Did Neanderthals Go to Heaven?

In this talk we will trace the advance of fossils starting back some 7 million years ago as hominids seem to develop into larger brained, more able creatures.  In particular we will look at a possible common ancestor of us and Neanderthals and ask what’s different about them and us.  Then I will discuss how it seems brains develop to a level of complexity that not only makes the species able to cope and survive but also are sufficiently plastic to give them much more complex, unexpected capabilities.  But these apparently didn’t arise on their own, and this perhaps leaves a place for both Adam and Eve (with the Creator giving them information as the biblical God does) and at least some Neanders who came into contact with humans and learned from them, to know good from sin perhaps giving them the possibility of eternal life.

Charles (“Chick”) Keller has a PhD from Indiana University in astronomy and astrophysics. He has been Research Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a Group Leader in Computer Modeling at LANL (Earth & Space Sciences Division), Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Branch of the University of California's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, a member of  the Los Alamos Laboratory Environmental Ethics working group--”Our Common Ground”, a Faculty Member--Univ. of New Mexico at Los Alamos, a member of the External Advisory Committee, Department of Physics, New Mexico State University, Los Alamos Lab Representative on University of California’s University Committee on Research Planning, and an IGPP research fellow (sabbatical) Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Chick has been President of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico, as well as on the boards of the Los Alamos Concert Association, Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra, Los Alamos Choral Society, and Co-founder the Pajarito Environmental Education Center.