Why Did the Human Brain Grow In Size?

 Image credit of Shutterstock

Joel Kontinen  

Evolutionists believe that ”over the course of the Pleistocene epoch, between 2.6 million years ago and 11,700 years ago, the brains of humans and their relatives grew“.

Why was this?

Scientists from Tel Aviv University have a new hypothesis as to why: As the largest animals on the landscape disappeared, the scientists propose, Human brains had to grow to enable the hunting of smaller, swifter prey.

However, However, not all scientist agree with the Israeli claim, John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who was not involved in the research and was skeptical of its conclusions. He says thar for instance homo florensis had smaller brain size, yet they, hunted big elephants.

Our brain is  a Darwinin engma. They can be equipped for better repair 

Source:

Pappas,Stephanie. 2021. What fueled humans' big brains? Controversial paper proposes new hypothesis. Live Science 5 March.

New discoveries are still stunning archaeologists!

Garethwiscombe, CC BY 2.0.




Joel Kontinen

Many people tend to think that ancient men could not have been as clever as we are. This is in keeping with the Darwinian idea that humans evolved very gradually from ape-like creatures and learning was a slow hit-or-miss affair. They were not expected to accomplish much intellectually.

However, the pyramids, Stonehenge and other ancient monuments and devices tell an entirely different kind of story.

Now, a discovery in England, has got archaeologists puzzled. They dug up the largest prehistoric structure, just under two miles from Stonehenge.

The discovered site is a huge circle, around 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) in diameter, consisting of twenty shafts that are five metres deep (!6 feet) and up to 20 metres (65 ft) in diameter

The archaeologists are puzzled because this structure is way off what they thought.

“A wide range of dates were calculated, some as old as 7,179 ± 28 years BC for shell, and 1130 BC for bone (calibrated), but all from the same deposits. The archaeological report admits: “There is a wide range of time represented in the radiocarbon dates- early dates are on shells and suggest that the determinations from these samples are not reliable.”

Carbon dating is full on assumptions, while it is the most accurate dating method.


Source:
Cox,Gavin. 2020. Stonehenge: new discoveries are still stunning archaeologists! Creation.com. 29 June.

Why Did Our Forefathers Start Painting Similar Structures at The Same Time?

The drawing looks a bit like this. Lhfage, CC0.




Joel Kontinen

Nature has published a study on ancient drawings in Indonesia. This discovery, a 40,000- years old rendering of arts and hands, "indicates that figurative cave art … didn't begin in Europe as many scientists thought, but rather in Southeast Asia during the last ice age, the researchers said.”

This is an enigma for evolutionary scientists. How could drawings resemble so much those found in Europe and elsewhere?

This happens on three occasions:

Evolution happens in places in which it was not supposed to happen. In this instance, man gained the art to describe animals some “52,000 and 40,000 years ago, includes hand stencils and reddish-orange ochre-drawn animals.”

Then, 20,00 years go past and the artists “favored a dark mulberry-purple color and painted hand stencils, abstract signs and human-like figures wearing elaborate headdresses and engaging in various activities, such as hunting or ritualistic dancing, the researchers said.”

Next, “humanlike figures, boats and geometric designs that were mostly drawn with black pigments, the researchers said” were made 4,000 years ago.

However, the artists were still living in caves 20,000 years ago. Actually, scientist have overestimated the time man was thought to have developed.

We might contrast this to what the Bible has to say about humans, At the beginning, they built cities and in the sixth generation a man rose, who “was the father of all who play stringed instruments,” and his brother “forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron.” ( Genesis i4:21–22, New International Version).

Source:

Geggel, Laura. 2018. World's Oldest Animal Drawing, Discovered in Borneo Cave, Is a Weird. Cow Beast. Live Science (7 November)

Stonehenge, Pyramids and Sophisticated Devices Defy Darwinian Views of Ancient Man

Could there be a link between Stonehenge and ancient astronomy? Image courtesy of Andrew Dunn, CC BY-SA 2.0.





Joel Kontinen

Many people tend to think that ancient men could not have been as clever as we are. This is in keeping with the Darwinian idea that humans evolved very gradually from ape-like creatures and learning was a slow hit-or-miss affair. They were not expected to accomplish much intellectually.

However, the pyramids, Stonehenge and other ancient monuments and devices tell an entirely different kind of story.

In 2016 Science reported on the work of Mathieu Ossendrijver of Humboldt University in Berlin, who examined Babylonian clay tablets hailing from 350 BC to 50 BC.

Babylonian astronomers “also employed sophisticated geometric methods that foreshadow the development of calculus. Historians had thought such techniques did not emerge until more than 1400 years later, in 14th century Europe.”

Dr. Ossendrijver also published a report in Science entitled The Ancient Babylonian astronomers calculated Jupiter’s position from the area under a time-velocity graph.

The 2000-year old Antikythera Mechanism likewise challenges our views of ancient man. It is a multi-purpose calendar and computer. It could, among other things, be used to predict astronomical events such as solar eclipses and the timing of the Ancient Olympic Games.

A recent article in The Conversation examines the correlation of stars and ancient monuments and concludes that there might indeed be a link, but we cannot be sure of this.

Anyhow, even entirely oral cultures could have prodigious knowledge about constellations and stars.

In 2016 New Scientist wrote about Bill Yidumduma Harney, an Aboriginal Australian who could identify 3,000 stars in the night sky. How many astronomy professors could beat him in that game?


Sources:

Brown, Daniel. 2018. From the pyramids to Stonehenge – were prehistoric people astronomers? The Conversation (12 March).

Cowen, Ron. 2016. Math whizzes of ancient Babylon figured out forerunner of calculus. Science (28 January).

Darwin Was Wrong About Ancient Man

The .Greeks built the first computer over 2,000 years ago. Here's a model of it in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
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Joel Kontinen

Evolutionists tend to believe in progress from simple beginnings to more sohistication.

However, we often do not see this in the animal kingdom – or even in human history. An intruiging illustration is the very first computer, the The Antikythera mechanism, an invention that is over 2,000 years old.

The device was housed in a wooden box that measured 34 cm (13 inches) x 18 cm (7 inches) x 9 cm (3.5 in), or slightly smaller but thicker that the average laptop.

The Antikythera mechanism could, among other things, be used to predict astronomical events such as solar eclipses and the timing of the Ancient Olympic Games.

In other words, its technology was by far more advanced than anything inventors during Charles Darwin´s lifetime could come up with.

In real life, technology has often gone backward. This is something that Darwin would never ever have predicted.