Seeing the creationists will not find any AiG counter to the post above as it is Africa, this is evolution in action and these folk were only discovered in the last century, even David Livingstone missed them when he discovered the falls.
It is a genetic mutation caused in part by inbreeding, you know the aspects creationist posit as to how or who did the sons of Adam mate with (their sisters) and likewise the grandchildren of Noah (cousins)
Well here in full 2D pics and 3d in real life we have the consequences of such a supposition.
This is a genetic mutation that has been kept as they never expanded their gene pool. Mutation is actually the basic engine for evolution and this can be affected by external factors like too much radiation, see the
deformed kids born post Chernobyl, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
What causes mutation is not always beneficial and these folk kept this mutation as it helps them climb trees. This mutation may disappear as they are assimilating and now wearing clothes instead of loin cloths and probably will interbreed and lose the mutant gene.
I am no biologist or geneticist but this tribe stands as irrefutable proof of evolution. Dear old Kent Hovind has never been to Africa to see diversity of nature, old earth, and all the supporting evidence for evolution and that is why he has no made up BS to counter these proofs.
Not much has been studied of these folk as they are an anomaly. However the fact that they exist shows us the process of evolution is true and poses a snapshot of when something goes different to the flow.
Many of us, including me, pass on mutant genes that are counter-productive to survival of the fittest. We survive as we have adapted the environment to us instead of the other way round. My son's loss of pigmentation will lead to skin cancer eventually but in the meantime there are 100% sunblocks and gloves he can use to delay this.
Every single human being probably has a defective gene. Had we not discovered fire or changed our environment to suit our mal-adaptation to external factors, who knows how we may have evolved.
The sad reality is that creationists want to make their fairy tales sound scientific yet they cannot as it is not a science, a hypothesis or a theory.
Conjecture is not science.
Where as the creationists have only conjecture and ancient texts of illiterate people, science need not look too far to find supporting evidence. As has been mentioned time and again, they take illustrations/models from the 50's and question that when we are already 60+ years on and with more credible models.
Guided evolution or theistic evolution is merely the creationists attempt to hijack the findings of science, claim irreducible complexity and paste a big phat godunnit yellow sticker on the real science which is god neutral.
It is pretty hard to refute all the evidence out there like cave formations, gorges, canyons, lake valves, river deltas, and antarctic ice cores which ALL demonstrate and prove and old earth and old enough to allow for the gradual process of evolution.
Coupled to evolution is extinction which again is a keystone of evolution for that species running its course and ending abruptly.
Did these creatures not exist?
Why would a god create creatures that would go extinct?
Man's influence in this regard is variable. It is only with technological advances that certain natural habitats were tampered with esp. when there are minerals and oil. Yet there are still many environments where man and critters coexist peacefully.
Because we live too long, we need more space and the hapless victims of nature need to flee when man bulldozes his new habitat flat to erect man made shelters. Sometimes they cannot and go extinct.
Man has not even discovered all the living species and we really cannot find all the critters that existed previously except those that fossilized.
Scientific models are not perfect but serve to illustrate a point and transfer knowledge.
The atom
You really think this is what an atom looks like?
No one has even seen an atom, at proton or a neutron and least of all an electron.
The theory of nuclear physics has given us
This
This
And especially this
But of course, it is all just a theory after all.
Yet we all have seen the models of the atom in class on posters and the like. It is still a MODEL as we have no RL image. Go google it, you will not find a pic of an atom.
Science works on predictions not guesses. When the prediction fails, the hypothesis is adjusted. The scientist cannot simply say,
have faith or
simply believe me.
You creationists just run around with godunnit postits to try and fill the gaps science have no answer for as yet and yowl "
see, you do not have all the answers" as if that was ever in question in the first place.
The example I always use comparing science to the bible, we now know the full mechanics of human reproduction (at a biological and molecular level) yet your bible still assets that the seed of man is the real deal and that woman's menses an unclean thing et al. Why have you not updated these erroneous verses with at least a foot note to say they got it wrong?
Why Mr. Anderson, why do you persist, WHY WHY WHY?
The answer is simple, when you start to do this, your whole world view collapses. Thus
cognitive dissonance is the method of moving forward and holding onto your imaginary friends and folklore.
The real proof is in the eating of the pudding.
EVERYONE of you call 911 when in a medical emergency because 911 has more probability and track record of helping than falling to your knees and praying - YAY Science.