Another false excuse to hate Christians, exemplified perfectly by the comments in this thread. Get facts straight first. And to those trolls who just posted downright hateful replies about Christianity... hate speech goes both ways my friends. Look out for the LAWS YOU MADE.
I don't know what i think about this map right now. These maps are based on genetic data... most of which I tend to trust, but there are a good number of strong assumptions made.
It has at least one serious problem: Recent studies have shown that our most recent common ancestor was alive some time from 5,000 years ago to 50,000 years ago (this map says 150,000, but I've seen some of this data and tend to agree more with the more recent dates). Different methods give different numbers, but they're all recently quite small numbers of years. By "recent common ancestor", I mean the single person (or couple really) who begat everyone on the planet. Our "Adam" so to speak, though scientifically, it doesn't mean he and she were the only he and she alive at the time... just that only their family line survived. Anyway, if our heritage is that young, then a map like this would be making very significant assumptions about our history. In other words, you can not extrapolate genetics beyond our common human ancestor, so if the study that found our ancestor to be only 5,000 (or even 50,000) years ago is right, then judging back 150,000 years is not going to produce accurate results. Again, this study goes with 150,000 years as our common ancestor, but that number has been hotly debated in recent years in favor of small numbers.
Well, one thing is almost certainly true however, and that is that We all began somewhere in, or just as likely near, Africa. The genetics just screams it.
And for comfort to those who are religious, "in or near Africa" also includes the bits of the Middle-east that are thought to have possibly contained Eden. It's not outrageous at all to think people started there and moved south for a bit.
The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Extraordinary-Creatures-Abyss/dp/0226595668/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-5887688-4020751?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187044186&sr=8-1
I happens to be "on sale" at amazon, but I don't know if it ever is "not" for sale. Anyway, I have it and I love it.
It has at least one serious problem:
Recent studies have shown that our most recent common ancestor was alive some time from 5,000 years ago to 50,000 years ago (this map says 150,000, but I've seen some of this data and tend to agree more with the more recent dates). Different methods give different numbers, but they're all recently quite small numbers of years. By "recent common ancestor", I mean the single person (or couple really) who begat everyone on the planet. Our "Adam" so to speak, though scientifically, it doesn't mean he and she were the only he and she alive at the time... just that only their family line survived. Anyway, if our heritage is that young, then a map like this would be making very significant assumptions about our history.
In other words, you can not extrapolate genetics beyond our common human ancestor, so if the study that found our ancestor to be only 5,000 (or even 50,000) years ago is right, then judging back 150,000 years is not going to produce accurate results. Again, this study goes with 150,000 years as our common ancestor, but that number has been hotly debated in recent years in favor of small numbers.
Well, one thing is almost certainly true however, and that is that We all began somewhere in, or just as likely near, Africa. The genetics just screams it.
And for comfort to those who are religious, "in or near Africa" also includes the bits of the Middle-east that are thought to have possibly contained Eden. It's not outrageous at all to think people started there and moved south for a bit.