| Science journals have featured countless | | | | much cause for pessimism in the study of |
| stories about the evolution of the human | | | | human origins. Science reporter James |
| brain. Scientists are puzzled since | | | | Randerson of Britain's Guardian |
| humans have much bigger brains than any | | | | newspaper was even more brunt, saying, |
| other species. Their suggested | | | | "We know nothing about brain evolution." |
| explanations have often been mutually | | | | Randerson went on to summarise |
| exclusive. For instance, the old text | | | | Lewontin's reasons for pessimism. "The |
| book explanation relied on eating meat | | | | handful of hominid fossils stretching |
| but a few years ago an article in New | | | | back 4m years or so" cannot tell us |
| Scientist, a popular science magazine, | | | | whether any of them were our ancestors. |
| suggested that eating starch was the | | | | We "do not have the have the faintest |
| secret of brain growth. But both | | | | idea what the cranial capacity [of a |
| explanations fail to answer why other | | | | fossil hominid] means". Moreover, we do |
| meat or starch eating species do not | | | | not even know which hominids walked |
| have big brains. | | | | upright and which did not. |
| At the recent AAAS (American Association | | | | Lewontin is well-known for his |
| for the Advancement of Science) annual | | | | outspokenness. In 1997 he wrote in The |
| meeting in Boston, Richard Lewontin, a | | | | New York Review of Books that scientists |
| distinguished biology professor at | | | | often choose to make up "unsubstantiated |
| Harvard University, acknowledged that | | | | just-so stories" because they "have a |
| stories about human brain evolution have | | | | prior commitment, a commitment to |
| not been based on facts. Reporting on | | | | materialism... Moreover, that |
| the meeting for the journal Science, | | | | materialism is an absolute, for we |
| Michael Balter quoted Lewontin as | | | | cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door." |
| saying, "We are missing the fossil | | | | Obviously, the scientific community |
| record of human cognition, so we make up | | | | cannot ignore Lewinton's recent |
| stories." The title of Balter's article | | | | conclusions. If the ruling paradigm |
| seems to be an admission of sorts: "How | | | | (naturalism or the view that nature is |
| Human Intelligence Evolved--Is It | | | | all there is) leads us into a blind |
| Science or 'Paleofantasy'?" | | | | alley, might there be something wrong |
| According to professor Lewontin, it is | | | | with it? |
| fantasy. Lewontin suggests that there is | | | | |