Fossils: Fact or Fallacy?

“So, what do you think about evolution?” the lady sitting next to me asked as I put away my laptop in preparation for landing. Her interest in the subject peaked because I was watching the recent PBS special, Evolution. Before I could even utter a response she blurted out, “I think it’s fact. After all, museums are filled with fossils that prove evolution is true. Humans came from apes. It’s as simple as that.” Was she right? Does the fossil record prove that evolution is a fact?

While the fact of ape-to-human evolution is not as simple as she made it out to be, she was right about one thing: fossil reconstructions of ape-like creatures fill museums throughout the world (they also fill your biology textbooks). The idea that ape-like creatures morphed into upright walking humans is one of the most common examples given to support evolution. Yet despite the popularity of the ape-to-human story, the evidence is not as straightforward as it appears. Let’s consider three key problems with the evidence for ape-to-human evolution.

Problem #1
The first problem is that interpretations are greatly influenced by personal beliefs and prejudices. Scientists often begin with the conviction that human evolution is true and then fit the existing fossils into their preconceived ideas. This is illustrated in the famous example of the “Piltdown Man.” In 1912 paleontologist Charles Dawson found some pieces of a human skull and part of an ape-like lower jaw with no teeth in a gravel pit in England. Since scientists had supposed that an earlier ancestor would have a large brain and an ape-like jaw, it was assumed to be the “missing link.” Since “Piltdown Man” fit the description so accurately, no one checked to see if the skull and jaw fragments even belonged to the same individual. Later findings demonstrated that the skull was human and the jaw fragments belonged to an orangutan. In fact, the jaw had been chemically treated to make it look like a fossil and the teeth had been deliberately filed down.

Problem #2
The second problem is that the fossil record is open to many interpretations as individual specimens can be reconstructed in many different ways. For example, when National Geographic hired four artists to reconstruct a female character from seven fossil bones found in Africa, they came up with radically different interpretations. The reconstructions varied from a modern African woman to apelike creatures with varied foreheads, jaws and faces. Even though the artists had the exact same fossils they interpreted them in completely different ways.

Problem #3
The third problem for the ape-to-human hypothesis is that, upon further analysis, fossil remains end up being either ape or human, but not ape-human. Since the time of Darwin, many fossil findings have been heralded as the “missing link” between apes and humans. But upon further research, it is discovered that the remains are either fully ape or fully human. Consider a few examples:

• Java man”—discovered by Eugene Dubois on an Indonesian Island in 1891-92, was heralded as the missing link between apes and humans. Java man is now believed to be an extinct ape-like creature not connected to humans at all.
  
• Lucy”—a discovery which consists of 40 percent of a complete skeleton, was put on display as the missing link in multiple Natural History museums of the world. Analysis of Lucy’s anatomy reveals that she is a tree-dwelling ape with hands and feet even longer and more curved than a chimpanzee’s.
  
• Neanderthal Man”—found in 1875 Neanderthal man has been the most celebrated missing link. Illustrations often depict him as an apelike brute with a low-sloping brow. Evidence, however, indicates that Neanderthal man is a member of the species homo sapiens, which means he is fully human and any of us could be among his descendants.

Science journalist Richard Milton, who is not a Christian, sums up the evidence for ape-to-human evolution from the fossil record: “The position today is that all fossil remains which were previously assigned some intermediate status between apes and humans have later been definitely reassigned into the categories of either extinct ape or human, and this reassignment has been accepted by all but the most fanatical devotees of this or that fossil…the missing link is still missing.”

Your family tree does not trace back to apes. Rather you (and all humans) are the result of a special creation by God. You are made in the image of a good and all-powerful God who loves you deeply (Genesis 1:26-27). He has equipped you with the capacity to think, love, feel, and worship. That truth sets you above all other life forms. YOU are God’s masterpiece (Psalms 139).

Fossils: Fact or Fallacy?