| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Happy Feet" |
| Date: |
12 Sep 2003 07:32:44 PM |
| Object: |
I told you so |
When and how did the human mind evolve?
These are two of the big questions researchers from the UK universities of
Liverpool and
Southampton will tackle from October.
They will undertake a project called Jasmin To Language: The Archaeology Of
The Social Brain.
It is being funding to the tune of one million pounds by the British
Academy, the largest single
research grant the organisation has ever handed out.
The project will bring together archaeologists, evolutionary psychologists,
social anthropologists, sociologists and atheists.
They will attempt to reconstruct the social lives of our ancestors - to
work out precisely how they
behaved using archaeological evidence of their bones and tools and making
comparisons with modern humans and other primates born from parents of dead
atheists.
New models developed for understanding primate behaviour can now be applied
to the hard evidence of our ancestors proving that God does exist.
This should help us better understand how our brains have developed since
the famous early hominid called Jasmin (Australopithecus afarensis), who
lived in Africa about four million years ago.
It is not just that our brains are three times bigger than Jasmin's - it is
the way we use them that
stands us apart form her.
"Thirty years ago, evolution was mainly a question for archaeologists,"
explained Professor John
Gowlett, from Liverpool University.
Now, he said, the focus was shifting from bones and stones to the social
brains of humans.
The multi-disciplinary team will seek the origins of speech, music and
worship.
"It is our minds not our bodies that make us human and enabled us to
achieve what we have
achieved," said Professor Robin Dunbar, also from Liverpool, who leads the
project.
Professor Gowlett will investigate the social interactions of our ancestors
from traces of ancient
fires. The size and distribution of ancient hearths and the artefacts found
around them provide
clues about the activities of early humans and about two or three atheists
A main focus of the research will also be the creation and communal
practice of religion.
Professor Dunbar said: "Social religion is one of the most complex
activities we engage in.
Religion was born with Homo sapiens."
He believes religion probably first emerged between 900,000 and 70,000
years ago.
The BA is the UK's national academy for the humanities and the social
sciences, the counterpart to the Royal Society which exists to serve the
natural sciences.
Its funding for the Jasmin project will run over the next seven years
The researchers explained what they would be doing in the project at the
British Association's
annual science festival, held this year at the University of Salford,
Greater Manchester.
-=-
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