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From the SelectedWorks of Jordan P Ballard
2013
Bones of Contention (Lubenow) PPT
Jordan P Ballard
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jordan_ballard/8/
A Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils
 
Marvin Lubenow
◦  ThM from DTS
◦  MS in anthropology
◦  Studied human fossils
for over 35 years
◦  Professor at Southern
California Seminary
 
About paleoanthropology
 
Thorough, comprehensive examination
 
Mostly non-Christian sources
 
Includes definitions, charts, illustrations
 
Points out assumptions
 
Playing the skeptic
◦  “This fossil takes millions of years to be buried….”
PROBLEMS
IN
PALEOANTHROPOLOGY
Classification
  The assignment
◦  Motivation to find a new fossil
No direct access
  Darwin & Huxley
  Fossils kept hidden from
public display and study
  Left with replicas
“The myth in the minds of the public is
that the human fossil material is readily
available and is thoroughly studied by all
who teach and write on the subject. The
truth is that paleoanthropology is in the
awkward position of being a science that
is several steps removed from the very
evidence upon which it claims to base its
findings.” ~Lubenow, 29
Unanswered questions
  Who was the first hominid?
  Why do we walk upright?
  Why are our brains so big?
  When did we first use tools?
  How did we get our modern
minds?
  Why did we outlive our
relatives?
  What genes make us human?
  Have we stopped evolving?
Circular reasoning
  Much of the information for
human evolution comes from
studying chimpanzees, but this
begs the question by assuming
that humans and chimpanzees
share a common ancestor.
Fossil record
“What is not generally known is that this
sequence [from chimpanzees to modern
humans], impressive as it seems, is a very
artificial and arbitrary arrangement because
(1) Some fossils are selectively excluded if
they do not fit well into the evolutionary
scheme; (2) Some human fossils are
arbitrarily downgraded to make them appear
to be evolutionary ancestors when they are
in fact true humans; and (3) Some
nonhuman fossils are upgraded to make
them appear to be human ancestors.”
~Lubenow, 34
Nonconformist fossils
“Evolutionists work their own special magic
on nonconformist fossils. With the waving of
a magic wand, Homo erectus fossils can
become sapiens or Neandertals and Homo
sapiens fossils can become
australopithecines. To us, this is a serious
matter of intellectual integrity. The
evolutionist does not see it that way. To him,
evolution is true. Hence, fossils must be
interpreted accordingly.” ~Lubenow, 64
Piltdown Man
“Discovered” in 1912 by Charles Dawson
Proven to be a hoax in 1953
Orangutan jawbone + human skull
Used in the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925
Whodunnit?
Is science self-correcting?
Nebraska Man
Discovered in 1922 by Harry Cook
Single tooth
1927 ~ retracted; was a pig tooth
Java Man
Discovered in 1891 by Eugene Dubois
East Java, Indonesia
aka Homo erectus
Sketchy evidence & maps from Dubois
Hidden fossils later revealed
Neandertals
Subhuman, but closest to modern humans
Often depicted with mental and cultural deficiencies
Many similarities to aboriginal Australians
Are aborigines subhuman?
Many human-like evidences which are dismissed
Use of tools
Use of weapons
Big game hunters
Buried dead together in caves
Grave goods
How to explain the “Great Leap Forward” in
cultural, art, tools, etc. if subhuman
Lubenow: Neandertals were truly human
Evolution and Racism
Is evolution inherently racist?
Darwin and Racism
The Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection or The
Preservation of Favored Races in
the Struggle for Life
Darwin and Racism
Voyage to Galapagos
Landed at Tierre de Fuego at the tip of South
America
Encountered the Fuegians
Took 3 back to the queen of England
“savages”, “wild beasts”, animal-like
Tasmanian Aborigines
“Discovered” by whites in 1642
Very dark skin
1800s, fight broke out between whites and
aborigines; Tasmanians brutally murdered
“The scientific community wanted Tasmanian skulls and
body parts for measurements to prove that the
Tasmanians were “missing links,” or evidence for
evolution. Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, was
one of the first researchers to dig up an Aboriginal from
the grave in order to stuff and exhibit the stolen body
at the Royal College of Surgeons–the first of over ten
thousand Tasmanian skeletons and skulls that would be
in the Royal College collection….The racism on the part
of the scientific community was the direct result of
evolutionary thinking.” ~Lubenow, 150
Tasmanian Aborigines
Truganini (d. 1876)
Royal Society dig up bones and displayed in
museum
1947 – removed from display
1976 – finally cremated
Ote Benga
African Eve Model
“Mitochondial eve”
“We are all African.”
Original African pair
Eliminates developing races
Human evolution came to a halt suddenly
Lubenow ~ exercise in political correctness
Other Issues
Radiometric dating
Non-human fossils (homo habilis)
Human-chimpanzee DNA
Fixity of species (“after their kinds” 10x)
Evidence for a young earth
Problems in evolution of language
A Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils