Enter Homosapian – the battle for mastery (short story)

Outside the cave the world was a savage place. The rules of life were simple; fight or be fought; eat or be eaten, kill or be killed – there was no love nor harmony, only a battle for survival. The Neanderthal stepped cautiously into the light, his eyes scanning the stretch of white trees that seemed to frown over the frozen river, ominously arching on either side. His stumpy legs shuffled forward onto the cave-lip, while the icy wind attacked and whipped against his body. The cruel world was signing out its call. Yet this was not a call of kindness, but instead, the malicious howl of nature in the lifeless struggle of an ice-age.

Almost every instinct screamed at the Neanderthal, telling him to return back to his lair to keep warm. Yet a deep stinging had spread over his mind over the last few days, until it screamed out in palpable pain; this was the sting of hunger.

After climbing down the slope that lead to his cave, he took shelter under a clump of pine trees near to the edge of the frozen river. Here the wind was calmer, as the shaggy branches acted as a shelter from the howling air. Looking up towards the powdery white boughs, he searched for signs of life.

The laws of the frozen wild are tough. The weaker creatures perish in the hostility, and without the qualities of cunning and wit, they soon become wiped out of existence. Yet, despite the savagery of the world, the strongest creatures always salvage survival – and with this audacious ability to remain alive, it comes with it, a canny ability to remain unseen. So the Neanderthal found nothing, not a single movement, nor a whisper amongst the trees. Hence he trudged on forward through the wilderness; his deep hunger gnawing incessantly inside.

As he searched on, he began to let his mind wander. It was a hopeful day dream, and it gave him great belief that he will finish the day with food. He thought of how his species alone is the only animal that is intuitive enough to enforce their strength through dead things. He did not resort to biting or scratching like the other animals in the frozen world. Instead, he had used the sturdiness of branches and the sharpness of rocks as a substitute for fangs and claws.

Snapping out of his reverie, the Neanderthal saw something shoot across a pillar of tress. It moved with a silent swiftness, disappearing into the wilderness before his eyes had time to fully adjust. Tightening the grip of his spear, the Neanderthal felt a rush of energy surge through him. Every colour intensified; every sound became more acute; every smell clearer.
….

There is a patience that marks dominance in the wild, and it is such patience that leads to survival. It is the persistence of the wolf as it entices its prey forward, never edging to close, yet never straying too far away. The wolf delays the attack long enough for the rest of the wolf-pack to arrive, where they then devour into the meaty flesh of the prey, ripping it open with savage victory.

This patience belonged to the Neanderthal as he stood in the forest, doggedly waiting for the slightest sign of the creature. And with such patience, he eventually saw it. Bright yellow eyes blinked within a spruce bush only a few meters ahead. He knew that with his weapon he could defeat any creature that inhabits the frozen land, and so he stared directly at the spot of where he knew the creature resided. A series of screams bellowed from the Neanderthals throat, and he waved his spear to show his readiness to fight. The creature responded with equal willingness, sliding its way through the leaves; its great white paws pressing into the snow; its two saber-tooth fangs glinting with ferocity.

In a flash, both Neanderthal and Saber-tooth tiger knew it. It was the time of death. The battle will reach a bloody end and only one creature will survive. Only one creature will get to chew on thick flesh of another, tasting their warm and bubbly blood. As they circled about the trees, snarling and assessing one another, patiently waiting for the right moment to strike, nature watched keenly. For over the vast whiteness, a ghostly silence brooded over the battle ground. The wind had stopped and mother earth peered down expectantly –waiting to see who was the most dominant and adaptive of her children.

With unimaginable speed, the tiger leapt forward into the air, its claws outstretched and its razor sharp teeth bearing brutality. Instinctively, the Neanderthal raised his spear out high in front of him, waiting for the Saber-tooth to land down and pierce into his weapon. Yet it never happened. Only centimetres before the belly of the tiger was from touching the Neanderthal’s spearhead, something struck from the side and pierced into the body of the tiger. The sheer speed and velocity of the intruding object knocked the tiger off course and it spun in the air, collapsing onto the earth in an awkward heap. The Neanderthal looked down in confusion, watching as the snowy ground changed into a slushy red while blood oozed out of its wound. Sticking into the tigers gut was another spear, yet it seemed oddly different. Unlike his which was fairly short and thick, this one was much longer and thinner. The Neanderthal then felt a surge of panic rush through him, yet it was nothing compared to the terror when he looked up and saw the intruder; it was then that the Neanderthal experienced the return of an old companion; fear.

The Neanderthal’s mind flashed a thousand memories as he tried to recall any previous encounter with such a creature – yet there was nothing. Instead, he scrutinised it with a reserved transfixion. At a distance, it looked strangely familiar to his species, yet when it moved closer, notable differences could be seen. It was taller than him, yet it possessed less sinew. Its skin was darker and less hair covered its body. The Neanderthals feet suddenly became locked onto the earth; frozen by fear. There was an instinct inside him that screamed at him to fight, yet a more rational predisposition told him to run. But the ancient companion of fear simply kept him locked there, and he remained in his spot, frozen and unable to move, much like the icy world around him.

The mysterious creature stopped only a few meters in front of him, and the Neanderthal stared into its deep and intelligent eyes. The spheres of its soul showed little savagery, but at the same time, a dominance and wisdom more powerful than anything he had ever witnessed before spoke within them.

Both creatures had no conscious knowledge of death, but like all animals in the wild, they acquired deaths instincts. Death represented itself as the greatest of pain, as the worst of all punishments, and the greatest mystery of the unknown. And it was in that moment, when Neanderthal and Homosapain stood face to face on the snowy stage for the very first time, that mother earth knew a sanguine battle for mastery would follow. Both species desired such mastery, yet the unforgiving laws of the wild will never allow it to be shared. Coalition was not conceivable. There will only ever be one winner; for that is the prime rule of nature.

All your religion has to show for it is man made words, and more words, from your man made books/bibles from your invisible gods that only exist in the religee’s minds, no where else.

science has a lot of empirical evidence, precise measurements from quantum physics, major maths that mean something, even from the basic star stuff that we are all made from, and the most important, science is not stagnant, not static, always upwards mobility, not like the religee’s meanderings that are set in stone. Why do you not tell me something that is “new” from your fairy tales of horrors the OT.

What Science is now revealing about our existence is so absurd, it makes the idea of a creator seem tame.

Hair issue still remains debatable within the concept of evolution. However, I would not go so far as to question the reliability of evolution based on this aspect. Of course, evolution may not be the only answer but since we rely so heavily on this concept, we need to keep an open mind and wait for further findings.

Anyway, you’ve posted a long comment and I find it very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Science rules!

a)It is mentioned in this website that humans evolved hairlessness to reduce parasite loads, especially ectoparasites that may carry disease. This might seem to be true at a glance. However, this could not be true on our heads since the hair on our heads could keep on growing and this would lead to ultimate parasite loads if it were uncut for more than 30 years. The total mass of the hair that a person would keep for 30 years would be a number of times heavier than the hair that has grown up in apes’ body. The only thing that causes human beings to differ from apes is the hair among the apes has been distributed over their bodies and yet human beings’ hair is concentrated on their heads. When we compare the hair from human beings and apes, human beings could be parasite loads, whether in length or in mass, when the hair was uncut for more than 30 years. Thus, the hair among human beings could not reduce parasite loads. Instead, it might turn up to be the other way round to increase parasite loads on the condition that human beings did not cut their hair for more than 30 years. Thus, the hair loss among human beings and to cause it to grow continuously over the head might increase parasite loads and causes a disadvantage to human beings if their hair were uncut for more than 30 years. The over-concentration of hair growth on heads would not show any advantage in the long run since it would increase parasite loads.

b)It is mentioned in the website address above that hairlessness is made possible in humans owing to their unique abilities to regulate their environment via fire, shelter and clothing. Refer to the website address, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgenic_hair, it shows the distribution of hair among men and women. Despite human beings might put on clothing, yet the hair among human bodies especially those parts that are covered by clothing would not reduce. This gives the implication that our hair might not be able to reduce in spite of our capabilities to regulate environment via fire, shelter and clothing. Or else, men and women should not have hair on those parts that have been covered by clothing.

c)It is also mentioned in this website that hairlessness, then, demands some sort of explanation in evolutionary terms, and especially so as, in humans at least, hairlessness is not without its costs. Humans are more exposed to the sun, may suffer greater heat loss when the ambient temperature is low (Newman 1970; Amaral 1996) and, with the exception of the naked molerats, differ from the other hairless mammals in not having a thick or toughened hide for protection.

d)Many people in this world might have encountered hair loss problem that leads to the ultimate bald heads to annoy them and causes them to have no choice but to seek help from clinic, hair salon and etc. Yet this hair loss problem persists from generation to generation. As hair loss could cause problem among human beings and yet it persists, it places the query about the reliability of evolution. This is due to why there should be hair loss that would result in bald heads among human beings and this could not occur among apes or other animals.

e)Human beings’ hair loss brings about the disadvantage of causing them to turn up to be gray or white at old age and this might be in concern by the old folks. Yet the situation could not change unless dye hair. However, this disadvantage of turning into gray or white hair could not occur among other animals especially apes. Or in other words, there is a disadvantage of hair loss among human beings as a result of gray or white hair in old age and this places the reliability of evolution into question.

f) It is mentioned in this website that Wheeler (1992) acknowledges that naked skin increases the rates of both energy gain and loss during periods of too much or too little heat, respectively. This might mean that naked skin is actually a worse solution when the entire day is taken into account: more heat must be dissipated from daytime exposure and, at night time, more heat is lost (Amaral 1996). 3. There is certainly a disadvantage of hair loss here due to rapid energy gain and loss as a result of hairless condition of our bodies.

Despite of our hair loss, the redundancy of hair in length, such as underneath the armpit and even from the front body onwards up to the legs, remains there without removing away or evolve away, brings a query about the reliability of evolution since what it tends not to be used and yet it still retains instead of vanishing away.

It is also mentioned in the website that humans are not literally hairless, having about the density of hair follicles expected of an ape of our body size (Schwartz & Rosenblum 1981). What distinguishes human body hair is that it is very fine and short, making it, effectively, invisible. we use ‘hairless’ with respect to humans, then, to mean that they lack a dense layer of thick fur. However, this could not be true to the hair that is on our heads that could grow exceedingly and could even cause parasite loads on our head if this has been uncut for 30 or more years. Indeed, the hair on the human beings’ heads is the longest among all animals.

It is also mentioned in this website that hair loss could be meant to promote cooling of the body. However, many men might have exposed half nakedness of their upper bodies and yet could not feel cool on their bodies and seek help from fans or air-conditioning system or breeze or etc. even at the absence of sun especially early in the morning or at night. Some people might even suffer from high fever and need to seek help from doctor despite hairless bodies could cool it down. All these have placed the query whether hairless bodies could really cause their bodies to be in cool.

From the above analyses, there places a query why there should be hair drop and it seems to have adverse effect of evolution and that places the reliability of evolution into question

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/foundational-falsehoods-of-creationism/#comment-46086

Why not?