Furthermore, philosophical preferences may strongly disincline one to accept an interpretation at variance with one's chosen paradigm. Nevertheless, I found the explanatory filter to be a useful tool to identify the degree of improbability one must accept in order to avoid the conclusion of design. Scherer identifies several unanswered questions in hominoid evolution, and proposes that hominoids occur in a series of separate types. These include the cercopithecine monkeys, with differences among the genera possibly due to minor genetic modifications of developmental growth parameters. A second type is the gibbon apes, and orangs make a third type.
Humans are a fourth type, with a single living species.
The African apes comprise the fifth type. When fossils are added, Homo erectus and Neanderthals are added to the human type. Certain fossil apes, such as Sivapithecus , can be added to the orang type. Australopithecines are a different type of ape, not related to any member of the living fauna. As this trend progressed, God's acknowledged role in the cosmos nearly disappeared.