Interesting Discussion On Polygenism

[cmotherofpirl]

[url="http://markshea.blogspot.com/2009/02/interesting-conversation-on-polygenism.html"]http://markshea.blogspot.com/2009/02/inter...polygenism.html[/url]

[Aloysius]

I disagree with the discussion, and Mark builds up a huge straw man as if insisting upon a literal two people necesarily connects one to a 6000 year old earth et cetera et cetera, he cites no counterexample of the Vatican "not caring" or "not betting the farm" on if there were two original people, he cites how the Vatican doesn't care nor will bet the farm on absolute literalism in Genesis, but a literal first two people is not absolute literalism; it is my estimation that the Church has indeed "bet the farm" on all humans coming from two original people, and not just in the teachings of Pius XII but in the universal ordinary magisterium, it is part of the deposit of faith and Pius XII's words are merely an echo of that; it is also my estimation as a student of anthropology that there is absolutely nothing about genetic diveersity which remotely denies the two original people hypothesis; and moreover, the idea of absolutizing genetic diversity to the point of suggesting that people did not all originate from two original individuals is an inherently racist notion that is not supported by the science but by the prejudice of dividing up peoples. One reason that the Church insists that all human beings came from one original couple is that she insists not just that this is what Genesis means to say, but she also insists that the equality of all peoples necessitates that all peoples "crossed the threshold" into humanity at the same time in the same place... no race, no people, no ancestry can claim to have become full human first.

and in fact, as the darwinian hypothesis of gradual evolution more and more is recognized to NOT fit the fossil record which shows punctuated equilibrium (ie that a species lives in equilibrium for large periods of time and then in one rapid mutation ends up a different species, rather than evolutuion coming from very minute gradual changes that are always occuring), it is ever more clear that it is likely that our species came out of one specific leap in evolution, ie one couple.

not only is this necessary for the biblical account, but it is also essential to the Church's teaching about races and peoples. all human peoples have a common ancestor. this is actually attested to by mitochondrian DNA which does not necessarily point to a literal Eve (but it might), but does specify that every human person has a common female ancestor.