How long have humans been on earth? (page 2)

Satanus

I'm not a firm believer in the commonly accepted 200,000 yr figure. I suspect that the date may be pushed back even further, perhaps much further.

S

BurnTheShips

Scientifically, I don't think there is a bright red line we can point to and say: before this not human, after this human.

Burn

To begin with , you one must realize we live in the very end-times as per Daniel 12.4 so the best understanding of the Bible should be available but will be missed by most people as we approach the most likely final year 2011 AD .This is the next best prediction of the end of the world in my view.

If you know my views on the Bible I am proving the evolution is Biblical with God working behind it.

The age of the universe I counted based on the Bible to be almost excatly as the scientist say :
more than 15 billion years .

From Adam we gather the line through which Israel came to existence . So in the Bible we read the origin of the nation of Israel. Beside Adam who was the first modern man there were olther human beings scattered all over the earth .Adam was the first in line as the modern man.

If so , before Adam many primitive stages of man's development were possible.

6 days = more than 15 billion years which allows for one symbolic day lasting more than 2.5 billion years !

Man was being created near the end of that long day which allows up to 1/3 of that period !

Why ? Because when Jesus was still on earth there were last days in effect .

4000 years to Christ - 2000 years after Christ = 6000

2000 years is 1/3 of 6000 years .

I would not be surprised if man existed ( including his primitive stages ) 840 million years !

gaiagirl

Humans anatomically like ourselves have been around 50,000 years or so. Humans almost like ourselves, but different enough to have different skeletal remains, specifically Neanderthals, existed as long ago as 250,000 years. For certain, Neanderthal was human, in that they used fire, buried their dead (with possessions, so may have had a concept of an afterlife), cared for injured members, made tools. There was an overlap period when both species existed, however it is not known how well they got along, or if they avoided one another. There were other "hominids" which existed earlier, however not everyone would call them "human", at least, not human yet.

MissingLink

Very nice posts everyone. (well most of them)

kurtbethel

I would go along with millions of years, with civilizations rising and collapsing.

Not a popular view, and if you want your Adam and Eva 6000 years ago, or your Homo Erectus or whatever, fine by me.

We are here, now, and have to deal with current reality as it is.

lonelysheep

MILLIONS of years. 12.5, I've been taught. The articles below show 14-16 million years. This is if you consider humans as upright, walking tailfree individuals.

Remains of Pierolapithecus Catalaunicus were found in Spain in 2004 by Salvador Moya-Sola.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/1118_041118_ape_human_ancestor.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6522090/

Remember, we are living history, and further investigation takes time. Plenty of living time, and not in the biblical sense.

inkling

I don't think there is a bright red line we can point to

Exactly. Creationists are always complaining about a "lack of transitional fossils",
ignoring the fact that in Darwin's model EVERY fossil is a transitional fossil.

All lines between species are really as arbitrary as lines between states or counties.
There for a reason, but fuzzy and manmade none the less

This misunderstanding leads to inane challenges like: "well once the first human being
randomly mutated itself into existence, who did it have to mate with"

[inkling]

FairMind

How far back can we trace civilization? It appears to me that whenever man first appeared civilization began (building, writing, intellectual endeavors, etc.).

Hmmm, I'm not completely sure, but I think I remember reading in college that, through mitochondrial DNA, all modern humans can be traced back to a single woman in Africa who lived about 100,000 years ago.

Just like those scientists to say that the mother of humanity was unwed.

catbert

"A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson is a good read. He explains the conditions required to create a fossil. Very rarely do animals that die become fossils.

How long have humans been on earth?