I have never understood exactly what Neanderthals are. Are they human or not? Were they the first humans created by God? Skinny can you shed some light or somebody else?
This is my understanding of it for what its worth ao take it with a grain of salt……Neanderthals originated from a group of homo erectus that migrated out of Africa and into Europe……Due to environmental differences in Europe over the course of tens of thousands of years this group changed or evolved into a slightly different human with different characteristics…..When something changes enough from the original that’s when we start calling them a different sub-specie…..I think part of the debate with science is how much change has to occur to classify something differently
Also during this same period of time the original homo erectus group that these folks branched off from also changed and evolved……Eventually tens of thousands of years later these two groups came back together as homo sapiens and neanderthals when homo sapiens again left out of Africa……Not sure what kept the two apart for so long and kept other homo erectus groups from continuing to migrate once they started…..Maybe there was just a short window of time in the beginning when such a migration was possible and then the route closed off for thousands of years….not sure
The question for me is what happened to homo erectus that separated them and began the human journey…..AI says it was likely a mutation……which to me that in and of itself is a pretty miraculous thing to have occurred that I can still attribute to God….This wasnt just any old mutation....That would have been a pretty special one......I actually find the Bible’s attempt at explaining all of this to be remarkably accurate in the general ideas…..I don’t have to take it literally to appreciate it……The idea that something changed with “knowledge” is spot on
