identifying changes in brain size and architecture

There maybe be a debate on this. However, if other scientists are not being dishonest by linking cognition to brain size/architecture, then neither is Dr Rana.

It’s not an either-or situation. We have good examples of both long periods of gradualism and punk-eek in the fossil record. That’s because evolutionary changes tends to track changes in the environment. When the environment changes slowly you get gradual evolution. When the environment is stable then makes a relatively rapid change you get punk-eek.

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when parachuting into discussions, atleast read what we are talking about.
Have you read the article being discussed?

I saw you make an obvious error in your understanding of paleontology. I merely corrected you.

Yes, I have. Have you?

You assumed i made an “öbvious error”. All i was doing was citing a study that showed there was a saltational leap in brain size 100kya as per the fossil record.

I was not making any claims regarding whether paleontology supports saltational evolution as a general trend. That has nothing to do with the subject being discussed.

For someone who hates having words put in your mouth, you keep misunderstanding and misrepresenting what others are saying.

Yes i did.

That argument would make Neanderthals the most cognitively advanced human species as their brains were larger. Ours have actually gotten slightly smaller in recent times.

Ya, well you will have to take it up with the guys who made the argument (in the paper).
The original point is that Dr Rana was not misrepresenting where the Science is.
If you are willing to agree with that… we can both wonder together why scientists would think Brain Size/architecture indicates high cognition… (could the architecture part have something to do with it? Perhaps Size+ a particular type of brain architecture implies higher cognition?)
It would be a fascinating area to explore.

Let’s call it a draw. At 50K years ago at least three species of humans spread around the world, that were cognitively advanced, had similar culture, language, advanced tool making and hunting techniques.

Why does that bother you? Assume for the moment that this is true. What problems does this cause you?

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The problem is that it doesn’t seem to be true. Personally i would be comfortable if neanderthals, denisovans and humans had very similar cognitive abilities. It would solve problems for me! I would just say they are different variants of what "humanity"looks like. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t seem true. look at this finding below for example -

There are a lot of findings like this. I saw one that said we had more tailored clothing than Neanderthals. But the differences were minor. Sure we are the only ones left, Neanderthals live on only in our genes. And the real cognitive advances were only just beginning. Language and Culture exploded with agriculture and animal husbandry 9000 years ago.

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I agree there is a lot of room for speculation and conjecture.

The image of god is on our soul. I don’t believe we have a brain. Instead just our soul is connected to a giant memory. I don’t agree weighing skull/brain size provides any insight into intelligence or language.
Just as today in computers, SMALL is brilliant so likewise in humans.The concept of brain/skull size as indicating HUMAN STATUS in anything is just old time evolutionism.

Humans have bigger heads probably just for bigger memory parts in the skull. Or other reasons.
Or just for better looks! Speaking for myself!!

@patrick there is legitimate debate here about if and how much Neanderthals were different. What is your point exactly?

My point is that Rana continues to ignore the evidence that Neanderthals were people too that deserve respect as all humans do. They were our ancestors just like other hominids were. Neanderthals deserve our respect and admiration. We are too Homo Sapien centrists. Homo Sapiens did this and Homo Sapiens did that. This Neanderthal child deserves the image of God designation just as much as all Homo Sapiens children do.

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@Ashwin_s is not making that mistake. He does not represent Rana.

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The “image of God” is interpreted differently in different theological systems. What do you understand by “image of God”…
I would like to understand where you are coming from.

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Historically the “image of God” label has been used to discriminate and to justify doing terrible things to people.

Christians claim that we all are created in the Image of God so you have to be treated this way or else. This is very divisive. I see Christians using the “Image of God” claim to advance their ideology. For example, AiG says that Neanderthals were humans who were created in the Image of God. RTB, on the other hand, says that Neanderthal were mere animals and not created in the Image of God. Here you have two Christian groups being divisive. Along with Image of God, goes the existence of a soul, who is saved, who gets in Heaven. This has historical been used on the disabled, the mentally ill, and races. GA has the same problems. For GA to be non-racist, Image of God, existence of a soul, salvation should be extended to include all of the genus Homo. This would allow GA to be non-racist.