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At what point did humans become Human?

godlikemadman

godlikemadman

God Among Men
If you're a believer in evolution by natural selection while at the same time an adherent to one of the Abrahamic faiths, I have a question for you.

At what point did humans become Human?

Naturally this doesn't apply to YECs (for obvious reasons) or to disbelievers in evolution. But a majority of theists I know try to reconcile scientific findings in the field of the history of life with their beliefs in the Abrahamic God.

NOTE: This is not to put down or delegitimatize the non-Abrahamic faiths in any way, I just come into contact with more Christians, Muslims, and Jews than I do with say Buddhists or Hindus. No offense to you guys. If y'all feel like jumping in feel free.

Anyway. Continuing with my question. As most anthropologists have been able to piece together, modern humans are of the species Homo sapiens sapiens. However before our time there existed a plethora of pre-sapiens sapiens anthropoids, such as Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalis, Homo habilis, and Homo antecessor. So at what point did these different species of Hominina become "human" and gain the attention of God? At what point did we achieve sentience and cognition sufficient enough to be considered special by God?

Homo_habilis-2.JPG

Homo habilis

Homo_erectus_new.JPG

Homo erectus

6a00d83451c45669e201156fa9f031970c-500wi

Homo sapiens sapiens
 
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M

Meow Mix

Chatte Féministe
There is no such thing as a "first human." This is why. Consider the following spectrum of colors:

spectrum3.jpg


Where does blue begin?

It's not really possible to point at a spot and say "This is where blue begins." There's a point where blue definitely doesn't exist (moving left to right), and a point where it definitely does, but you can't point and say "This is where the first blue begins." (Yes, you can find the first blue pixel but I think you understand what I mean)

Species change over time, and categories like "species" and "human" are fuzzy categories.

Make sense?
 
godlikemadman

godlikemadman

God Among Men
Meow Mix said:
There is no such thing as a "first human." This is why. Consider the following spectrum of colors:

spectrum3.jpg


Where does blue begin?

It's not really possible to point at a spot and say "This is where blue begins." There's a point where blue definitely doesn't exist (moving left to right), and a point where it definitely does, but you can't point and say "This is where the first blue begins." (Yes, you can find the first blue pixel but I think you understand what I mean)

Species change over time, and categories like "species" and "human" are fuzzy categories.

Make sense?
Click to expand...

This is exactly the point I'm trying to convey, you just did it a little better than me. At what point does God discriminate between who is human and who is not? From Islamic scripture non-human life will be obliterated into nonexistence. I'm not sure what Christian scripture says about non-sentient non-cognizant life but I'm sure it's something along those lines. If this is how God operates, what constitutes the first legitimate human? What species was Adam or Eve part of? And will the protohumans have an afterlife? I'd like to see an Abrahamic response to this.
 
Gharib

Gharib

I want Khilafah back
Adam and Eve were humans, in a complete human form without having changed from ape. Adam was created from clay.

At what point does God discriminate between who is human and who is not?

what do you mean by that?
 
Quagmire

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
"At what point did humans become Human?"

Did you mean to ask "At what point will humans become Human?" Madman?

If you did let me know and I'll change it for you. :D
 
tree

tree

Seed Spreader
I don't think you can point to a single point and say this is when human beings began. In a million years, will our descendants who may be vastly different from us and consider themselves human look back at us and consider us to be inferior precursors that weren't human.
 
arthra

arthra

Baha'i
Humans were already potentially human although they may not have appeared in the form they have today...

"To recapitulate: as man in the womb of the mother passes from form to form, from shape to shape, changes and develops, and is still the human species from the beginning of the embryonic period -- in the same way man, from the beginning of his existence in the matrix of the world, is also a distinct species, that is, man, and has gradually evolved from one form to another. Therefore this change of appearance, this evolution of members, this development and growth, even though we admit the reality of growth and progress, does not prevent the species from being original."

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith, p. 309-310
 
jarofthoughts

jarofthoughts

Empirical Curmudgeon
rusra02 said:
Jesus Christ and milions of true Christians disagree with you... oh, and God does too. (Romans 3:3,4)

​
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Click to expand...

That just means that Jesus, God (whoever that is) and millions of 'true' Christians are wrong.
Oh, and they're not disagreeing with 'me', they are disagreeing with all of biological science.

What's your point?
 
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Valjean

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I think we must first decide what unique characteristic(s) distinguish 'humans' from non-humans.
 
moegypt

moegypt

Active Member
godlikemadman said:
So at what point did these different species of Hominina become "human" and gain the attention of God? At what point did we achieve sentience and cognition sufficient enough to be considered special by God?
Click to expand...

We became human when God created us.

This is my reference..what is better?!

23)12,13,14. And indeed We created man (Adam) out of an extract of clay (water and earth).,Thereafter We made him (the offspring of Adam) as a Nutfah (mixed drops of the male and female sexual discharge and lodged it) in a safe lodging (womb of the woman). Then We made the Nutfah into a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood), then We made the clot into a little lump of flesh, then We made out of that little lump of flesh bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, and then We brought it forth as another creation. So Blessed is Allâh, the Best of creators.[1]
 
jarofthoughts

jarofthoughts

Empirical Curmudgeon
moegypt said:
We became human when God created us.

This is my reference..what is better?!

23)12,13,14. And indeed We created man (Adam) out of an extract of clay (water and earth).,Thereafter We made him (the offspring of Adam) as a Nutfah (mixed drops of the male and female sexual discharge and lodged it) in a safe lodging (womb of the woman). Then We made the Nutfah into a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood), then We made the clot into a little lump of flesh, then We made out of that little lump of flesh bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, and then We brought it forth as another creation. So Blessed is Allâh, the Best of creators.[1]
Click to expand...

That's nice.
But it is hardly an accurate description of what happens during embryonic development.
 
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