The Human Spark

I watched The Human Spark on PBS last night, a show about human evolution and what makes us distinctive, hosted by Alan Alda. I think even those who generally keep up to date on the natural sciences will find it interesting and informative.

One thought that struck me as I watched was the contrast between the scientists, archaeologists, anthropologists and others who were working hard to find, date, and interpret the evidence we have, and the anti-evolution crowd (not mentioned in the show – why should they be?) who would simply deny (or in some cases devote extensive effort to denying) each detail in our current understanding: e.g. the age of the fossils and artifacts (most of the ones discussed in the episode were around 100,000 years old); and the common ancestry of modern humans, neanderthals, and other primates. Obviously one can only do that if one is ignorant of the extensive amounts of evidence from many parts of the globe and research in many distinct disciplines.

The irony is that young-earth creationists adopt an anti-evolutionary stance for the most part because they feel that evolution threatens human uniqueness and dignity. And yet this show was all about human distinctiveness – but not simply affirming it but also trying to understand when and how we developed some of our unique characteristics.

You can watch clips from the show online.