Bones of Contention

When I was in elementary school, our weekly reader contained a story and picture (this very picture) of a new find proving evolution. It was called Zinjanthropus, found in Africa and supposedly a half ape, half man missing-link. When I showed it to my parents, my grandmother responded, “I don’t believe it.” “But his picture is right here!” I defended. My mother told me to not argue with Grandma and that ended the discussion. Much later, I agreed with Grandma. In fact, so have many evolutionists, for the picture was drawn from a few bones that are so much like those of a modern ape, that many reluctantly agree they probably were.

Bones Prove to Be a Hoax!

Since then several other bone “proofs” have found the same fate. The most famous was Piltdown man, found by Charles Dawson in Piltdown, England in 1912. “The remains seemed to combine a skull capable of housing a large brain with a jaw structure that was judged to be fairly primitive.” For the next 40 years, Pildown man was a star witness that man evolved from primates and probably hundreds of doctoral theses and scientific papers were written about it. Finally, in 1953 it was presented as a deliberate hoax! “. . . extensive scientific tests established that the Piltdown skulls were of Medieval origin and were perhaps 620 years old, the jawbone, itself perhaps 500 years old, probably came from an Orangutan, and the canine tooth was a genuine, chimpanzee, fossil dating from the Pleistocene Age. Evidence of deliberate staining with an iron solution to give an appearance of age to the bones was also detected.”¹ Who exactly was responsible for this hoax may never be known for sure. But many evolutionary trees still claim him as an ancestor. They don’t give up easily, do they!

It’s Just the Tooth of a Pig

In 1922 a tooth was found in Nebraska that was reconstructed into a full race of people called appropriately Nebraska man! Later the tooth was found to be that of an extinct pig, but still later, they found one alive! Now do a Google image search and find out what imagination said he looked like!

Was the Neanderthal Man Really a Lie?

Several years ago I visited the Museum of Natural History in Chicago where was displayed a family of Neanderthals, hunched over, hairy, protruding jaw, exactly what you would suspect an evolutionary ancestor to look like. The first Neanderthal bones were found in 1856 and dated at 30 to 70 thousand years old. (This artist’s rendition is from CBS news). Later it was shown that the hunched appearance was because he had arthritis or rickets caused by deficiencies in their diet. He was just like a modern man with a deformity.

In 1998 Orthodontist Jack Cuozzo published a book entitled, Buried Alive. He took full facial radiographic pictures of the Neanderthal skulls. “His startling discovery was that in every picture and model we have the lower jaws had been dislocated and thrust forward as much as an inch to give the erroneous impression that Neanderthals had a lower face that stuck out like a monkey’s lower jaw.”²

Why would intelligent scientists promote hoaxes, frauds, and artists’ imaginations as scientific proof? Is it safe to say they have an agenda to prove, whether by fair means or foul? It is even safer to say man was made in the beginning in the image of God, as you and I are, with the ability to know his Creator and thus a responsibility to seek Him.

Sources:

1. http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/archaeology/piltdown_man.html
2. The Evolution of a Creationist, Jobe Martin, p. 215