Age of Man

[MichaelXY]

Granted, the earliest fossil remains of humans date back some 180,000 years, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... 6_omo.html

But what if man is older? The creation of a fossil is a happenstance that rivals winning a lottery jackpot. Consider what must take place to preserve the bones of Granny the Cave woman. First, after an unwanted death, the body falls, and if the body is to be preserved, it must be covered quickly by mud and silt and become part of a sedimentary bed. Hopefully this bed of sand, silt and mud will receive enough compaction to become somewhat solidified. Now if granny is really lucky, water will flow though this sediment, and in the process permineralization http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/paleo/fossils/permin.html
occurs to the bones, thus preserving them in time.
As you can see, much must happen in order to preserve a biological specimen, so I challenge you statistic majors to compute the odds that human’s age are not far greater than known fossils. That reminds me, what about fossils that have yet been found. This is just one of my Hmm moments.
-----Edit-----
I just realized that I did not really state my point. I am willing to bet that man is older than fossil records indicate.
Ok, that was my point

[Draco]

That is really interesting.
Most dating techniques are not totaly accurate, they usually have a range of dates that it is most likely to date back to.

[alextemplet]

Makes a lot of sense, especially considering that early humans lived in an environment very poorly suited to fossilization.

[mcar]

Fossil records however still have imperfections on them, as what is being cited by some scientists.

[Elen]

On the subject of fossils, I was told that if every human being on Earth was to die right now, only 6 of us would be fossilised. And Michael, I think you have a good point.

[alextemplet]

To be fair, no legitimate scientist claims that humanity is exactly as old as the oldest fossil; it would be more proper to state that humanity is "at least as old as" the oldest fossil. This is the rule in studying the past; something is obviously at least as old as the oldest evidence but may in fact be much older. Now the really perplexing question is, how much older do you think man might be?

[Draco]

Maybe 1000-2500 years older the the oldest fossil.

[alextemplet]

How do you come up with that number and can you support it?

[MrMistery]

he said maybe. maybe not

[Draco]

My figure is only a guess that's why I said maybe 1000-2500 years older the the oldest fossil.

[mcar]

I have read one where fossilation came about after the Great Noachian flood.

[alextemplet]

I honestly don't see how that Noah's flood theory can be supported by evidence.