CCHEA Creation Seminar 01/17/08

CCHEA Creation Seminar 01/17/08 Presented by David A. Prentice, M.Ed., M.A.S.T. www.originsresource.org prentice@instruction.com Background graphic courtesy of Mike Riddle, Answers in Genesis Contains photos taken by the author at various locations, and other pictures as noted

PART 2: Does it Really Matter Whether or Not We Came From Apes?

The Biblical Origin of Humans: The first man’s body was made miraculously from the dust of the earth. The first woman was made miraculously from part of his body. If Adam had not sinned, he and Eve would have lived forever. Theistic Evolution: (also known as “progressive creation”) The first humans were a pair of highly evolved apelike creatures into whom God placed souls. They came from biological parents who were slightly less advanced than they were. Since death had been here for billions of years, they had nothing to do with bringing it into the world. From birth, they were destined to die. Atheistic Evolution: Humans evolved by chance. There is no such thing as an eternal soul or spirit.

? ? ? WHAT IN THE WORLD DO “APE-MEN” HAVE TO DO WITH THE GOSPEL? ? ? ?

THE CLEAREST STATEMENT OF THE GOSPEL: Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. (1 Cor. 15:1-8)

Paul’s Defense of The Gospel (1 Cor. 15) Some denied the Future resurrection (v. 12) - the Promiseof the Gospel. Paul’s reply (v. 17-19) - this removes our Present hope - the Powerof the Gospel. Paul’s explanation for why Jesus had to die (v. 21-22, 45): The fall of Adam in the Past shows thePurposeof the Gospel. Forsince by man came death,by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (v. 21-22) And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. (v. 45) If death was here before man sinned, then Adam was a myth. If theFirst Adam was a myth, then what do you need aLastAdam for?Jesus died because of something that never happened!

NO DEATH BEFORE ADAM Gen. 1:29-30 - And God said, Behold, I have givenyouevery herb bearing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which [is] the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to everybeastof the earth, and to everyfowlof the air, and toevery thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein [there is] life, [I have given] every green herb for meat: and it was so. Gen. 3:17 - And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it:cursed [is] the groundfor thy sake... Rom. 8:19-22 - For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected [the same] in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that thewhole creationgroaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

NO DEATH BEFORE ADAM Isa. 11:6-8 - The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. Rom. 5:12-15 - Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned... Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come... For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, [which is] by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 1 Cor. 15:21-22, 45 - For since by man [came] death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit.

But what about people who claim to believe in both God and evolution? It’s not the God of the Bible! Their idea of God is that he started the universe billions of years ago, then go out of the way and let everything run by evolution. SO WHAT’S WRONG WITH THAT?

EVOLUTION Death and struggle led to the existence of man. CREATION Man was the direct cause of death and struggle. You can’t have it both ways!

AN ATHEIST ON THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION Christianity has fought evolution because...evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary.Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the son of god. (sic) ...It becomes clear now that thewhole justificationof Jesus’ life and death is predicated on the existence of Adam and the forbidden fruit he and Eve ate. Without the original sin, who needs to be redeemed? Without Adam’s fall into a life of constant sin terminated by death, what purpose is there to Christianity?None. G. Richard Bozarth, “The Meaning of Evolution,” The American Atheist, Sept. 1978, p. 30

WHAT MOST PEOPLE THINK: Evolution is science... Creation is religion.

From June 5 - July 5 of 2007, I was privileged to go to four countries in Africa (South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, and Uganda) to teach on the subject of The Bible and Science. My focus was specifically on the accuracy of the creation account in Genesis.

The places I spent most of my time

Evolutionary indoctrination is everywhere. From the BATHROOM at the “Cradle of Human- kind” museum in Sterkfontein, S. Africa:

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO “KNOW” SOMETHING? 1. Personal Experience through the five senses. I know a bee sting hurts; I know how to ride a bike. 2. Reliance on Authority. I know the sun is 93 million miles away; Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. 3. Logic. I know 2 million + 2 million = 4 million, even though I’ve never counted that high. I know I have a brain, even though I’ve never seen it. 4. Feeling or Intuition. I know she’s the one for me; I know God has called me to the ministry. 6. Bluffing (lying) - you try to persuade others for an ulterior motive. You should buy these tickets from me because I know this team is going to the Super Bowl this year; I know evolution is a fact! 5. Wishful Thinking (you really want it to be true) I just know I’m going to win the lottery!

Everybody knows that toilets swirl the other direction in the southern hemisphere, right?

THE PREHISTORIC PAST: 1. No living person haspersonal experience. 2. There are no eyewitness accounts except theBible, which is unacceptable to skeptics. SO HOW DO WE “KNOW” ABOUT THE BEGINNING? ThroughLOGIC ONLY.

IS IT LOGICAL TO BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION? IF man evolved from apes, your brain evolved from an ape brain. IF your brain evolved from an ape brain, your logic evolved from ape logic. HOW DO YOU KNOW IT EVOLVED RIGHT? Maybe you’re not even asking the right questions! Evolution is only logical if you are a modified ape.

HOW TO SET UP MODELS: Use the basic ideas of Initial Disorganizationversus Initial Complexity to make predictions in as many areas as possible: Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology, Paleontology, Geology, etc. Whichever set of predictions better fits what we observe is much more likely to be correct.

Logical Implications of Creation and Evolu-tion Concerning Fossil Apes and Humans: 1. If we evolved from some apelike ancestors, it would have taken millions of years. We should find a great many fossils of the transitional steps. 2. If humans were created as humans and apes were created as apes, we should find a systematic pattern of gaps in the fossil record.

HOW DO YOU MAKE A FOSSIL? 1. Bury something quickly so it doesn’t rot. 2. Make sure the right kind of minerals are in the mud or water. 3. Apply lots of heat and pressure. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE? CHICKEN BONES: ? OIL: ?

You may have heard that it takes millions of years to make a fossil. Wrong! • Chicken bones have been turned into mineralized fossils in laboratories in 5 to 10 years. • Organic garbage (banana peels, etc.) has been turned into crude oil, otherwise known as “fossil fuel,” in as little as 20 minutes. • Spark plugs are often used as fishing sinkers in Durban, S. Africa. • The water has such a high concentration of minerals that they be-come coated and look like fossils in just a few years! Spark plugs from Durban harbor Courtesy of Joshua Gilbert

IF THERE WAS A WORLDWIDE FLOOD, WHAT WOULD WE EXPECT TO FIND? Billions and billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the whole earth, even on top of the highest mountains. WHAT DO WE ACTUALLY FIND? Billions and billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the whole earth, even on top of the highest mountains!

Africa is the site of many well-known fossil finds, used to support evolution. Above and left: Fossils of Bradysaurus, a “mammal- like reptile” from the Karoo Supergroup in the southwest of South Africa Right: Neanderthal skull from the “Cradle of Human- kind” museum in Sterkfontein, near Pretoria

THE FOSSIL RECORD – Nothing BUT missing links! 1. First type of cell -- unknown. 2. Transitions from first cells to known kingdoms (animal, plant, etc.) unknown. 3. Transition between single- celled and multi-celled organisms unknown. 4. Origin of every type of plant unknown. 5. Origin of soft-bodied invertebrates of the Ediacaran Fauna unknown. 6. Origin of vertebrates unknown. Artist’s conception of extinct Lepidodendron tree - New Orleans Botanical Garden

THE FOSSIL RECORD – Nothing BUT missing links! There is no known transitional form from fish to amphibian (sea to land). • Proposed candidates such as Eusthenopteron, the coela- canth, or Tiktaalik have fins loosely embedded in muscle. • Amphibians that have legs (such as Ichthyostegalia) have joints firmly attached to bone. There are no known in-between types of joints. • In addition, the supposed transitional forms resembled only one of the nine orders of amphibians. There is no candidate for the ancestors of the other eight orders, some of which have no legs at all! Eusthenopteron fossil – Houston Museum of Nat. Hist.

HOW ABOUT APE-MEN?

“There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjectures out of such a trifling investment of facts.” Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

Logical Implications of Creation and Evolu-tion Concerning Fossil Apes and Humans: 1. If we evolved from some apelike ancestors, it would have taken millions of years. We should find a great many fossils of the transitional steps. 2. If humans were created as humans and apes were created as apes, we should find a systematic pattern of gaps in the fossil record.

PRIMATE FOSSILS: FEW AND FAR BETWEEN. All the fossils of alleged human ancestors known today “would barely cover a billiard table.” (J. Reader, New Scientist, March 26, 1981) “...all the physical evidence we have for human evolution can still be placed, with room to spare, inside a single coffin.” (L. Watson, Science Digest, May 1982) WHY SO FEW PRIMATE FOSSILS? EVOLUTION -- They just weren’t in the right place at the right time. CREATION -- The Flood produced most of the fossil record, so the creatures that were most mobile and resourceful (such as primates) would have been least likely to be buried and fossilized. Some primates may have been buried in LOCAL floods soon after the global flood, but humans had not yet spread out from Babel!

PRIMATE CLASSIFICATION Order Primates Suborder Prosimii Suborder Anthropoideia Lemurs/ Lorises Tarsiers Platyrrhines (New World Monkeys – Capuchin, squirrel monkey, howler, etc.) Catarrhines Old World Monkeys – (baboons, mandrills,macaques, etc.) Apes Humans

OUR EVOLUTIONARY “FAMILY TREE” Chimpanzee Gorilla Man Orangutan Gibbon ??? Common ancestor ??? Common ancestor of Asian apes of African apes ????? Common ancestor of African apes and man ??? Common ancestor of hominoids Old World Monkeys New World Monkeys ??? Common ancestor of higher primates Lemurs/Lorises Tarsiers ??? Common ancestor of all primates ??? Transition from insectivores ??? Insectivore ancestor Question marks represent unknown forms.

The Geologic (Evolutionary) Time Scale ERA PERIOD EPOCH Approx. Beginning (Years Ago) Cenozoic Quaternary Holocene (Recent) 10,000 Pleistocene 1.8 million Tertiary Pliocene 5.3 million Miocene 23.8 million Oligocene 33.7 million Eocene 54.8 million Paleocene 65 million Mesozoic Cretaceous 144 million Jurassic 206 million Triassic 248 million Paleozoic Permian 290 million Pennsylvanian 323 million } CARBON- Mississippian 354 million } IFEROUS Devonian 417 million Silurian 443 million Ordovician 490 million Cambrian 543 million Archaeozoic Precambrian 4.5 billion (incl. Ediacaran or Vendian, 650 million) Source: Univ. of Calif. Museum of Paleontology

LOWER MAMMAL ANCESTOR OF PRIMATES UNKNOWN! Because there is nothing else to offer in its place, theonly candidate is an insectivore called Tupaiia (a tree shrew). Besides having major physical and anatomical differences from primates, the tree shrew appears in the wrong layer of the fossil record to be their ancestor. The hypothetical ancestor of primates should have evolved millions of years earlier than the primates themselves. However, tree shrews first appear in the same geologic layer as primates (the Eocene). According to evolution, this is millions of years too late.

ANCESTOR OF PROSIMIANS UNKNOWN! Lemurs, Lorises, and Tarsiers all appear in the fossil record in Eocene rocks (the same layer as tree shrews), suddenly and fully formed, with no known ancestry. None of them have evolved since then. Smilodectes, an Eocene lemur Artist’s conception of Smilodectes (Denver Museum of Natural History)

OUR EVOLUTIONARY “FAMILY TREE” Chimpanzee Gorilla Man Orangutan Gibbon ??? Common ancestor ??? Common ancestor of Asian apes of African apes ????? Common ancestor of African apes and man ??? Common ancestor of hominoids Old World Monkeys New World Monkeys ??? Common ancestor of higher primates Lemurs/Lorises Tarsiers ??? Common ancestor of all primates - UNKNOWN ??? Transition from insectivores - UNKNOWN ??? Insectivore ancestor - UNKNOWN Question marks represent unknown forms.

ANCESTOR OF MONKEYS UNKNOWN! OLD WORLD MONKEYS include: Guenon monkeys, mangabeys, macaques, rhesus monkeys, drills, mandrills, baboons, langurs, proboscis monkeys, guereza monkeys, etc. NEW WORLD MONKEYS include: Capuchins, squirrel monkeys, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, marmosets, etc. The first monkeys appear suddenly and fully formed in the Oligocene layer. Even the “later” modern types appear in the fossil record suddenly with no known ancestors. Skull of Aegyptopithecus, believed to be an Oligocene monkey (Denver Museum)

OUR EVOLUTIONARY “FAMILY TREE” Chimpanzee Gorilla Man Orangutan Gibbon ??? Common ancestor ??? Common ancestor of Asian apes of African apes ????? Common ancestor of African apes and man ??? Common ancestor of hominoids Old World Monkeys New World Monkeys ??? Common ancestor of higher primates - UNKNOWN Lemurs/Lorises Tarsiers ??? Common ancestor of all primates - UNKNOWN ??? Transition from insectivores - UNKNOWN ??? Insectivore ancestor - UNKNOWN Question marks represent unknown forms.

ANCESTOR OF HOMINOIDS (APES AND MAN) UNKNOWN! AFRICAN APES (gorillas and chimpanzees) appear in the fossil record suddenly and fully formed, with no known ancestors leading up to them. ASIAN APES (orangutans and gibbons) do too. Orangs are identical to a “17 million year old” Miocene fossil known as Sivapithecus. They forgot to evolve!

OUR EVOLUTIONARY “FAMILY TREE” Chimpanzee Gorilla Man Orangutan Gibbon ??? Common ancestor ??? Common ancestor of Asian apes of African apes – UNKNOWN - UNKNOWN ????? Common ancestor of African apes and man ??? Common ancestor of hominoids - UNKNOWN Old World Monkeys New World Monkeys ??? Common ancestor of higher primates - UNKNOWN Lemurs/Lorises Tarsiers ??? Common ancestor of all primates - UNKNOWN ??? Transition from insectivores - UNKNOWN ??? Insectivore ancestor - UNKNOWN Question marks represent unknown forms.

WHY WOULD HUMANS EVOLVE FROM APES? There would have to be a series of beneficial mutations in DNA, each building on all the ones from previous generations. There are about 3 billion base pairs in human DNA. Even if it really were 98% similar to that of chimps, there would still be 60 million genetic differences! There would have had to be millions of beneficial mutations in both the human and chimpanzee lines. Though some mutations benefit individuals, we have never seen a single onethat helped the affected species, or that added any genetic information.

WHY WOULD HUMANS EVOLVE FROM APES? • Suppose there really are only 60,000,000 genetic differ-ences between humans and chimps. The wildest estimate for our common ancestry is about 10,000,000 years ago. This is an average of 6 beneficial mutations per year. • In order to be passed on, mutations must occur in breeding individuals. If the line evolving toward humans began breeding at age 15, theneach breeding individual would have to acquire an average of 90 beneficial mutations. • Some of the mutations would have to be identical in the males and females; others would have to be complementary so that the reproductive systems worked together. • The process could never miss a single generation, for about 667,000 generations!

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HUMANS AND APES Characteristic HUMANS APES 1. Shape of cranium (skull) Large and vaulted Flattened 2. Mastoid process (bone structure Prominent Missing or behind ears) inconspicuous 3. Canine teeth Small Large 4. Diastema (gap where canine teeth fit None Present into opposite jaw) 5. Simian shelf on lower jaw None Present 6. Lips Prominent Thin 7. Vertebral column 3 curves 2 curves 8. Spines on cervical vertebrae Short Long 9. Arm length Relatively short Relatively long 10. Nipples Lower Higher 11. Breasts Pronounced Flattened 12. Body hair Relatively little Relatively much 13. Hair distribution Mostly on front Mostly on rear of body 14. Male reproductive organ No bone Contains bone 15. Pelvis Deep, bowl-shaped Shallow, flattened 16. Gluteus maximus (muscles that enable Bulging Flattened upright stance) 17. Linea aspara (roughened ridge on Present (prominent) Absent femur where muscles attach) 18. Feet Different from hands Same as hands 19. Dental arcade (curvature of tooth Parabolic U-shaped arrangement) Source: Dr. Wilbert Rusch, Academic Dean of Concordia College, on “Crossroads” television program

WHAT IS A “SPECIES?” To a biologist, a species is a group whose mem-bers cannot breed with any other group. However, it is impos-sible to do breeding experiments on extinct animals. Researchers have to simply guess whether they belong to different species, based on how different the specimens seem to be. If you had only bones to go by, would you guess that Andre the Giant (7 ft 4 in) and Verne Troyer (2 ft 8 in) were the same species? They are! Pictures from andrethegiant.com and rotttentomatoes.com There is no way to be sure whether differences in extinct creatures mean they belonged to different species, or just showed normal variation within the same species.

Candidates for Human Ancestors Through the Years Rudapithecus Ramapithecus Dryopithecus Oreopithecus Limnopithecus Kenyapithecus “Nebraska Man” (Hesperopithecus) “Piltdown Man” (Eoanthropus) Named from a few bones - regarded as too apelike after more evidence was discovered Mistake Artist’s conception of “Nebraska Man” (Hesperopithecus haroldcookii) based on a single tooth that turned out to belong to an extinct pig. (Illustrated London News, June 24, 1922) Human skull fragments (stained to look old) Filled in by imagination Fragments supposedly found in a gravel pit in England; despite obvious file marks, accepted as an ape-man for over 40 years until the hoax was exposed. Fraud Ape jaw (filed to fit skull) Cast of the Piltdown skull at Sterkfontein

Candidates for Human Ancestors Through the Years Proconsul Sivapithecus Proconsul skull – Denver Museum Miocene – probably a small chimp Miocene - identical to orang-utan (also to Ramapithecus) Australopithecus (“Southern Ape,”a.k.a. Paranthropus / Zinjanthropus) Appears suddenly, with no known ancestry. Regarded as an evolutionary dead end – too committed in the direction of apes to be a human ancestor The “Taung Child” – juvenile Australopithecus africanus (discovered 1924) Paranthropus robustus female, discovered 1994 (also known as Austra- lopithecus and Zinjanthropus) “Littlefoot” – most complete specimen of Australopithecus known (discovered 1998) Skull photos by the author- “Cradle of Humankind” museum, Sterkfontein, S. Africa

WHAT ABOUT “LUCY?” (Australopithecus afarensis) The same skeleton in 2008. Look how much more complete it seems, even showing Lucy walking upright. (Denver museum) The changes are NOT based on new discoveries. The light colored “bones” – most of the display, including the feet -- are plaster, based on imagination! 1988 photo of A. afarensis skel-eton at Denver museum (9 year old boy for size comparison) Human feet are different from hands; ape feet are like hands. No one has found a complete foot of Australo-pithecus, but the most complete one, from “Littlefoot” in Sterkfontein (see right), is typical of apes. There is no evidence that “Lucy” had human-type feet.

CCHEA Creation Seminar 01/17/08