Author Archives: DrE

Madness: Coronavirus-vaccinated are ditching friends who refuse to be vaccinated

In March 2020, a Pew Research Center survey found that “white liberals” were more likely (46%) to have been diagnosed with a mental health condition compared with their moderate and conservatives peers.

The disparity was especially pronounced among young people, aged 18-19:

  • Nearly half of young white liberals (46%) reported being diagnosed with a mental health condition, whereas 26% of young white moderates and 21% of young white conservatives reported a mental health diagnosis.
  • The more liberal the young white liberals, the more mentally ill.
  • Young white females who identified as liberal or very liberal were by far the most likely (56%) to report a mental health diagnosis, compared with 28% of young moderate women and 27% of young conservative women.

Here’s the latest example.

Disproportionately more Democrats or liberals have chosen to receive the COVID-19 vaccine of whatever manufacturer, none of which has gone through the usual protocol of human trials, which means we simply don’t know what the long term  effects of these vaccines are.

While I believe that everyone has and should have the freedom to decide whether they want to be vaccinated, have you noticed that those who are vaccinated are downright hostile toward people who decline to be vaccinated?

Some time ago, a Facebook friend (I have one friend on my fake Facebook account using an alias in order to access content that is only available if I have an account) posted that she was considering not getting the Covid vaccine and asked her friends (who number 1,650) if they would get vaccinated. I responded, pointing out that the vaccine’s long term effects are unknown. The reaction to my comment was one of fury (angry emoji) from others who were  incandescent rage at my pointing out a fact, a truth. If I had been their Facebook friends, I’m sure they would have unfriended me.

Kate Mulvey in 2007 (source: Daily Mail)

Kate Mulvey is a free-lance UK journalist who regularly writes for The TelegraphIn an essay for The Telegraph on June 2, 2021, Mulvey related that when a “friend” said she declined the COVID-19 vaccine, Mulvey found herself “fuming” and “increasingly angry at those who refused to be vaxxed.”

Mulvey called those who refuse to be vaccinated “vaccine-dodging idiocy”. Applauding TV personalities (Countdown presenter Nick Hewer and Good Morning Britain host Adil Ray) who ditched friends who had decided not to have the Covid vaccine, Mulvey declared she too is “no longer seeing those friends who refuse to get jabbed.”

Here’s another example of their mental illness and irrationality.

A new study by German scientists at Munich University found that lockdowns had little effect on controlling the coronavirus pandemic. The statisticians found “no direct connection” between the German lockdown and falling infection rates in that on three occasions before a national lockdown was imposed in April, November and December 2020, infection rates had already begun to fall.

Notwithstanding the demonstrable ineffectiveness of lockdowns, a new Gallup survey found that as many as 71% of U.S. Democrats want healthy people to stay home “as much as possible,” even as vaccinations soar and new Covid infections have plummeted. In contrast, 87% of Republicans surveyed and 64% of independents said it was time for people to start living normally after more than a year of pandemic shutdowns and working from home.

~E

Enzyme used to develop COVID19 tests is named after Lucifer, aka Satan

https://fellowshipoftheminds.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/devil-wings.jpg

There is a rumor going around on the net that the COVID-19 vaccines contain luciferin (an organic compound) or luciferase (an enzyme). But that rumor was debunked by a Reuters fact-check:

The novel coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Moderna does not contain luciferin, an organic compound involved in bioluminescence, or the enzyme luciferase, contrary to claims on social media. While luciferase was involved in some COVID-19 research in the summer of 2020, none of the available vaccines contain either ingredient.

Suggesting a Satanic link, a post on Facebook reads, “MODERNA VACCINE CONTAINS “LUCIFERIN” IN A 66.6 SOLUTION. YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP (here). Other posts making this claim can be found here , here and here….

A fact sheet on the FDA’s website here discloses the ingredients in the vaccine. It includes mRNA, lipids, cholesterol, 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, tromethamine, tromethamine hydrochloride, acetic acid, sodium acetate, and sucrose.

It does not list luciferin, an organic compound that produces light through oxidation (here), in its ingredients, or mention anything about a “a 66.6 solution,” as the posts claim.

Moreover, none of the other available vaccines, manufactured by Pfizer, Janssen and AstraZeneca, contain luciferin, according to ingredients lists seen here , here and here.

However, Reuters determined that the enzyme luciferase is used to develop COVID-19 tests:

While the enzyme is not a vaccine ingredient, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston last July isolated luciferase from fireflies to develop more accurate COVID-19 tests and potential treatments (here).

Scientists at the University of South Florida College of Public Health conducted similar research (here).

Reuters airily proclaimed that “Lucifer,” “luciferin” and “luciferase” all come from the Latin lux, meaning light, and ferre, meaning to carry, and that despite their shared etymology, the compound and enzyme are not related to the fallen angel.

Really?

Since the root word of “luciferin” and “luciferase” is the Latin “lux,” meaning light, if “light” is what is meant, the enzyme and compound in question should more accurately be named “luxferin” or “luxferase.”

Instead, “luciferin” and “luciferase” were chosen — deliberately — with full knowledge of the meaning of the word “lucifer” for Christians.

One must ask why.

Why would anyone name this enzyme “luciferase” or the organic compound “luciferin” after the fallen angel Lucifer, aka Satan?

~E

Sunday Devotional: ‘Take it; this is my body’

Two Sundays ago, the universal Church remembered our Lord Jesus Christ’s Ascension, when He left this mortal world, not to return until the End Days. In leaving, our Lord bade a last farewell to His faithful disciples and, knowing full well how bereft they would be, He made sure we are not abandoned. He promised that although “the world will not see me anymore . . . I will not leave you as orphans” (John 14:19, 18).

Jesus made two promises to ensure we would not be left “as orphans”:

(1) The Father will send the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Triune Godhead. As Jesus said:

John 14:16-17

“And I will ask the Father,
and He will give you another advocate
to help you and be with you forever —
the Spirit of truth.
The world cannot accept Him,
because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.
But you know Him,
for He lives with you
and will be in you.” 

(2) We will have His Body and Blood:

John 14:18

“I will not leave you as orphans;
I will come to you.” 

How thoughtful and loving our Lord is!

Mark 14:12, 16, 22-26

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,
Jesus’ disciples said to him,
“Where do you want us to go
and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” […]
The disciples then went off, entered the city,
and found it just as he had told them;
and they prepared the Passover. […]
While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, gave it to them, and said,
“Take it; this is my body.”
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
“This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi, when we remember and celebrate the new Covenant that our Lord made with His Body and Blood, with all who believe in Him. In so doing, Jesus transformed the tribal religion of Judaism into a universal faith. As St. Paul said in his letter to the Hebrews 8:13:

In speaking of a new covenant,
He makes the first one obsolete.
And what is becoming obsolete and growing old
is ready to vanish away.

Our Lord said in Mark 14:22, “Take it; this is my body.”

Do you doubt His words?

Have you heard of the Lanciano Eucharistic miracle?

19 years ago, my Godsister joandarc and I went on a pilgrimage to Italy.

Among the places we visited were the wondrous Sanctuary of St. Michael the Archangel in Mount Gargano and the Church of San Francesco in Lanciano. In the latter was a glass case containing a brownish substance.

Church of San Francesco, Lanciano, aka Shrine of the Eucharistic Miracle

As described by TheRealPresence.org, during the middle of the 8th century, a Basilian monk doubted the Real Presence in the Eucharist — that at consecration, bread and wine become Christ’s true body and true blood.

The doubting monk was celebrating Mass one day. As he intoned the words of consecration, “suddenly the monk saw bread turn into Flesh and the wine into Blood,” according to documents at the Sanctuary of the Eucharistic Miracle in Lanciano, Italy.

Today, more than 12 centuries after the Lanciano miracle, the transformed host and wine are preserved still, despite being exposed to atmospheric and biological agents:

  • The Host-Flesh is light brown and appears rose-colored when lit from the back.
  • The Blood is coagulated into five globules, irregular and differing in shape and size, of an earthy color resembling the yellow of ochre.

Scientific investigations of Lanciano were conducted since 1575, most notably in 1970-71 and taken up again partly in 1981, by Dr. Odoardo Linoli, head of the clinical analysis laboratory and of pathological anatomy at Arezzo Hospital, and Dr. Ruggero Bertelli, professor of anatomy at the University of Siena.

Linoli and Bertelli came to the following conclusions:

  • The flesh is real human flesh, the blood is real human blood.
  • The flesh is heart tissue — of the myocardium, the endocardium, the vagus nerve and the left cardiac ventricle.
  • The flesh and blood have the blood-type AB, which is the same blood-type found on the Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium or Oviedo Cloth — the piece of cloth that is believed to have covered Jesus’ head after the crucifixion.
  • In the blood were found proteins in the same normal proportions (percentage-wise) as are found in the sero-proteic make-up of fresh human blood, as well as the minerals chloride, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium.

According to “The True Presence,” in 1973, the UN World Health Organization’s board of governors appointed a scientific commission to investigate Lanciano. After 500 examinations, the scientists verified the 1971 findings and declared the tissue to be human.

There have been other Eucharistic miracles elsewhere since Lanciano. See here, here, and especially the website “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World” that was the work of a devout Italian boy named Carlo Acutis before he died from a brain tumor in 2006 at the tender age of 15.

To conclude, Christ is with us through the Holy Spirit, and in His Body and Blood, which makes it all the more terrible and reprehensible that state governments, ostensibly to “contain” the COVID-19 “pandemic,” had barred Catholics and other Christians from attending church service, including the receiving of the Holy Eucharist, which is life itself.

Tell our Lord your troubles and fears.

And tell Him, often and always, that you love Him with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind, and with all your strength. ❤️

May the peace and love of Jesus Christ our Lord be with you,

~E

7 money benefits and tips for military families

(1) Free College for Your Spouse and Children

The GI Bill provides valuable education benefits for service members, covering the full cost of in-state tuition for up to four academic years at a public college, or up to $26,042.81 per year for four academic years at private colleges (adjusted for inflation each year). And if you serve in the military for at least six years and agree to serve four more, you can transfer your GI Bill benefits to your spouse or children. Your spouse can use the transferred benefits right away, but children must wait until you’ve served for at least 10 years, and they must use these benefits before they turn age 26. For more information, see the VA’s Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits page.

(2) No-Interest Loans and Grants for Family Emergencies

Every branch of the service has a military aid society that provides no-interest loans and grants for emergency expenses, including home and car repairs, moving expenses that aren’t covered by the military and disaster relief. Several of the aid societies offered special COVID-19 relief funds over the past year, paying for unexpected expenses such as extra child care costs while schools were closed, financial help when a civilian spouse lost his or her job and emergency travel expenses to visit sick relatives. Some also offer scholarships for military spouses and children. For more information, see the Air Force Aid Society, Army Emergency Relief, Coast Guard Mutual Assistance and the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society.

(3) Job Search Benefits for Military Spouses

It can be difficult for military spouses to find a job when they have to move frequently, and the military offers special programs to help them with education, training and their job search. “There are several benefits available to a military spouse that are often overlooked, such as the MyCAA education benefits,” said Patrick Beagle, a retired Marine helicopter pilot who is now a certified financial planner in Springfield, Virginia. The Military Career Advancement Account (MyCAA) scholarship, for example, provides up to $4,000 of tuition assistance to help military spouses pursue professional licenses, certifications or associate degree programs. The MyCAA program also offers career coaches. See the MyCAA resource page for more information.

(4) Low-Cost Life Insurance for Your Family

Members of the military can get up to $400,000 in low-cost life insurance through the Servicemembers Group Life Insurance (SGLI) program, and they can also get life insurance for their family members, including up to $100,000 of coverage for their spouses and up to $10,000 for their children. Premiums vary by age — $100,000 of coverage costs $54 for spouses under age 34. Dependents under age 18 can get up to $10,000 in life insurance for free (coverage can be extended for full-time students up to age 22). For more information, see the VA’s Family Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (FSGLI) page.

(5) Important Legal Protections and Documents

Members of the military can receive legal protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and some of the provisions can help their family members, too. For example, service members can terminate a residential lease if they receive permanent change of station orders or a deployment that will last for more than 90 days. They can terminate a car lease if they receive PCS orders or are being deployed with a military unit for 180 days or more. Also, the legal affairs office on base can help service members get essential legal documents to help protect their families, such as a will and guardian for their children. They can set up a power of attorney so your spouse or another trusted family member or friend can handle your finances while you’re deployed. A healthcare proxy can also be important to designate someone to make medical decisions on your behalf if you’re unable to do so yourself. Click here to find the nearest legal assistance office.

(6) Make Sure Your Beneficiary Designations Are Up To Date

It’s important to update your will and other legal documents whenever you have major life changes, such as getting married or divorced. And it’s also important to update your beneficiary designations for your life insurance and retirement plans, such as your TSP. These accounts pass to your designated beneficiary no matter what your will says. Make sure your selected family members will inherit this money if anything happens to you. If you joined the military when you were young, you may have originally designated your parents or another relative as your beneficiary; review the designations every few years and whenever you have life changes.

(7) Build Up an Emergency Fund

Even though a military career provides job stability, there can still be unexpected expenses — especially with frequent moves and deployments. Having an emergency fund can be one of the most important financial tools to help your family cover costs they hadn’t prepared for without landing in expensive debt; whether it’s extra expenses from moving, additional child-care costs during deployment or if it takes a military spouse longer than expected to find a new job in a new city (or if it takes the service member a while to find a job after leaving the military). If you receive any extra money, such as from a bonus or tax refund, use some of it to build up your emergency fund. “I know many military families are anxious to attack their debt when they get a tax refund or a bonus of some sort, but I always stress that it’s important to have a sufficient emergency fund in place first,” said Lila Quintiliani, program director for Military Saves. “An emergency fund of $500 to $1,000 can allow you to meet unexpected financial challenges and prevent you from getting deeper into debt.”

Source: GoBankingRates, May 18, 2021

~E

How to make your own plant/seed-starter pots from newspaper

Making your own plant pots is both inexpensive and environmentally sustainable

Materials:

  • Newspaper: Newspapers with black or color ink are biodegradable and are considered safe for plants. Avoid glossy and shiny papers as they may not be safe for your garden.
  • Cylindrical object, such as a bottle or can

After the seedlings sprout, transfer the biodegradable seed-starter to your garden and let nature take care of the rest!

~E

Are we being prepared for U.S. government disclosure on UFOs?

Something strange is happening concerning UFOs (unidentified flying object).

Niall McCarthy reports for Statista, May 20, 2021, that according to the National UFO Reporting Center in the United States, which documents sightings of UFOs all over the world, sightings have become more numerous.

While there was a dip in reported sightings in 2018, there were more than 6,000 in 2019 and over 7,000 in 2020. So far in 2021, there have been close to a thousand up to the middle of May. While such numbers might have previously been ignored, encounters with UFOs involving radar tracking and advanced sensor imagery from experienced and trustworthy pilots are lending them more credibility.

Footage captured by the U.S. Navy in 2019 of an UFO is an example.

Mindy Weisberger reports for Live Science that on May 14, 2021, Jeremy Corbell, a filmmaker who produces documentaries about UFOs, posted the footage on his website, Instagram and YouTube, of a spherical object hovering in midair, moving side to side, then diving into the ocean.

2019 US Navy footage of spherical UFO

In the clip, which appears to have been shot off a monitor and has several edits, a dark, round blob sits above the horizon. Male voices are audible in the footage; one says “took off, bookin’ it,” as the object moves horizontally in the screen’s crosshairs. When the UFO appears to dive into the water, one of the off-screen voices says, “Whoa, it splashed!” as the UFO disappears.

According to Corbell, “the US Navy photographed and filmed ‘spherical’ shaped UFOs and advanced transmedium vehicles” — craft that can travel through air and water.

The footage of the spherical UFO was filmed on July 15, 2019, at approximately 11 p.m. PDT, from within the USS Omaha’s Combat Information Center, near the coast of San Diego, CA. Radar images of the UFO show a solid ball, measuring about 6 feet (2 meters) in diameter, flying at speeds of 46 to 158 mph (74 to 254 km/h) for over an hour, culminating with the sphere vanishing beneath the waves. No wreckage was found at the location where the object went down.

Corbell wrote: “A submarine was used in the search and recovered nothing. We do not know what, if anything, the Navy or Pentagon might be willing to say about the USS Omaha incident, but we are confident the incident is a legitimate mystery and look forward to whatever information might be forthcoming.”

The Debrief reported on May 14 that Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough confirmed that U.S. Navy personnel did capture the footage that Corbell posted, but would not disclose where and when it was filmed. She said the footage was included in “ongoing examinations” by the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), a U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence program that investigates reports of unexplained aerial vehicles.

Corbell wrote that the footage is not classified, and stills of the spherical UFO were previously included in a UAPTF intelligence briefing from May 1.

The release of U.S. Navy footage of the spherical UFO is just the beginning of what appears to be the long-awaited “disclosure” of UFOs by the U.S. government.

On The Black Vault website, John Greenwald Jr. has archived more than 2,700 pages of the CIA’s once-secret UFO records since the 1980s, now declassified and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Sometime this month U.S. intelligence services are set to deliver a groundbreaking report on “unidentified aerial phenomena” to Congress, at a time when close encounters between UFOs and U.S. Navy fighter jets are sending chills through America. Compiled by the secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence, the report is set to declassify Pentagon knowledge about unexplained aerial objects.

Nick Pope, a former UFO investigator for the UK’s Ministry of Defense, told The Sun Online the world may never know why the Pentagon has done a U-turn after decades of denial on unidentified phenomena.

The Sun reports:

US intelligence services officially closed the book on the controversial issue in 1969 at the conclusion Project Blue Book – which stated there was nothing to see regarding UFOs.

However, in the last three years there has been an abrupt turnaround as the Pentagon took the unprecedented steps of releasing three stunning UFO videos filmed by the US Navy.

And it also confirmed the existence of its secretive UFO investigation unit, before the Senate then commissioned a report on the issue from US intelligence which is due for release [in June]….

British defence officials continue to deny everything about any existence of investigations into the UFO issue or that they are sitting on any unreleased files.

So why are the Americans suddenly opening up this highly controversial and historically stigmatising topic?

Pope told The Sun Online he believes hidden forces are at work behind closed doors: “That is the $64,000 question – for years the US government had been like the UK is now on this issue, very defensive with a policy usually of denial, debunking and commenting as little as possible. And now in the last three and a half years, that policy has been flipped 180 degrees…. Something is playing out right now, powerful forces are at work behind the scenes, pulling the strings on this.

Prominent Democrat politicians like former President Barack Obama, former Nevada Senator Harry Reid, have publicly spoken on UFOs, and director of Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign John Podesta is a  believer:

  • Last month, Obama told The Late Late Show with James Corden that “there is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are”.
  • In a New York Times op/ed, Reid (Daily Caller) wrote that “there is information uncovered by the government’s covert investigations into unidentified aerial phenomena that can be disclosed to the public without harming our national security.”
  • Hacked emails of John Podesta show his avid interest in UFOs. In a June 25, 2014 email disclosed by WikiLeaks, the late NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell requested “a conversation” with Podesta and President Obama “regarding the next steps in extraterrestrial disclosure for the benefit of our country and our planet.” Podesta proposed a date for an in-person meeting, but Mitchell could not make it.

Harry Reid’s mysterious “sports” injuries

UPDATE (June 4, 2021):

The Telegraph (UK) reports that senior White House officials have been briefed on the findings of the Pentagon UFO report that is due to be released to Congress later this month. According to these officials, the report will say that:

  1. US intelligence officials have found no evidence that a series of unidentified aerial phenomena observed by navy aviators in recent years were alien spacecraft.
  2. The vast majority of 120 incidents documented over the past two decades did not originate from any U.S. military or other advanced U.S. government technology, i.e., they are not part of a secret government program.
  3. Some of the “aerial phenomena” could have been experimental technology from a rival power, such as Russia or China. Especially worrisome is experimental hypersonic technology.
  4. The report rules out some of the phenomena being explained as weather balloons.
  5. The UFO sightings remain unexplained, including the UFOs’ movement and acceleration.
  6. “The final report will also include a classified section that officials insist does not prove the phenomena are alien spaceships, but will nonetheless fuel speculation about how much the American public is being told about the sightings.”

~E

Tuesday Animals

~E

A sheep who refuses to be a sheeple

The word “sheeple” is a combination of the words “sheep” and “people” — a derogatory term that likens people to sheep, a herd animal that is easily led about. Like sheep, such people are docile, compliant, unthinking, and easily influenced and controlled by a governing power, the media, or market fads.

But there’s a remarkable sheep who simply refuses to be a sheeple.

On April 21, 2021, in Roermond, Netherlands, this sheep stood up to a sheep dog and refused to be herded.

H/t PawMyGosh

~E

A bat that’s the size of humans

This is the stuff of nightmares.

I wonder if this bat was the inspiration for Bram Stoker‘s 1897 horror novel Dracula.

The giant golden-crowned flying fox (Acerodon jubatus), also known as the golden-capped fruit bat, is a species of mega-bat endemic to the Philippines and one of the largest bat species in the world. It has a wingspan of 4.9–5.6 ft., the longest forearm length of any bat species, measuring up to 8.5 in., and is among the heaviest of all bat species, with individuals weighing up to 3.1 lb.

~E

The more ape fossils we find, the less we know about human evolution

Darwinian evolutionists maintain that human beings (homo sapiens) evolved from simians millions of years ago. It is said that humans diverged from apes — specifically, the chimpanzee lineage — at some point between about 9.3 million and 6.5 million years ago, towards the end of the Miocene epoch.

The persistent problem is scientists, specifically archeologists, have not discovered fossils of the “missing link” — a hypothetical extinct ape-man or man-ape creature halfway in the evolutionary line between modern human beings and their anthropoid progenitors. That creature is believed to be the last common ancestor of humans and chimps.

Since Darwin, archeologists have discovered many ape fossils. But American Museum of Natural History writes in SciTechDaily, May 9, 2021, that “In the 150 years since Charles Darwin speculated that humans originated in Africa, the number of species in the human family tree has exploded.” Despite the “explosion” of ape fossils, “most human origins stories are not compatible with known fossils,” resulting in an increase in “the level of dispute concerning early human evolution.”

Sergio Almécija, a senior research scientist in the American Museum of Natural History’s Division of Anthropology, the lead author of “Fossil apes and human evolution,” a new review out on May 7, 2021 in the journal Science, said: “When you look at the narrative for hominin origins, it’s just a big mess — there’s no consensus whatsoever. People are working under completely different paradigms, and that’s something that I don’t see happening in other fields of science.”

Almécija said: “In The Descent of Man in 1871, Darwin speculated that humans originated in Africa from an ancestor different from any living species. However, he remained cautious given the scarcity of fossils at the time. One hundred fifty years later, possible hominins — approaching the time of the human-chimpanzee divergence — have been found in eastern and central Africa, and some claim even in Europe. In addition, more than 50 fossil ape genera are now documented across Africa and Eurasia. However, many of these fossils show mosaic combinations of features that do not match expectations for ancient representatives of the modern ape and human lineages. As a consequence, there is no scientific consensus on the evolutionary role played by these fossil apes.

Almécija explains that there are two major approaches to resolving the human origins problem: A “top-down” approach that relies on analysis of living apes, especially chimpanzees, and a “bottom-up” approach that puts importance on the larger tree of mostly extinct apes. For example, some scientists assume that hominins originated from a chimp-like knuckle-walking ancestor. Others argue that the human lineage originated from an ancestor more closely resembling, in some features, some of the strange Miocene apes.

In reviewing the studies surrounding these diverging approaches, Almécija et al.  discuss the limitations of relying exclusively on one of these opposing approaches to the hominin origins problem. “Top-down” studies sometimes ignore the reality that living apes (humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and hylobatids) are just the survivors of a much larger, and now mostly extinct, group. On the other hand, studies based on the “bottom-up”approach are prone to giving individual fossil apes an important evolutionary role that fits a preexisting narrative.

Overall, the researchers found that most stories of human origins are not compatible with the fossils that we have today.

Despite that, hope springs eternal among evolutionists that the ever elusive “missing link” will be found. Almécija et al. insist that “fossil apes remain essential to reconstruct the ‘starting point’ from which humans and chimpanzees evolved.”

~E