cjh5801 wrote:
"Intervention by a superior intellect in human development, whether God, or the gods, or aliens, is mysticism"

Or husbandry. As has been mentioned, humans have intervened in the development of other animals. Dogs, cattle, and fowl, for example. That isn't mysticism, and it doesn't negate evolution. It wouldn't be possible without the same genetic properties that drive evolution.

The idea that humans may have been helped along the path by aliens is no more mystic than animal husbandry. It may not be flattering, and it certainly isn't probable (it's a science fiction movie, after all), but it isn't mysticism.
"humans have intervened in the development of other animals"

Yes, but I don't know of any animal which under human guidance has evolved into another animal.  Speciation is key to evolution.

Speciation--a single ancestral species splits and diversifies into two or more different species.

A domestic pig which goes feral soon reverts to being a normal wild pig and will mate with wild pigs.  The southern United States has millions of these feral hogs.  Pigs haven't really changed that much. 

Mysticism--A matter of definition, I guess.  But the idea that humans became tool users because of alien intervention is certainly not scientific and has no scientific or historical basis--and my professor was an historian. 

Also, the movie did not show the aliens manipulating humans by controlled breeding.  This monolith certainly looked like a mystic intervention to me, or what Hermanthegerm defines as such high technology that it amounts to "magic".
    

Last Edited By: atenolol Jan 22 11 7:53 PM. Edited 1 times.