Calvary Road Baptist Church
“NEANDERTHAL MAN”
This message will be quite different from the type usually presented in our church and for good reason. This is a message specifically designed as an apologetic defense of the Bible against attempts by some professionals in the scientific community to undermine its validity as the source of truth. First, however, I will state the assumptions that underlie our church’s position on the Bible as the Word of God that is both infallible and inerrant, produced as it was by the Holy Spirit of God using human instruments, as Second Timothy 3.16-17 and Second Peter 1.21 assert:
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
The reason I declare our assumption is because complete objectivity (even in matters of science) is impossible, and everyone filters the information he gathers and analyzes through the assumptions he makes about the world in which he lives. There are no exceptions to this rule of subjectivity with human beings, with the challenge then being whether or not one is honest enough to admit whether or not the data fits his assumptions or is in conflict with his assumptions. In addition to our congregation’s conviction that the Bible is God’s Word and is reliable, our understanding of the Bible record pertaining to beginnings is that the age of the universe and all that herein is, the age of the earth and all that can be observed on the earth, and the age of the human race and all that can be observed about the human race is on the order of 10,000 years old. I say this without flinching and without hesitation because we believe the Bible and the Biblical account of creation, it is our conviction that the Bible rightly interpreted supports this position, and the discovered facts in evidence resulting from scientific inquiry that are reasonably and properly interpreted also supports this position.
Before beginning in earnest to deal with the precise topic of this morning’s message I need to douse some of you with a cold dose of scientific reality. If you naively believe that science is by definition objective and that dishonesty and prejudice do not exist in the scientific community then you have identified yourself as an admirer of science and scientists who is not yourself a scientist. I suggest that you read the late Isaac Asimov’s The Universe: From Flat Earth To Quasar and George Sarton’s A History Of Science: Ancient Science Through The Golden Age Of Greece, Volume 1, in order to find frank admissions by those authors of thousands of years of errors and mistakes made by scientists, while those same authors nevertheless maintain that science is worthy of one’s faith and trust.[1] I am not suggesting that you join the nearest flat earth society and embrace ignorance or any form of antiscientific thought. I merely point out to you my conviction that the Word of God has never been wrong about anything (I have never met anyone who could demonstrate a factual error in the Bible), and that the Apostle Paul warned young Timothy about the danger of “science falsely so-called,” First Timothy 6.20. All that claims to be science is not science and all who maintain they are scientists are not necessarily scientists, despite their education, occupation and training. For insight into what real science should be I recommend W. I. B. Beveridge’s highly recommended little book The Art Of Scientific Investigation.[2] Additionally, there are three volumes that may jolt you, Science Under Siege by Michael Fumento, Betrayers Of The Truth: Fraud And Deceit In The Halls Of Science by William Broad and Nicholas Wade, and The Great Betrayal: Fraud In Science by Horace Judson.[3] Additionally, a study conducted in 2009 concluded that may scientists fabricate data and falsify research.[4] “Of course, not all scientific investigation is skewed. On the contrary, the vast majority of descriptive studies, and most experimental investigations, yield good and useful results. However, just because a report appears in a scientific journal does not make it entirely trustworthy. It is wise to keep this in mind when it is declared that some aspect of evolution is true because ‘science’ has proved it.”[5]
Recognizing that we need to exercise discernment, that it is always appropriate to verify what someone asserts to be true, and that labeling something as science does not guarantee its accuracy, we now turn to the topic of the day, Neanderthal Man. Supposed by many scientists to have been the ancient cave man who existed part way between the evolutionary development of modern day human beings from ape ancestors, I propose that we consider Neanderthal Man in necessarily abbreviated fashion because of time limitations in six categories, with many footnotes to this sermon provided on our church web site for further reading:
Category #1: NEANDERTHAL MAN’S DISCOVERIES
“Neanderthal skulls were first discovered in Engis Caves (fr), in what is now Belgium (1829) by Philippe-Charles Schmerling and in Forbes’ Quarry, Gibraltar, dubbed Gibraltar 1 (1848), both prior to the type specimen discovery in a limestone quarry of the Neander Valley in Erkrath near Düsseldorf in August 1856, three years before Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published.”[6]
You will excuse me for being cautious about Neanderthal Man in light of what has previously been disclosed about such so-called scientific finds of subhuman remains labeled Java Man, Piltdown Man, Nebraska Man, and Peking Man. Brief comments on each of them will illustrate our reasonable caution:
Peking Man. Peking Man’s remains were discovered near Beijing in 1921, 1927, 1928 and 1936. However, all the materials that had been found except for several teeth were lost between 1941-1945 owing to the fog of war, with only plaster casts remaining. That said, National Geographic’s television channel quoted the physical anthropologist Gary Sawyer of the American Museum of Natural History in 2009 as saying that Peking Man, in terms of his physical characteristics, was actually a genuine human being. Obviously, then, Peking Man did not turn out to be the missing link he was once thought to be.[7]
Then there is Nebraska Man. Nebraska Man was discovered in 1922 and was for a short time energetically promoted by Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, head of the Department of Palaeontology at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. Nebraska Man also enjoyed coverage in the Illustrated London News before he was exposed as a concoction dreamed up from the discovery of a single extinct pig’s tooth.[8]
Third, Piltdown Man. “The Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological hoax in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. These fragments consisted of parts of a skull and jawbone, said to have been collected in 1912 from a gravel pit at Piltdown, East Sussex, England. The significance of the specimen remained the subject of controversy until it was exposed in 1953 as a forgery, consisting of the lower jawbone of an orangutan deliberately combined with the cranium of a fully developed modern human. The Piltdown hoax is perhaps the most infamous paleoanthropological hoax ever to have been perpetrated. It is prominent for two reasons: the attention paid to the issue of human evolution, and the length of time (more than 40 years) that elapsed from its discovery to its full exposure as a forgery.[9]
Finally, Java Man. What can be said about Java Man beyond the dishonesty and incompetence of the so-called discoverer of precious few bone fragments who also concealed other bone fragments that did not conveniently fit into his hypothesis that he had discovered the so-called “missing link”? For brevity’s sake, to dispel the notion that Java Man is anything other than the sparse collection of a few human skeletal fragments I recommend Marvin Lubenow’s Bones Of Contention: A Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils.[10]
Do Christians have reason to be suspicious of the claims of “scientists” that they have found skeletons of prehumans? Yes, we very much do have good reasons to be suspicious.
Category #2: NEANDERTHAL MAN’S DESCRIPTION
Let us briefly consider Neanderthal Man’s bones, height, eyes, strength, brain, and intelligence:
First, what can be said about Neanderthal Man’s bones?
“One of the most characteristic features of the Neanderthals is the exaggerated massiveness of their trunk and limb bones. . . Furthermore, not only is their robustness present among the adult males, as one might expect, but it is also evident in the adult females, adolescents, and even children.”[11] Interesting, as well, is the discovery that the Neanderthal hyoid bone that is related to the larynx or voice box is indistinguishable from that of a modern man.[12]
Next, what about Neanderthal Man’s height?
Neanderthal Man was comparable in height to modern humans, with males averaging about 5’5” to 5’6” and women averaging about 5’0” to 5’1”[13] making Neanderthal men comparable in size to Roman soldiers at the height of the Roman Empire.
Third, there is Neanderthal Man’s eyes.
“A 2013 study of Neanderthal skulls suggests that their eyesight may have been better than that of modern humans, owing to larger eye sockets and larger areas of the brain devoted to vision.”[14]
Fourth, Neanderthal Man’s strength.
“Evidence suggests they were much stronger than modern humans, with particularly strong arms and hands.”[15] “The evidence indicates that Neandertals were people of incredible power and strength - far superior to all but the most avid bodybuilders of today.”[16]
Fifth, Neanderthal Man’s brain.
“Neanderthals are known for their large cranial capacity, which at 1600 cm3 is larger on average than that of modern humans.”[17]
Sixth, Neanderthal Man’s intelligence.
“When the first Neandertal was discovered, even ‘Darwin’s bulldog,’ Thomas Huxley, recognized that Neandertal was fully human and not an evolutionary ancestor.”[18] Is not intelligence reflected in the fact that Neanderthal Man used musical instruments and wore jewelry?[19] Thus, there is evidence to show that Neanderthal Man was quite a bright sort of fellow. “Bones cut by a stone knife have been dated to a time before mankind had supposedly evolved to make tools. Ancient humans even performed surgery, complete with antiseptics and anesthesia! They made colorful jewelry out of seashells, prompting Discover News to state, ‘even Neanderthals knew how to accessorize.’”[20]
Which Brings Me To Category #3: NEANDERTHAL MAN’S DIET
Let me read from an article titled “Neanderthals Apparently Knew Medicinal Plants” authored by Brian Thomas:[21]
The Institute for Creation Research has long identified Neandertals as fully human. But for decades, evolutionists had labeled this extinct variety of humankind as sub-human, alleging that they had eaten mostly meat.
A 1970 book titled Early Man illustrated a migrating Neandertal family wearing animal skins and carrying clubs. Part of the caption reads, “At left a man is carrying small game for provisions—a rabbit and a waterfowl—indicating that Neanderthalers hunted other creatures besides cave bears and woolly rhinoceroces.” The book doesn’t mention Neandertals eating plants for food or for medicine. But a recent forensic analysis of Neandertal teeth takes a bite out of this old evolutionary story.
Researchers studied tooth calculus, or tartar, from the teeth of five Neandertals found in El Sidrón Cave in North Spain. They used advanced techniques that detect trace amounts of certain chemicals. They wrote in the journal Naturwissenschaften,
By using these methods in conjunction with the extraction and analysis of plant microfossils, we have found chemical evidence consistent with wood-fire smoke, a range of cooked starchy foods, two plants known today for their medicinal qualities, and bitumen or oil shale entrapped within the dental calculus. Yet within the same calculus, chemical evidence for lipids/proteins from meat was low to absent.
Neandertals ate starchy foods for nutrition and plants that provided medicinal benefits, too? The study authors wrote that these ancients “had a sophisticated knowledge of their natural surroundings which included the ability to select and use certain plants.”
Whoever suggested that Neandertals were anything less than fully human must be motivated by dogma, because decades of forensics analyses have demonstrated their humanity ad nauseum.
Category #4: NEANDERTHAL MAN’S DNA
From an article written August 9, 2011:
The 2010 Neandertal genome sequence should have erased all traces of ape-likeness from Neandertal conceptions. Many of the DNA differences between that genome and modern man’s consensus genome were likely due to the Neandertal DNA having undergone base substitution “mutations” after burial. But the sequences certainly had enough integrity to confirm that Neandertal DNA was fully human.
The latest study, published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, reconfirmed that Neandertals were fully human.[22]
From another article written November 16, 2012:
The title of the article is all I need to read: “Neandertal DNA Research Confirms Full Human Status”.[23]
Here is the final sentence of an article written in 2014 by Jeffrey P. Tomkins, Ph.D., who received his Ph.D. in genetics from Clemson University:
“The study of ancient DNA confirms that it is consistent with God creating man about 6,000 years ago and demonstrates that humans have not evolved from supposed pre-humans.”[24]
Category #5: NEANDERTHAL MAN’S DATE
Before I expose you to various dates proposed for Neanderthal Man allow me to point out some undeniable realities related to supposedly scientific dating methods: Remember when Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found stabbed to death on June 12, 1994? That crime and O. J. Simpson’s subsequent trial received a great deal of attention, with one interesting fact coming to light during the trial. There was a partly melted ice cream cone on Nicole Brown Simpson’s kitchen counter that no police officer on the scene thought to photograph or time stamp, even though the rate at which the ice cream cone was melting could have provided a vital clue about the time of the two murders. Consider also that one can take an ice cube out of the freezer and place it on the kitchen counter, and by taking into account the freezer temperature, the room temperature, and the counter’s surface temperature, among other things, you can with some precision determine how long the partially melted ice cube has been on the counter. This is assuming the temperature of the room does not fluctuate as the air conditioner cycles on and off. The same type of measurements are used with radioactive materials, measuring how much radioactive material is left in something, to determine how old it is. The problems, of course, are how much was there to begin with, does the rate of radioactive decay vary over time, etc.? I mention this because standard radioactive dating has been used to analyze the new rock cap atop Mount St. Helens (that erupted in 1980) as being, according to radiometric dating, 350,000 years old![25] Another radiometric analysis of the Mount St. Helens dome (the one that was formed in 1980 in full view of the entire world) dates it at 2.8 million years old![26] People, it has been thirty-five years. Even if you protest by pointing out that the newly formed Mount St. Helens dome is inorganic material and Neanderthal Man is clearly organic material, I would direct you to one of many credible articles showing that even radiocarbon dating is extremely unreliable and completely surrounded by myths.[27]
That said, Neanderthal Man is supposed by some of those with an evolutionary mindset to have lived 350,000 years ago, with others imagining that Neanderthals lived 600,000 years ago.[28] My response? I simply do not believe it. If the book written by National Weather Service meteorologist Michael J. Oard titled An Ice Age Cause By The Genesis Flood[29] does not convince you Neanderthal Man could not have lived so long ago, and Larry Vardiman’s study The Age Of Earth’s Atmosphere[30] does not persuade you the earth is young by showing that there is far too much helium in our atmosphere for the earth to be old, or if Harold Slusher’s The Age Of The Solar System[31] does not convince you the solar system is far younger than most think it is, or if Larry Vardiman’s Sea-Floor Sediment And The Age Of The Earth[32] does not persuade you there is far too little river transported silt deposited into the ocean floors of our world for the earth to be very old, then perhaps you will have to be convinced the way I was convinced as a babe in Christ in 1974, . . . by reading and believing the Word of God. God is true.[33] His Son, Jesus Christ, is the truth.[34] The precious Holy Spirit is true.[35] The Word of God is true.[36] The matter is therefore settled for me. The universe is young. The solar system is young. The earth is young. Therefore, Neanderthal Man is recent, on the order of thousands of years old and not hundreds of thousands of years old.
Category #6: NEANDERTHAL MAN’S DISPERSION
Where throughout the world have the bones and relics of so-called Neanderthal Man been found?
Remains left by Neanderthals include bone and stone tools, which have been found in Eurasia, from Western Europe (Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium and Germany) to Central and northern Asia (Croatia and the Caucasus) and the Middle East (Kurdistan).[37] These guys, who fashioned flutes, apparently to entertain themselves, lived during a period in earth’s history when those regions seem to have been quite cold.[38]
However, if you consider the ancient book of Job, and take into account that though Job did not live in a frigid climate he evidently knew about icy conditions farther north, Job 38.29, and while you are at it factor in both the locations where Neanderthal remains were found and evidence from DNA that Neanderthals were light complexioned people with red and blond hair who buried their dead,[39] then it is no stretch at all to conclude that Neanderthal Man was contemporary with Job, a fellow member of the human race who lived to the North.
I will further recommend to you that a reading of Genesis chapters 10-11 suggests that Neanderthals, because of their geographic distribution, skin tone, and hair color, were likely descendants of Noah’s son Japheth, who populated those regions of the earth after the Flood and the confusion of languages that occurred at Babel.
When one attends public school, especially in middle school and high school, and particularly when one enrolls in secular college, it is almost certain you will find yourself faced with a supposed authority figure, presumably the teacher of a class you are taking, who will level an assault on the credibility of the Bible. The individual doing this may not come across as a particularly mean person. Quite often he or she will have a very nice personality. It may very well be that the tactic employed is not to actually attack anyone’s beliefs about the Bible, or traditional morality, or origins, but to merely ask questions that you do not know the answer to. Of course, there is a design to this. The design is twofold: First of all, the teacher wants to identify anyone in class with the temerity to raise a hand for the purpose of challenging or objecting to main stream thought. By raising your hand you single yourself out as someone to be watched by the professor or the teacher. As well, the teacher wants to carpet the entire class with doubts and uncertainties regarding the Christian faith, the veracity of the Bible, and such things as that.
My goal in this unusual type of message has been to show you that Neanderthal Man was a descendant of Adam and Eve. They were larger brained, more muscular, extremely strong, and longer-lived than we who live today because they were less ravaged by the deteriorating effects of sin. We must not let our preconceived notions about supposed prehistoric humans cloud our picture of the proper understanding of this early ancestor. Only when we consider all the facts can we see the complete picture of a being who was likely both physically and intellectually superior to us, though not nearly so technologically advanced. Neanderthal Man was not a product of evolution. All of the evidence, properly understood, supports the Genesis account of the creation of humans.[40]
The Bible is true. What it speaks to it speaks to accurately and without error, whether of origins or of eternity. I mention this because you will someday die, and when you die you will enter eternity. But which eternity will you either suffer forever or enjoy without end, the lake of fire reserved for Christ rejecters or heavenly bliss for those who have turned from their sins to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior?
Most people alive today are happily headed toward Hellfire, ignorant of the truth and willingly brainwashed by science so-called and its commitment to evolutionary thought and a denial of the truth of God’s Word. However, with respect to only one line of inquiry, what has been identified as Neanderthal Man, I have shown you that science so-called has been wrong about him from the beginning.
When those few scientists with integrity are heeded the facts rightly understood are found to be fully supportive of what the Bible has always declared. So, must we wait for scientists to catch up to the Bible to know what is actually true? No. Know that the Bible is true because the Spirit of God is true, because the Lord Jesus Christ is true, and because God the Father is true. Place your confidence in the truthfulness of God’s Word and you will be well situated to address your preparation for eternity. Trust Christ and He will save you from your sins.
__________
[1] Isaac Asimov, The Universe: From Flat Earth To Quasar, (New York: Avon Books, 1966) and George Sarton, A History Of Science: Ancient Science Through The Golden Age Of Greece, volume 1, (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1970).
[2] W. I. B. Beveridge, The Art Of Scientific Investigation, (Caldwell, New Jersey: The Blackburn Press, Revised 1957).
[3] Michael Fumento, Science Under Siege, (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1993), William Broad and Nicholas Wade, Betrayers Of The Truth: Fraud And Deceit In The Halls Of Science, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982), and Horace Freeland Judson, The Great Betrayal: Fraud In Science, (New York, Harcourt, Inc. 2004)
[4] http://www.icr.org/articles/study-shows-many-scientists-manipulate/ with a contemporary example of data manipulation being http://www.naturalnews.com/045808_global_warming_fraud_data_manipulation_NOAA.html 9/5/2015
[5] http://www.icr.org/articles/study-shows-many-scientists-manipulate/
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal 9/3/2015
[7] http://evolutiondeceit.com/en/Evolution-Dictionary/16597/peking-man-fraud-the 9/3/2015
[8] http://www.conservapedia.com/Evolution_and_Cases_of_Fraud,_Hoaxes_and_Speculation 9/3/2015
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piltdown_Man 9/3/2015
[10] Marvin L. Lubenow, Bones Of Contention: A Creationist Assessment Of Human Fossils, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1992)
[11] http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/who-was-neanderthal-man-was-he-the-missing-link.html 9/3/2015
[12] http://creation.com/neandertal-manthe-changing-picture
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal 9/3/2015
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/who-was-neanderthal-man-was-he-the-missing-link.html 9/1/2015
[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal 9/3/2015
[18] Lubenow, page 61.
[19] http://www.icr.org/article/7123
[20] http://www.icr.org/article/indentifying-neanderthal-man/
[21] Ibid.
[22] http://www.icr.org/article/more-evidence-neandertals-were-human/
[23] http://www.icr.org/article/neandertal-dna-research-confirms-full/
[24] http://www.icr.org/article/ancient-human-dna-neandertals-denisovans/
[25] http://www.icr.org/article/5465/
[26] http://www.icr.org/article/1169
[27] http://www.icr.org/article/myths-regarding-radiocarbon-dating/
[28] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal 9/1/2015
[29] Michael J. Oard, An Ice Age Caused By The Genesis Flood, (El Cajon, CA: Institute For Creation Research, 1990)
[30] Larry Vardiman, The Age Of The Earth’s Atmosphere, (El Cajon, CA: Institute For Creation Research, 1990)
[31] Harold S. Slusher and Stephen J. Robertson, The Age Of The Solar System: A study of the Poyting-Robertson Effect and extinction of interplanetary dust, (El Cajon, CA: Institute For Creation Research, Revised 1982)
[32] Larry Vardiman, Sea-Floor Sediment And The Age Of The Earth, (El Cajon, CA: Institute For Creation Research, 1996)
[33] 2 Samuel 7.28; Jeremiah 10.10; John 3.33; 17.3; Romans 3.4; 2 Corinthians 1.18; 1 Thessalonians 1.9; Revelation 15.3; 16.7; 19.9
[34] Mark 12.14; John 1.14; 14.6; 1 John 5.20
[35] John 14.17; 15.25; 16.13; Ephesians 5.9; 1 John 4.6; 5.6
[36] John 17.17; 2 Corinthians 6.7; Ephesians 1.13; Colossians 1.5; 2 Timothy 2.15; James 1.18
[37] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal
[38] http://creation.com/neandertal-manthe-changing-picture
[39] ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal
[40] http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/who-was-neanderthal-man-was-he-the-missing-link.html
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