Riddle, M. The Origin of Humans DVD, AIG http://www.answersingenesis.org/cec/study_guides/originOfHumans_MR.pdf
Purpose of the DVD
The purpose of the DVD is to demonstrate that the credibility of the claims for
transitional fossils between ape-like creatures and humans is very weak and
circumstantial and that the scientific evidences point to a Creator God.
DVD Theme
The school textbooks are using deception by omitting the scientific evidence that
contradicts evolution (deception by omission).
Using the DVD to build an accurate knowledge of the scientific evidences
about origins
There is much misinformation being presented in school textbooks about
evolution, specifically about the origin of humans. This DVD will help the student
objectively evaluate the claims used to support evolution and creation by
presenting the scientific evidences not found in most textbooks.
The DVD is presented in three major sections:
1. An analysis of the claims by evolutionists
2. Three case studies
a. Neanderthals: Who were they?
b. Lucy and the australopithecines
c. A new apeman: ramidus
3. An evaluation of the mechanism for change
a. Natural selection
b. Mutations
DVD Outline
Part 1: An analysis of the claims by evolutionists
• Looking for evidence. If the evolution of humans from an ape-like ancestor is
true there should be two proof evidences:
The fossil record
A mechanism for change
• The history of man
Evolution: assumes we have evolved
The Bible: teaches God created man
• School textbooks
Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, Biology – Visualizing Life, 1998, p. 213.
“Look closely at your hand. You have five flexible fingers. Animals with five
flexible fingers are called primates. Monkeys, apes, and humans are
examples of primates….Primates most likely evolved from small, insecteating
rodent-like mammals that lived about 60 million years ago.”
Miller and Levine, Biology, 2000, p. 757.
“But all researchers agree on certain basic facts. We know, for example,
that humans evolved from ancestors we share with other living primates
such as chimpanzees and apes.”
• Java man
In 1891, an apelike skullcap was found.
In 1892, a human-like thighbone was found 40 feet away from the skullcap.
Rudolph Virchow, a leading scientist of the time stated:
“In my opinion this creature was an animal, a giant gibbon, in fact. The
thigh bone has not the slightest connection with the skull.”
Dubois kept information hidden. Dubois insisted Java man was not a man but a creature intermediate to the gibbons and humans.
Since 1950, anthropologists and textbooks have been calling Java man
Homo erectus.
• Piltdown man
Parts were found between 1908 and 1912 in Piltdown, England.
The claim was: a 500,000-year-old intermediate link.
It was featured in textbooks and encyclopedias as the missing link.
In 1953, it was discovered to be a fraud.
The bones had been chemically stained to appear old and filed to fit together.
• Nebraska man
Fossil evidence discovered in 1922
Used to support evolution in the 1925 Scopes trial
Claimed to be a one-million year old missing link
The truth: an extinct pig’s tooth
• Ramapithecus
Pithecos: Greek for ape
Discovered in the 1930’s (jaw bone and teeth fragments)
Claimed to be the 14-million year-old intermediate between humans and
ape-like creatures
The truth: In the 1970’s a baboon living in Ethiopia with similar dental and
jaw structure to Ramapithecus was found
Ramapithecus was dropped from the human line
• Summary of “facts”
Java man was part human and part ape.
Piltdown man was a hoax.
Nebraska man was a pig.
Ramapithecus was an ape.
In every case the dates (millions of years) were wrong.
PART 2: Three Case Studies
1. Neanderthals
2. Lucy and the australopithecines
3. A. ramidus
• Case study 1: Neanderthals (Note: Neanderthal can be spelled two ways: with
or without an “h”. Neanderthal or Neandertal)
First found near Dusseldorf, Germany in 1856
Constructed to look ape-like
Brain capacity about 200 cc larger than humans
Initial construction discovered to be wrong
Characteristics (used jewelry, used musical instruments, did cave
paintings, capable of speech, buried their dead)
Rearranging the data (lower jaw pulled out of socket by over an inch)
Drawing of a Neandertal fossil purchased at the souvenir counter at the
museum in Berlin giving an ape-like appearance (Picture from Buried Alive
by Dr. Jack Cuozzo)
Many Neanderthals had a thick brow ridge and a short stocky build with
short extremities (arms and legs)
Dave Phillips (Physical Anthropologist), “Neanderthals Are Still Human,”
Impact Article #223, May, 2000
“Neanderthals were human. They buried their dead, used tools, had a
complex social structure, employed language, and played musical instruments.
Neanderthal anatomy differences are extremely minor and can be for the
most part explained as a result of a genetically isolated people that lived a
rigorous life in a harsh, cold climate.”
Neanderthal population
o Common dates for Neanderthals are 100,000 to 35,000 years ago
o Neanderthals existed for about 65,000 years (2,600 generations)
o From year 1 to 2,000, our population has grown from about 300 million
to 6-billion (100 generations)
The problem
o There should have been over 50-billion Neanderthals that lived during this time.
o Very few complete skeletons from over 2,600 generations!
o Only located at 30 sites in 65,000 years!
o Where are all the fossils!
Are textbooks and the media presenting all the information? If you receive only selected information are you being taught or indoctrinated?
Why are textbook writers afraid of presenting all the information?
Conclusion about Neanderthals
o Protruding brow ridge
o Stocky body build and short extremities
o Isolated population of people that lived in a cold, harsh climate
o 100% human
• Case study 2: Lucy and the australopithecines
Discovered in 1974
About 40 percent of the fossil was found
It was claimed to be 3.5 million years old
It was claimed to be bipedal (walked upright)
Lucy and the Australopithecines
o No similarity in appearance to humans
o Long arms are identical to chimpanzees
o Jaws are similar to chimpanzees
o Upper leg bone is similar to chimpanzees
o Lucy’s legs were very ape-like
o Brain size (400-500 cc) overlaps chimpanzees
o Large back muscles for tree dwelling
o Hands similar to pygmy chimpanzee
o Feet were long and curved
Richard Milton, Shattering the Myths of Darwinism, 1997, p. 207.
“… anatomists Jack Stern and Randall Susman,… who, in their 1983 study
published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, described the
anatomy of Lucy’s species Australopithecus afarensis. They described Lucy’s hands and feet as being long and curved, typical of a tree-dwelling ape.”
Did Lucy walk upright?
o 1987: Charles Oxnard (Professor of Anatomy and Human Biology)
Computer analysis concluded Lucy could not walk upright
o 1992: American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Walked like chimpanzees
o 1993: Christine Tardieu, (Anthropologist) reported, “Its locking
mechanism was not developed.”
o 1994: Journal of Human Evolution, A Biochemical Study of the Hip
and Thigh concluded Lucy could not walk upright
Did Lucy walk upright?
o Richmand and Strait, “Evidence that Humans Evolved from Knuckle-
Walking Ancestor,” Nature, 2000.
“Regardless of the status of Lucy’s knee joint, new evidence has come
forth that Lucy has the morphology of a knuckle-walker.”
o E. Stokstad, “Hominid Ancestors May Have Knuckle Walked,” Science, 2000.
“I walked over to the cabinet, pulled out Lucy, and shazam! – she had
the morphology that was classic for knuckle walkers.”
o Charles Oxnard (professor of anatomy and leading expert on
australopithecine fossils), The Order of Man: A Biomathematical
Anatomy of the Primates, 1984, p. 332.
“The australopithecines known over the last several decades … are
now irrevocably removed from a place in the evolution of human bipedalism,…
All this should make us wonder about the usual presentation of human
evolution in introductory textbooks…”
Conclusion on Lucy
o William Fix, The Bone Peddlers, 1984, p. xxii.
“Lucy seemed to be more of a promotion to convince the public that
Johanson’s fossils were more important than Richard Leakey’s rather
than an attempt to present an evenhanded assessment of current
paleoanthropology.”
Review of evolution
o History of evolution: Mistakes and deception
o Neanderthals: Misinformation and deception
o Lucy: Misinformation and deception
• Case study 3: A. ramidus
Announced discovery in 1994 (Aramis, Ethiopia)
Name changed to Ardipithecus ramidus
Dated at 4.4 million years old
Time Magazine, October 3, 1994, p. 68.
“Bones from the Ethiopian desert prove that human ancestors walked on
earth 4.4 million years ago.”
Newsweek, October 3, 1994, p. 57.
“Ramidus confirms once and for all that the common ancestor lived just a
little more than 4.4 million years ago.”
Five evidences for A. ramidus
1. It fits into the line of progression with all the other missing links
2. The date of 4.4 million years
3. The thickness of the enamel on the fossil teeth
4. The deciduous molar
5. It might have been bipedal
Ramidus: what was found?
o Fossils were collected from the surface at 17 different positions
o Fossils were spread over 1-mile
o Eight teeth (most were damaged)
o Parts of the base of the skull (found 500 meters away)
o Fragmented arm bones (found 270 meters away)
Evidence 1: Line of progression
o This is often used as evidence
o The validity of this line is not accepted by all evolutionists
o The line-up changes from time to time – some are dropped and some added
Evidence 1: conclusion
o Different textbooks have different lines
o The line changes from year to year
o Evolutionists cannot agree on a single line of progression
Evidence 2: Dating
o It was claimed to be the oldest hominid
o There is no accurate dating method – all dating methods are based on
assumptions
o The geologic context of the fossil was not well-established
o The starting point of the dating process used biochronological
comparisons of fauna from other places
Evidence 3: Tooth enamel
o Peter Andrews (Natural History Museum, London)
“… all other hominids, including modern humans, have relatively thick
enamel… . So the thin enamel of ramidus is more of what you’d expect
from a fossil chimp.”
Factors that can vary enamel thickness
o Genetic variation
o Environmental factors
o Nutritional factors
Evidence 4: Deciduous molar
o White, Suwa, and Asfaw, “Australopithecus ramidus a new species of
early hominid from Aramis, Ethiopia”, Nature, 1994.
“The dm 1 has been critically important in studies of Australopithecus
since the discovery of the genus 70 years ago,… . The Aramis dm 1 is
morphologically far closer to that of a chimpanzee than to any known hominid.”
Evidence 5: Bipedality
o It might have been bipedal
o Note the word “might”
o No foot, leg, or hip bone was found
o A claim was made without any evidence
Not all scientists accept ramidus
Conclusion about ramidus
o All five evidences are based on deception
o Great claims require REAL evidence
Textbooks and objectivity
o James Perloff, Tornado in a Junkyard, 1999, p. 106.
“Most textbooks avoid showing comprehensive tables of the discovered
human fossils – doing so exposes the contradictions.”
Evolution and objectivity
o Philip Johnson, Darwinism on Trial, 1991, p. 84. (Graduate of Harvard
U., Law Professor at U. of Berkeley)
“The fossils provide much more discouragement than support for
Darwinism when they are examined objectively, but objective examination has rarely been the object of Darwinist paleontology. The Darwinist approach has consistently been to find some supporting fossil evidence, claim it as proof for ‘evolution,’ and then ignore all the difficulties.”
Science and evolution
o In order to be a credible theory all the evidence must be examined.
This has not been done.
Summary
If the evolution of humans from an ape-like ancestor is true there should be
two proof evidences:
• Fossil record: no intermediates have been found
• Mechanism for change: there is no mechanism