Not Enough Evidence: Casey Luskin on Recent Homo Naledi Claims

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

Science, Philosophy, Astronomy, Society & Culture, Life Sciences

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2023

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

A recent ABC News article says the latest research about the hominid species Homo naledi "erases the idea of human exceptionalism." A new Netflix documentary suggests that humans are not that special after all. Should we believe the media hype? Or is there more to the story? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with Dr. Casey Luskin to get an update on the Homo naledi controversy. In this episode, Dr. Luskin reviews each of the three main claims about Homo naledi made by Dr. Lee Berger and his team and gives us a summary of the strongest counter-arguments. He also gives his thoughts on the recent Netflix film. "It's very important to communicate scientific ideas to the public," says Luskin. "And I think it's great when scientists do that, when they do it carefully and responsibly and they're making sure that the evidence has been thoroughly worked out...in this case, there was a sense that they had sort of put the cart before the horse."

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0:00.0	I d the future a podcast about evolution and intelligent design
0:12.3	welcome to ID the future I'm your host Andrew McDermott. Today I'm sitting down with
0:17.2	Casey Luskin to get an update on the recent controversy surrounding claims that the
0:22.0	hominid species Homoo naledi may have had high intelligence, buried
0:26.8	its dead, used fire, and even carved markings into a cave wall.
0:32.4	For those of you who don't know Casey, he's a scientist and an attorney with graduate degrees in science and law,
0:38.0	giving him expertise in both the scientific and legal dimensions of the debate over evolution.
0:44.0	He also holds a PhD in geology from the University of Johannesburg,
0:48.0	where he specialized in paleomagnetism
0:51.0	and the early plate tectonic history of South Africa.
0:55.0	Casey serves as Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute.
1:00.0	Welcome, Casey.
1:02.0	Thanks for having me, Andrew.
1:04.0	Absolutely.
1:05.0	Well, earlier this year you wrote at Evolution News about a host of news coverage reporting on the claims of South Africa
1:11.4	base paleoanthropologist Lee Berger and his team.
1:15.0	Now Berger is a bit of a rock star in the field of paleo anthropology.
1:19.0	In 2013 he was credited with introducing the world to Homo Naledi after discovering a rich deposit of
1:25.4	hominid fossils in a South African cave. A media circus ensued, gaining him coveted support
1:31.8	from National Geographic and even an Emmy Award nomination.
1:35.0	In 2016 he was named one of the world's most influential people by Time magazine.
1:40.0	Now Casey tell us what you know about Berger and about his most recent claims.
	...

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