EARLY MAN PAGE OF WAS DARWIN RIGHT?
Introduction Ape and human compare Ape language Australopithecus Cave men Drawing from bones History of man Homo erectus Homo habilis Lucy Neanderthal man Nebraska man Piltdown man Ramapithicus Skin colour and race Spirit and soul of man Toumai skull Suggested reading and videos
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Introduction.
"The main problem in reconstructing the origins of
man is lack of fossil evidence: all there is could be
displayed on a dinner table." New Scientist 20 May 1982 pg
491.
"Fossil evidence of human evolutionary history is fragmentary and open to various interpretations. Fossil evidence of chimpanzee evolution is absent altogether". Henry Gee, Nature 2001.
It should be noted, that Henry Gee is a believer in Evolution and although he has commented on the absence of fossils he has also stated that that he does not think this is proof that transitional forms do not exist. To top
Comparisons
of ape and human skeletons.
Professor G. von Koenigswald, an ardent supported of
ape theory made the following statement (Baker, 1996):-
"Working from skeleton alone, it is not so easy to define a man in comparison with an anthropoid ape. Actually, the anthropoid's skeleton differs only quantitatively from our own. The number of cranial bones and teeth is the same; the difference in the structure of the hands and feet is of degree only........ The only distinguishing character left therefore is the size of the brain".
Human Brains range in size from 1000 to 2000 c.c. whilst ape brains are rarely larger than 600 c.c. (Baker, 1996).
With the above in mind lets look at some of the presumed examples of early man. Some of the following details are taken from another web site (see Acknowledgments page for details) with kind permission of Samuel Bollinger.
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| SPECIES | TIME PERIOD |
| Ardipithicus ramidus | 5 to 4 million years ago |
| Australopithecus anamensis | 4.2 to 3.9 million years ago |
| Australopithecus afarensis | 4 to 2.7 million years ago |
| Australopithecus africanus | 3 to 2 million years ago |
| Australopithecus robustus | 2.2 to 1.6 million years ago |
| Homo habilis | 2.2 to 1.6 million years ago |
| Homo erectus | 2.0 to 0.4 million years ago |
| Homo sapiens archaic | 400 to 200 thousand years ago |
| Homo sapiens neandertalensis | 200 to 30 thousand years ago |
| Homo sapiens sapiens | 200 thousand years ago to present |
The times of existence of the various hominid shown in the chart above are based on dated fossil remains. Each species may have existed earlier and/or later than shown, but fossil proof has not been discovered yet. There is also dispute concerning many overlapping species, for example, the overlap between Homo habilis and Homo erectus. It could well be that the two are continuing examples of the same species. The same dispute exists with Homo erectus, Homo sapiens archaic and homo sapiens sapiens. If all species have been discovered and the lineage of man lies within them, the most probable lineage would include all but the robust Australopithecines and the Neanderthal. To top
Drawings from bones. One can often see see in newspaper or magazine articles or in books the drawings of intermediate forms of man (e.g. half way between ape and man). What we are sometimes not aware of is that some such drawings may rely more on artistic license than on knowledge of bone structures. Please see the drawing to the left (click on for full size). To top
Toumai.
"Skull turns the clock back on evolution"
read a headline of the Times newspaper on July 11th 2002. This headline
followed an article in the 10th of July 2002 issue of the prestigious
science magazine "Nature" about a new
species of archaic
human being or hominid found in Chad in the form of a skull. The find comprised
a near complete cranium, jawbone and teeth and was described in Nature
magazine as belonging to the oldest human like creature yet discovered, dated at
about 7 million years old (see picture right).
However, this find provides good example of how speculative such discoveries are. By the 12th of July an article appeared in the Science / Nature section of BBC news on-line claiming the skull was not as it seems. In this on-line article, Dr Brigitte Senut of the Natural History Museum in Paris said the skull looked to her like the skull of an ancient gorilla. She told Reuters news agency that the creature's short face and small canines merely pointed to it being female and were not conclusive evidence of it being hominid. She also said "Moreover, other characteristics such as the occipital crest (the back of the neck where the neck muscles attach) ... remind me much more of a gorilla". The fact that experts can disagree about such a find lends weight to the early quote on this page about the similarity between ape and human skeletons.
What was also interesting was how the skull was dated at 7
million years old. In the Times of 11th July 2002 the article
stated that the
skull could not be dated by radio-active dating techniques, as there were no
layers of volcanic ash near the skull which would normally provide the necessary
argon and potassium for radio-active dating. As such, the skull was dated on the
basis of the fossils found near it, which included "primitive"
versions of elephants, giraffes, horses, rodents and monkey's. However, such
dating techniques are based on an assumption of certain layers in the geological
column corresponding to certain time periods. Such an assumption is
based on a circular argument that evolution is true. If such dating techniques
are wrong, then not only could the skull be a gorilla, rather than an early form
of man, but it may also have come from a different time period. To
top
Ramapithicus.
This animal was long believed to be
the 1st branch from that line of apes which evolved into man about 14 million
years ago. Noted scientist Dr. Elwyn Simons stated confidently, "The
pathway can now be traced with little fear of contradiction from generalized
hominids - to the genus HOMO." The crucial importance of Ramapithicus as an
early ancestor of hominids is evident in this comment by Simons in Time magazine
(Nov. 7, 1977):-
"Ramapithicus is ideally structured to be an ancestor of hominids. If he
isn't, we don't have anything else that is." How true a statement! From
what evidence are these conclusions drawn in the 1st place ? Once again a few
teeth and a jaw bone. From this,
many drawings have been made of Ramapithicus
walking upright!
Renowned secular anthropologist Richard Leaky (American Scientist 1976, 64:174) stated that "The case for Ramapithicus as a hominid is not substantial, and the fragments of fossil material leave many questions open". Zilman and Lowenstein went even further by stating that "Ramapithicus walking upright has been reconstructed from only jaws and teeth".
The legitimacy of this ape has been sanctified by millions of textbooks and Time-Life volumes on human evolution. However, Harvard University paleontologist David Pilbeam, a hugely secular scientist summed up what all know is true (Science 82, April 6-7): "A group of creatures once thought to be our oldest ancestors may have been firmly bumped out of the human family tree. Many paleontologists have maintained that Ramamorphs are our oldest known ancestors. These conclusions were drawn from little more than a few jaw bones and some teeth. Truthfully, it appears to be nothing more than an orang-utan ancestor." To top
Neanderthal man.
The first ape-man found in Darwin's day.
In 1856, in the Neander Valley of Germany, a school-teacher discovered a skull
cap, 2 femurs, 2 humeri and other fragments. A careful examination and
description by Professor Schaafhausen reported them to be human and normal. Two
years later, 2 similar skulls were found in Belgium. Subsequently over 60 parts
of skeletons were found in 11 different countries. (Indeed, they are still being
found-but more on that later).
In 1908, Professor Boule of The Institute of Human Paleontology in Paris
declared Neanderthal an ape-man because of his low eye brow ridges and the
stooped over posture of some of the specimens. This was to shape opinion and
teaching for most of the 20th century. However, in 1950, things began to change.
An embarrassing fact came out. Neanderthal man's brain capacity was larger than
modern man's by over 200 cc's! One wonders if this fact would have been
hidden if it had been 200 cc's less? Modern tests, including electron
microscope scanning have proved that Neanderthal man, at least the stooped over
ones, suffered from acute osteo-arthritis.
Now lets talk about modern excavations. So many Neanderthal skeletons have been
found now that all evolutionists cringe from the name. Not only skeletons
either. Stone tools and iron tools have been found in quantity. Not only
that but the iron in the "London Artifact", which was found in the
same age layer of rocks, shows a pureness that we can't duplicate today. Also,
it was forged using chlorine in the process somehow as 2% of the iron content is
chlorine. Chlorine wasn't "invented" by modern man until well into the
1900's!
Evolutionists have finally come up with a ready answer for their problems with
Neanderthal man. They have decided he was an evolutionary dead-end. On what
basis ? The fact that his brain cavity was 200 cc's larger than modern man's!
Evolutionists couldn't have Neanderthal be a true man. After all, he had a
larger brain size. That would mean evolution didn't work. If everything is a
constant upward progression, Neanderthal just wouldn't do. Hence....
evolutionary dead-end. To top
Nebraska man. Hesperopithecus
haroldcookii. Discovered in 1922 in the Pliocene deposits of Nebraska by a
mysterious "Mister Cook" and made famous by Henry Osborn of the
American Museum of Natural History. All Nebraska man originally consisted of was
a tooth. This tooth was being heavily promoted by the press at the Scopes
"monkey" trial in 1925 as irrefutable evidence of the animal ancestry
of man. A "picture" of Nebraska Man and his wife were published in the
London Daily News (picture right). All from a tooth! When other parts of the skeleton were found
in 1927, it quickly became clear that it was nothing more than the tooth of an
extinct pig! To top
Piltdown man. Eanthropus
dawsoni or "Dawn man." Discovered in 1912 by Charles Dawson, a medical
doctor and amateur palaeontologist who discovered a mandible and a small piece of
a skull in a gravel pit near Piltdown England (picture left). The jaw-bone was ape-like but the
teeth had human characteristics. The skull piece was very human-like. These 2
specimens were combined to form dawn man, which was supposedly 500,000 years
old. However, the whole thing turned out to be an elaborate
hoax. The skull was
indeed human (about 500 years old) but the jaw was that of a modern ape whose
teeth had been filed to look like human wear. The success of this hoax for 50
years, despite the scrutiny of the best authorities in the world, led Solly
Zuckerman to say, "It is doubtful if there is any science at all in the
search for man's fossil ancestry." Had the original bones been available
for study, then this hoax would not have continued for as long as it did. It was
not until 38 years after the bones had been "found" that the hoax was
exposed. In 1953 Kenneth Oakley, Joseph Weiner and Wilfred Le Gros Clark
realized that Piltdown man was a hoax. To
top
Australopithecus.
Donald Johanson in his book "Lucy" refers to the
"australopithecine mess" - and it definitely is that. The very word
Australopithecus means "southern ape" because the first fossils were
found in South Africa by Dr. Raymond Dart, professor of anatomy at Witwatersrand
University in Johannesburg.
Dart was convinced that some teeth were man-like and thus concluded it
represented a transitional between apes and man. His opinions on the matter were
largely scorned by the scientists of his time (1924) who considered it nothing
more than a chimpanzee. The skull was soon known derisively as "Dart's
baby". Perhaps no one has studied the australopithecines more than Sir
Solly Zuckerman who wrote: "Evolution as a Process" in 1954:
"There is indeed no question which the australopithecine skull resembles
when placed side by side with specimens of humans and living ape skulls. It is
the ape so much so that only detailed and close scrutiny can reveal any
difference between modern ape and Australopithecus." To
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Australopithecus
afarensis.
Commonly know as "LUCY"
(picture right) -
Discovered in 1974 by Donald Johanson was a half complete skeleton he named
after the Beetle's song "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds". A year later
13 more similar skeletons were found. Remarkably the skull was even more
ape-like than other australopithecines.
In his book "Lucy, The beginnings of Human Kind," Johanson said: I had
no problem with Lucy. She was so odd that there was no question about her not
being human. She simply wasn't. She was too little. Her brain was way too small
and her jaw was the wrong shape. Her teeth pointed away from the human condition
and back in the direction of apes. The jaws had the same primitive
features."
On the basis of a hip and knee joint found later, however, Johnson
"decided" that Lucy did walk in an upright bipedal fashion. He thus
deduced Lucy was an ancestor of man, as well as an ancestor of A. africanus (the
original Australopithecus).
However, there are conflicting reports as to whether Lucy did actually walk upright. The following quote was taken from The Institute for Creation Research web-site.
"The features which suggest upright posture to Johanson are primarily the hip and knee joints, but numerous studies on the hip have shown otherwise. Oxnard, in his 1987 book, Fossils, Teeth and Sex (which contains an excellent summary of these various studies), claims that, "These fossils clearly differ more from both humans and African apes than do these living groups from each other. The australopithecines are unique" (p. 227). Evidently they could walk somewhat upright, as pygmy chimps do today, but not in the human manner at all". To top
Homo habilis. The taxon Homo habilis had an illegitimate birth when Mary Leakey discovered some badly shattered skull fragments in 1959. Her husband Louis made the comment that it was nothing more than a "damned australopithecine". His attitude soon changed however when he found stone tools near the site of Homo habilis. Jumping into the fire, he quickly named it Homo and publicized the find widely. He was soon discredited when other australopithecines were found in Africa, also with stone tools. Homo habilis was "demoted" to australopithecine. This didn't stop Leakey though. In 1964, he found four more specimens in Olduvai Gorge. These he claimed had bigger brains than Australopithecus and surely deserved to be classified as Homo habilis. Measurements of the cranial capacity were nearly impossible since the skulls were so badly crushed but, nonetheless, it was concluded that they averaged 642 cc's, or 200 cc's larger than Australopithecus and he considered that enough to make them Homo.
Not everyone was as enthusiastic as Leakey was about
his new "handymen". Homo habilis was soon considered an empty taxon
that was inadequately proposed.
New life was breathed into Homo habilis by Louis and Mary's son, Richard Leakey who was working in the Lake Rudolf area in Kenya. Leakey found numerous stone tools and 40 specimens of Australopithecus. Then, in 1972, he he made a discovery that was to shake the world of paleo-anthropology to it's foundations. He found the toolmaker his father had long sought in vain. Perhaps he found even more than he bargained for. He found several fossilized bone fragments of a skull which his wife Meave carefully assembled to make a nearly complete skull minus the lower jaw. The skull was named KNMER 1470 for its registration at the Kenya National Museum in East Rudolf.
The skull capacity was difficult to measure because of the condition of the assemblage but was estimated to be 800 cc's (later lowered to 750 cc's), much larger than so called ape-men skulls. There were only small eyebrow ridges, no crest and a domed skull typical of humans today. Indeed it appeared to be a human skull. Professor A. Cave who first demonstrated that Neanderthal man was completely human examined 1470 in London and concluded: "As far as I can see, typically human". In addition, Leakey found 2 complete femurs, a part of a third femur and parts of a tibia and fibula near the skull which he said "cannot be readily distinguished from Homo-sapien."
Let's talk about the dating of 1470. In 1969 samples of KBS tuft from just above the layer in which 1470 was found was sent to Cambridge University for potassium argon dating. Three different test gave an age of 220 million years old +or- 7 million years! This was considered unacceptable for for this strata given its fossil content, so the errors were blamed on "extraneous" argon. Several more tests were done, and the best, most acceptable date was placed at 2.61 million years old. In National Geographic of June 1973 Richard Leakey stated," Either we toss out the 1470 skull or we toss out all our theories of early man. It simply fits no previous models of human beginnings. 1470 leaves in ruin the notion that all early fossils can be arranged in an orderly sequence of evolutionary changes."
What was the problem? The problem, given the age of 2.61 myo, made 1470
contemporaneous with Australopithecus, if not older - yet looked identical to
modern man. This absolutely unseated Australopithecus as ancestor of modern man!
In later lectures, Richard Leakey never made reference to 1470, preferring perhaps, to sweep it under the rug. However, in a PBS documentary in 1990 he stated, "If pressed about man's ancestry, I would have to unequivocally say that all we have is a huge question mark. To date, there has been nothing found to truthfully purport as a transitional specie to man, including Lucy, since 1470 was as old and probably older. If further pressed, I would have to state that there is more evidence to suggest an abrupt arrival of man rather than a gradual process of evolving." This from the world's foremost paleo-anthropologist! To top
Homo erectus (Java and Peking man). This specimen is undoubtedly the weakest link in the human evolution scenario. Shortly after Darwin published his Origin of the Species, a Dutch physician named Eugene Dubois, went in search of Pithecanthropus in Sumatra. Dubois had been a student of Ernst Haeckel, famous for his "biogenetic Law" that stated a human embryo went through a sequential evolutionary stage of its ancestors. It is now well known through medical science that this is far from true. What else is well known is that Haeckel falsified most of his data.
Having failed to get financial assistance from the Dutch government, Dubois
enlisted in the French Foreign Legion to gain his goal. While in Sumatra, he
heard about a skull found on the nearby island of Java. He was able to secure
the skull and even found another like it at the same location. However, these
skulls were too human looking to be of any use to someone looking for an
ape-man. In 1891, he found a molar tooth along the Solo river. Later the same
year, he found another molar and an ape-like skull cap. The following year he
found a human femur 46 feet from where he found the skull cap (see picture
left). Although at first
he thought it was a chimpanzee skull, after consulting with Haeckel, he declared
the whole collection to belong to one and the same creature, stating it was
"admirably suited to the role of missing link".
This missing link arrived just in time to salvage Darwin's theory as it was
under fire because of the total lack of transitional forms found or not found as
the case was. By joining an ape skull with a human femur he had truly created an
ape-man. He originally claimed that the strata he was working in was Pliocene but after discovering his ape-man, he decided it was really tertiary. We now
know both to be false.
When taking his specimen on tour, he could not find a single legitimate
scientist to chair any of his meetings. Nonetheless, newspapers and magazines
embraced him wholeheartedly, even drawing many pictures of complete ape-men. As
Dubois came under increasing attack, he became very secretive about his fossil
finds - to the point of hiding them under his dining room floor and refusing to
let them be examined. A few years before his death in 1940, Dubois finally
admitted the skulls were in his opinion those of a large Gibbon. Evolutionists
however refused to accept this and to this day it is still being taught as a
transitional, though all modern scientists have debunked it.
The other fossil in the Homo erectus taxon is Peking man. An almost complete
skull cap was discovered in 1929 in an in-filled limestone cave near Peking,
China (now Beijing). This ape-like skull cap was similar to Java man. The cave
continued to be investigated until the beginning of World War II. Fragments of
14 skulls, 12 lower jaws and 147 teeth were found. Also, several skeletons of
modern man were found slightly higher. Once again, bone fragments were assembled
from various places to form a skull. For example, the jaw bone came from a level
85 feet higher than the skull and face bones. After hiring a sculptor to model a
woman's face from the made-up skull, the result was named "Nellie".
Nellie has appeared in almost all textbooks.
As usual, at the site where "she" was found was found also numerous
stone tools and evidence of butchery and fires. Recently, Chinese scientists
have found over a 1,000 stone tools, the skulls of over 100 modern day animals,
as well as 6 modern human skulls. The skulls and all fragments showed evidence
of being shattered or broken in. In addition, a layer of ashes nearly 4 feet
thick was found. The Chinese assume Homo erectus made these tools, despite the
fact that the brain capacity of the put-together skulls was only that of a
small chimp. The whole and complete modern human skulls found were completely
discredited. To
top
Cave
men
(by Professor Donald DeYoung).
There
have always been cave dwellers on earth, including the present day.
Caves provide natural protection and climate control that long have been
utilized worldwide by displaced or nomadic people, hunters, and settlers. There are dozens of cave references in the Bible, whether used as homes,
hiding
places, or tombs. See Job
25: 9-11 for a description of mining for riches in a cave or shaft. One should not be misled by the false impression that early cave dwellers
were primitive, ape-like creatures that were inferior to us. The early art
(picture right) and tools often found in caves show that early inhabitants
were intelligent and culturally refined.
There are certain hazards to living in a cave. The humidity, darkness, and cool temperatures can aggravate health problems such as arthritis. This may be the reason why the remains of some early cave dwellers show them possibly to have been stooped over with bone disease. However, these fossil remains do not necessarily date back to ancient "prehistoric" times. In the creation view, bones and artifacts from cave areas date from relatively recent post Flood times as people explored the new, unfamiliar landscape. This view places existing caveman evidence within the last four or five thousand years. To top
Skin colour. How did different skin colour arise from one couple, if we were to believe a literal Biblical story of all nations arising from one couple. See also How did different skin colors come about?
With regards to skin colour, we all have similar skin, but the colour of our skin depends on the amount of melanin in the skin. Black people have lots of melanin in their skin and white people only a little. If two people with brown skin both from mixed black and white parentage have children, the children can be any of thirteen different colours, ranging from black to white ("Origin of the races," Mackay). Thus, if the first human couple were brown skinned, in one generation one could have a full spectrum, or nearly so, of skin colours. One can imagine that in several generations, if people tended to choose partners of similar skin colour and then related groups migrated to different parts of the world, one could have the start of different races. Dietary and climatic differences could help contribute to further differences within groups. The process of meiosis can be involved in shuffling around of genes for various attributes, including skin colour.
John Mackay in his video "History of man" suggested that the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel (The Bible, Genesis chapter 11) is the time and place where not only different languages originated, but also where "tribal" groups with similar languages migrated to different part of the world. If this story is true and if different languages were given to different family or tribal groups with similar colouring and features, then could this have been the origin of the different races we know today?
The above may seem difficult to believe but do black people turn white after several generations in a less sunny climate? Do white people turn black after several generations in a sunny climate? The theory of Evolution would teach us that skin colour arose in response to the environmental conditions in different part of the world.
If you are interested in DNA relatedness with respect to the origin of man, the please go to the homology page.
If you are a Scientist and want to take up the challenge of making a man, then please go to the "make a man" page. To top
The article below by Dr Dennis Bonnette explores whether Darwinian evolution can explain the evolution of the spirit and man from ape ancestry.
Natural Reason Shows Darwinian Naturalism Wrong
Quite aside from experimental science
arguments about evolution, unaided natural reason proves that atheistic
evolution is false regarding one of its most important claims – the origin of
man himself. We need not study paleoanthropology to realize that true human
beings could not be merely the product of purely materialistic evolution – and
this for two clear reasons.
First: Formation of Universal Concepts Proves Human
Spirituality
Everyone knows that mankind exceeds all
the other animals of Earth by possession of culture, religion, technological
progress, art, politics, and science. Some evolutionists would claim that lesser
animals, especially lower primates, bear some vague analogy to these attributes,
but everyone really knows that such claims push the boundaries of credibility.
Still, how do we prove that man’s possession of these qualities is truly
unique to him alone and that they place him qualitatively and essentially
superior to all brute animals? We can show that such properties are uniquely
possessed by man because man alone has both sense and intellective powers, while
brute animals possess only sense powers and not intellect. This conclusion is
demonstrated in my Ape-Language
Studies page on this web site.
Man exhibits intellect by his ability to
form universal concepts, make judgments, and reason. We shall focus here on the
manner in which universal concepts clearly manifest properties that are strictly
spiritual in nature – unlike the images which are found in sense knowledge and
which are shared by lower animals.
Can you imagine a man or a triangle? Of
course, you can. Now try to imagine humanity or triangularity. You cannot do it.
Whatever image you have of a man or even of many men does not fulfill the
universal concept which expresses the essence of every man in every age in every
part of the globe. Whatever triangle you imagined (probably an equilateral one)
presents the shape and sensible appearance of only a single triangle or perhaps
a few of them, but not the essence of the three-sided plane figure that can be
expressed in potentially infinite shapes, sizes, and appearances. Images are
always concrete, singular, particular, sensible, and imaginable. In contrast,
the universal concept (1) entails no sensible qualities whatever, (2) can have
varying degrees of extension when predicated, and (3) is entirely unimaginable.
Indeed, for most words or meanings, you have no “proper” image. What image
do you have for words, such as, “inequality,” “amortization,” or even
“the?” Words express meanings, not pictures. Most words are associated only
with arbitrary physical sounds or phonetic spellings that fit only the language
of the speaker. Translation is based on communication of meanings (essences),
not sounds or written words. Animals may make word-like sounds or signs; but man
alone understands the words he says or writes.
The distinction between image and
concept manifests the radical difference between the material and spiritual
orders. Images cannot escape the individuating, quantifying conditions of matter
– and that is why they are always of this particular thing with these sensible
qualities: this single black, tall,
male, old man or that blue, scalene,
three-foot tall triangular plaster statue. Concepts manifest their spiritual
nature because, though they express the essence of every
man or triangle, they have the particular sensible qualities of none. It is the ability to form concepts that is the basis for human
possession of genuine language, and the ability to translate from one language
into another the same meanings that constitute our understanding of the nature
of things. Brute animals are forever restricted to manipulation of sense images
that grasp merely the sensible appearances of things, not their intrinsic
natures. This is more fully explained on my Ape-Language page.
Because man can form these universal
spiritual concepts, he must possess some spiritual component in his nature. Mere
matter can never give rise to true spirit because the lesser can never give rise
to the greater.
Second: Human Free Will Proves Human Spirituality
Does anyone seriously think that no one
on Earth has ever done a really evil act rightly deserving of punishment of some
sort? Would we totally exonerate Stalin, Hitler, and Bin LadEn from all their
crimes against humanity? If not, we have just implicitly recognized the
existence of human freedom. To hold anyone responsible for something he could
not avoid doing would be entirely unjust and contrary to reason. Since we do
hold some evil-doers responsible for their heinous misdeeds, we must realize
that some of them, some of the time at least, committed evil acts they need not
have committed. That is to say, they were free to not do these acts, but chose
to do them anyway.
What does freedom’s existence imply?
Purely material things are absolutely determined by their natures to act in a
predetermined manner. The entire order of natural science depends on physical
things acting strictly according to their physical natures. Thus sodium tends by
nature to combine with chlorine, birds seek worms, fish swim, and so forth. Even
brute animals, acting on the variegated dynamism of constantly changing sensible
objects, still respond instantly to the immediate stimuli – without freely
choosing their objects. That is why we may put a dangerous dog to sleep, but we
do not accuse it of being morally reprehensible for its behavior.
But man acts with true freedom, bearing
the consequent awesome responsibility for his acts. Hence, man is not bound by
purely material forces and must possess some spiritual component in his nature. And, as noted above in the case
of man’s formation of spiritual universal concepts, mere matter can never give
rise to true spirit because the lesser can never give rise to the greater.
Therefore, both from the fact that man
forms spiritual concepts and from the fact that he acts with genuine freedom, it
follows that human nature possesses a spiritual component which mere material
evolutionary processes could never explain, precisely because they are merely
material forces and mere matter cannot produce true spirit. Moreover, these
spiritual components are at the very center of our humanity because man is
distinguished from lower animals by his intellective knowledge and freedom of
choice.
God Alone, Not Materialistic Evolution, Must Create
Man’s Spiritual Component
Since the lesser cannot give rise to the
greater, mere matter cannot account for spirit – regardless of how the
material forces of nature interact in any proposed evolutionary scheme. But a
central spiritual component (soul or spirit?) does exist in man as shown above.
Since every man is born into this world, every man has a beginning in time, and
hence, his spiritual component requires a cause. But pre-existing matter cannot
be an adequate cause for new spiritual reality. Only spirit can beget spirit.
Human parents may form the material components of a new human being, but they do
not produce that spiritual component which comes from no pre-existent matter.
Rather, such spirit simply begins to be from no prior state of being. That is,
it is created from nothing. Only an infinite power can create from nothing. And
an infinite power must reside in an Infinite Being, namely, God.
Darwinian materialistic evolution fails
its most crucial test – for it cannot adequately account for the origin of the
most perfect of all living organisms: Man. Adequate explanation of human origins
cannot be had unless God Himself directly intervenes in the order of nature, by
an individual act of creation in the production of each human being.
Suggested reading and videos
Books - These do not focus specifically on the contents of this page, but all will have some content of direct relevance to this page. All these books can be bought on- line.
Creation Facts Of Life, by Dr Gary Parker.
Darwinism And The Rise Of Degenerate Science, by Dr Paul Back.
Darwin's Black Box, by Professor Michael Behe..
Darwin's Enigma, by Luther Sunderland
Evolution, A Theory In Crisis, by Dr Michael Denton.
Evolution, The Fossils Still Say No, Dr Duane Gish..
Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth?: Why Much of What We Teach about Evolution is Wrong, by Jonathan Wells
The Fossil Book (Wonders of Creation), by Gary Parker, Mary Parker.
The Naked Emperor: Darwinism Exposed, by Antony Latham
On-line articles
Are there apemen in your ancestry?
Homo erectus 'to' Modern Man: Evolution or Variability?
How did different skin colors come about
Skull wars: new ‘Homo erectus’ skull in Ethiopia
The non-transitions in ‘human evolution’ — on evolutionists’ terms.
On-line videos
Agreements:
Between Evolutionists and Creationists
3:53 mins.
The
Ape-Man: Missing Link
2:26 mins.
DNA:
Human & Chimpanzee DNA
1:23 mins.
Videos to buy
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