The Case for a Creator, Chapter 3
In the final section of chapter 3, Strobel and Wells turn to the evidence that creationists loathe above all else: the fossil hominids that make up the human family tree. Human ancestors are not only a clear, obvious transition that even a layperson can understand, they directly demonstrate that we ourselves are a product of evolution, thus striking at the desire to be separate, special creations that almost certainly motivates nearly all creationists.
I strongly suspect that creationism as a movement would never have arisen if scientists hadn't insisted on encompassing the human species in evolution's family tree. Whatever the creationists say, they don't really care about turtles or oak trees or earthworms. If scientists were willing to grant that human beings were special, unrelated to the rest of Earthlife, creationists would probably have been happy to concede that every other species came about from a process of mindless natural selection. But the evidence doesn't support a separate origin for humanity, and the idea that we might be one of those animals - a relative of slime molds and toadstools, of centipedes and cyanobacteria - enrages creationists, who can't bear to believe in a universe in which they are not the central and most important figure. In their quest to reclaim that sense of specialness, they would gladly obliterate the best theory ever devised to explain the true origins and diversity of life as we now see it.
And this leads us to the last section of Strobel's interview with Jonathan Wells. We begin with Java Man, who, according to his discoverer Eugene Dubois as quoted by Strobel, "represents a stage in the development of modern man from a smaller-brained ancestor" [p.61]. Strobel points out - for once, correctly - that the find consisted of a skullcap, a femur and some teeth, but that the femur and the teeth are now believed to belong to different species.
Nevertheless, Strobel writes as though Java Man is an isolated find, a single fossil fragment drifting in a void of uncertainty. As usual, the creationists have ignored the abundant corroboratory evidence. Java Man is just one specimen of a well-known hominid species, Homo erectus, that is known from many other specimens - including Sangiran 17, a far more complete skull that was also found on Java - and even more spectacularly, the Turkana Boy, a nearly complete skeleton of an approximately 12-year-old erectus boy found near Lake Turkana in Kenya. All these specimens, including Java Man, share the characteristics that make them unlike modern humans: a sloping forehead, heavy brow ridges, large jaw with no chin, and a braincase much smaller than ours (between 750 and 1100 cc, depending on age, while most modern sapiens have brains about 1350 cc).
What do the creationists think Homo erectus is? We never find out Strobel's viewpoint, since neither he nor Wells ever mentions these fossils. The closest he ever comes is asserting that Java Man is a "true member of the human family" [p.62]. That's actually correct, although it doesn't mean what Strobel thinks it does.
Aside from this brief discussion of Java Man, we hear nothing more about any specific fossil. Wells spends the rest of this brief section complaining about how artistic reconstruction of fossils is a speculative field [p.62] and quote-mining science writers who point out that we cannot reconstruct exact lines of descent from fossils - which is true, but Wells acts as if this means that every theory ever devised about human evolution is worthless. The lesson he takes away is not that we must be careful to only propose testable hypotheses supported by the evidence, but that "Darwinists assume the story of human life is an evolutionary one, and then they plug the fossils into a preexisting narrative where they seem to fit" [p.63], as if the fossils themselves had no meaning and could be used to support any conceivable hypothesis equally well.
I also want to highlight one particularly obnoxious bit of dishonesty. Here's Wells quoting science writer Henry McGee:
"In fact, he said that all the fossil evidence for human evolution 'between ten and five million years ago - several thousand generations of living creatures - can be fitted into a small box.'" [p.63]
It's true that the oldest fossil evidence of human evolution - the species nearest the branch point of humans and other apes - is fragmentary. But by definition, those species would be the least humanlike. What Wells neglects to mention is that all the most important fossil evidence showing how humans became human is younger than five million years! Australopithecus afarensis, and the other australopithecines, are between 4 and 3 million years old. Homo habilis is between 2.5 and 1.5 million years old. Homo erectus is between 2 million and half a million years old. We have multiple fossils for most of these species and others, far more than would fit in a "small box". Wells' sleazy tactics would be like a defense attorney getting a witness to admit that he saw nothing unusual between 5 and 6 PM, and triumphantly concluding his client was innocent - even though the crime took place at 7.
Again, what stands out about this section is how little time Strobel and Wells spend on discussing the actual fossils of human ancestors. We never hear about Turkana Boy. We never hear about Lucy or Homo habilis. What were these creatures? How does the intelligent-design worldview explain them? This is a question Wells steers well clear of, other than repeating postmodernist claims that any explanation is just as good as any other.
Now I'll do something that Strobel and Wells never do: show you the fossils so you can see them for yourself. Here's a table, with pictures, which lists some of the most important hominid specimens and shows what creationists think about each of them.
As you can see from the table, although all the creationists are adamant that every fossil is either fully human or fully ape, they can't agree which is which. (Java Man in particular is an almost even split, especially if you include Strobel and Wells' claiming that it's human.) This, of course, is exactly what we would expect if these fossils were genuinely transitional: being intermediate between two groups, they would resist unambiguous classification as one or the other. Ironically, the creationists themselves provide the best testimony of that.
Other posts in this series:
As an Archaeology graduate I have to say that anybody who claims a lack of evidence for human evolution is simply being blind on purpose. Having actually studied palaeolithic archaeology, holding fragments of ancient human skulls and reconstructions it is simply impossible to ignore the fact that there were other species of homo that once existed on this planet.
Skulls exist that show features of both man and ape and are actually neither. This is a scientific fact that really should be beyond refute, it is basically the same as saying that chairs exist. Whilst it is more possible to argue that there isn't necesarily a 100% clear progression through the fossil record, mainly due to the fact that severel species of hominds have been found in roughly the same stratum, it really is clutching at straws. Omo I and Omo II are homo sapiens that are around 195,000 years old and there are verified Neanderthal remains that are only 30,000 years old in Vindija. Not to mention Homo floresiensis or the 'hobbit' which may bhave lived as few as 12,00 years ago. Without even pushing the boundaries of the fossil record we find two distinctly different species of human beings alive on this planet for thousands of years together.
We go back even further and find Erectus, Hidelburgensis, Ergaster, Rudolfensis, Hablis, down to Kenyanthropus, Paranthropus and Australopithecus. These are real fossils. These creatures existed and to truly deny this is an insult to our own existense. I find myself feeling far more 'special' when i think that my ancestors, the creatures from whence my entire species evolved, lived, struggled and died on the same soil as I did as opposed to being magically created. It's about believing that I am a part of this planet as opposed to being seperate and distinct. I wasn't created and placed on this earth, the atoms that make up my body are the same ones that made up the first primordial ooze.
Comment #1 by: other scott | July 31, 2009, 7:53 am