Kresta In The Afternoon

Talking about the "things that matter most" on May 19
Live From Minneapolis, MN

3:00 – Scientists Unveil the “Missing Link” in NY
Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilised skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution. The search for a direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom has taken 200 years - but it was presented to the world today at a special news conference in New York. The discovery of the 95%-complete 'lemur monkey' - dubbed Ida - is described by experts as the "eighth wonder of the world".They say its impact on the world of palaeontology will be "somewhat like an asteroid falling down to Earth". That’s how it’s being reported. We get a check on reality from Jonathan Wells of the Discovery Institute.

3:30 – A History of the Search for the “Missing Link”
We continue our discussion of the “missing link” by taking a survey of the history of the elusive search for a link to “prove” Darwinian evolution. Edward Larson won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion and he is with us to look at this story and it’s significance in the evolution debate.

4:00 – Kresta Comments

4:20 – Science vs. Religion: A New Battlefield Over the Missing Link?
In what could prove to be a landmark discovery, a leading paleontologist said scientists have dug up the 47 million-year-old fossil of an ancient primate whose features suggest it could be the common ancestor of all later monkeys, apes and humans. According to Darwinian evolution, humans evolved from ancient ape-like ancestors. Some 50 million years ago, two ape-like groups walked the Earth. One is known as the tarsidae, a precursor of the tarsier, a tiny, large-eyed creature that lives in Asia. Another group is known as the adapidae, a precursor of today's lemurs in Madagascar. Based on previously limited fossil evidence, one big debate had been whether the tarsidae or adapidae group gave rise to monkeys, apes and humans. This latest discovery bolsters the less common position that our ancient ape-like ancestor was an adapid, the believed precursor of lemurs. Dr. Fuzz Rana of Reasons to Believe is here to shed some light on the story.

5:00 – Re-Air 3:00 hour