Eve's 2nd Cousin once removed, Ardi...

The scriptures tell us stories of God’s love for the world. Science can tell us the unfolding details of how that love is manifest in nature. The discovery of Ardi may once again open the debate between Creationism and Evolution. Those pushing creationism misunderstand the Bible. Those pushing Evolution misunderstand God. The stories in Genesis were not meant to be science, rather they were created as an ode to the creator. Think of a beautiful tapestry. The Bible looks at the design in the front and comments on its beauty, science looks at the intricacies of the weaving and the interplay of color and comments on its form. For either side to deny what is on the other side of the tapestry is a shame. They miss half of the beauty. The study of evolution, rather than being a threat to scripture as some have purported is simply a look at the how rather than the who. Instead of studying Neanderthals some religious folk prefer to act like them. I find the following story interesting and wonder if Ardi is perhaps just a second cousin once removed from Eve (Lutheran humor) Remembering Sundays text from Genesis, enjoy the article from National Geographic.

Oldest "Human" Skeleton Found--Disproves "Missing Link"

Scientists today announced the discovery of the oldest fossil skeleton of a human ancestor. The find reveals that our forebears underwent a previously unknown stage of evolution more than a million years before Lucy, the iconic early human ancestor specimen that walked the Earth 3.2 million years ago (interactive time line: how the new discovery changes human evolutionary theory).

The centerpiece of a treasure trove of new fossils, the skeleton—assigned to a species called Ardipithecus ramidus—belonged to a small-brained, 110-pound (50-kilogram) female nicknamed "Ardi." (See pictures of Ardipithecus ramidus.)

The fossil puts to rest the notion, popular since Darwin's time, that a chimpanzee-like missing link—resembling something between humans and today's apes—would eventually be found at the root of the human family tree. Indeed, the new evidence suggests that the study of chimpanzee anatomy and behavior—long used to infer the nature of the earliest human ancestors—is largely irrelevant to understanding our beginnings.

Ardi instead shows an unexpected mix of advanced characteristics and of primitive traits seen in much older apes that were unlike chimps or gorillas (interactive: Ardi's key features). As such, the skeleton offers a window on what the last common ancestor of humans and living apes might have been like.

Full article at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091001-oldest-human-skeleton-ardi-missing-link-chimps-ardipithecus-ramidus.html