From Monkey to Man? Darwin Being Challenged

By Gailon Totheroh
CBN News Science & Medical ReporterTuesday, November 24, 2009RSSPodcasts

On Tuesday, Nov. 24, 1859, Charles Darwin's book on his theory of evolution, The Origin of Species, was published.

Since then, evolutionists have developed elaborate theories about man coming from lower animals, especially apes. However, those theories are not going unchallenged.

Fossil Finds & Fossil Faults

In May, a fossil find was announced with great fanfare in New York City and was said to be an early link from monkeys to man

"We are not dealing with our grand, grand, grand, grandmother, but perhaps with our grand, grand, grand aunt," the Senckenberg Research Institute's Dr. Jens Franzen said.

"This skeleton is going to inform almost anything that we talk about in trying to determine the ancestor of higher primates," explained the University of Michigan's Dr. Holly Smith.

Despite this confident mood, critics like Dr. David Dewitt have been finding fault with fossils like these for years.

"The underside of the skulls for the apes, they're very similar," said DeWitt. "And the human skull is different, the odd one out. And you can tell because of the position of the foramen magnum -- in the apes is up and in humans coming from the bottom."

Likewise, scientists eventually debunked that celebrated fossil. But there was no media hoopla. There was merely silence, leaving the public with the impression that man is an ape.

God-like or Ape-like?

In his presentation Image of God or Planet of Apes, DeWitt says the stakes are high.

"Either man is created by God in His image or evolved over millions of years from pond scum through ape-like ancestors," DeWitt said.

PBS recently produced a series of programs promoting that ape-like ancestry for mankind. The NOVA series is entitled "Becoming Human."

"Somehow over time, they would become us," the Nova narrator said. "We know it happened, but we've never known when or why until now."

In the first episode, NOVA discusses the fossil known as Lucy's Child. But DeWitt notes how every new insight from Lucy's Child shows it is like an ape, not man.

The vocal bone, inner ear organ for balance, and curved fingers are like a chimpanzee's. The shoulder blades and heavy neck verterbrae closely resemble a gorilla's and is consistent with knuckle walking. Yet the NOVA program shows the creatures upright, not walking on their knuckles.

By contrast, man's entire skeleton allows him to balance on two legs for running, even with the hindrance of a gorilla suit, after all it is the human race.

Most importantly, the brain capacity of Lucy's Child falls in the range of a chimpanzee's.

Evolution Based More on Belief Than Real Evidence

DeWitt says one weakness for evolution is that it is often based more on belief than real evidence, in spite of the certainty evolutionists usually claim. As more data is considered, widely held Darwinist ideas are shown to be false.

For example, walking on two legs was thought to be how ape brains got pushed into becoming human brains. But now the idea is fading.

The new theory is that the ancient climate was unstable and that pushed the development of bigger brains.

"Africa's gradual drying trend was punctuated by burst of wild climate fluctuations," the NOVA narrator explained. "Then came 200,000 years of widely varying climate - careening unpredictably between wet and dry…"

DeWitt, who is trained in neuroscience, says that makes no sense. He says the great complexity of the human brain cannot arise from weather changes and random mutations.

The evolutionists themselves debunk each other to get their pet theories accepted - while they last.

Even The New York Times found humor in the climate theory in an article published on Nov. 3, 2009.

"Brains got bigger because only smarter beings could survive in such climatic conditions. So there you have it: global warming should have the same effect, which means we'll all be super-geniuses soon."

Hijacked Into a Fossil Family Tree

DeWitt says the climate change theory of human intelligence will eventually be replaced when it becomes obvious that there really wasn't evidence for it in the first place.

In fact, interspersed amid the evolutionary certainty, there are hints of weak evidence. The few skeletal bones that have been found. A depression that could very likely be and animation fills in the gaps.

These ancient creatures must have spent time in the trees, possibly sleeping there at night.

DeWitt says all the power and money of the evolution establishment can create stunning visual presentations, but can't prove that man evolved from lower life forms. They've even robbed the apes of their ancestry

"Toumai was hailed a few years ago as our oldest ancestor," DeWitt explained in his "Image of God" presentation.

"The suggestion was made instead that perhaps this is an ancestor to female gorillas," he said. "And this is very important, because there are virtually no other examples of fossil apes. They've all been hijacked into the human evolutionary tree."

So the next time you hear someone contending that man's basic nature is mere monkey biology, remember there is another side to the issue.

source: http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2009/November/From-Monkey-to-Man-Darwin-Being-Challenged/