What do we really know about it as opposed to what we are commanded by school systems to believe?: Here are some arguments against that view.
Human ancestry is especially important because it tells us about ourselves. You have probably heard of various putative human ancestors in the news. Ardipithecus, Australopithecus, Homo habilis, “Lucy,” etc. Here is your opportunity to go beyond the media reports and the summaries and see what was really found and what it really tells us. Which ones are actually our ancestors? Which ones are mistaken? Which ones can really be considered human? In Apes as Ancestors, four scholars take a detailed look at the fossil evidence, including numerous photos taken by the authors themselves. They describe the fossils, where they found them, what others have to say about them, and what can be realistically and reliably determined from the fossils. They focus on the evidence – what does it actually tell us? The results may surprise you.
Jerry Bergman, Peter Line, Jeffrey Tomkins, and Daniel Biddle, “Apes as Ancestors” at Bartlett Publishing