Media Overblows Claims of "Human Evolution": Examining the Newest "Missing Link"

Evolution News & Views ^ | April 14, 2006 | Casey Luskin

[JCEccles]

Recently I highlighted how the coverage of Tiktaalik revealed the fascinating phenomenon that only after discovering a new "missing link" will evolutionists acknowledge the previously paltry state of fossil evidence for evolution. This behavior is again witnessed in coverage of the discovery of Australopithecus anamensis fossils in Ethiopia. The media has also exaggerated and overblown claims that this evidence supports "human evolution."

The latest "missing link" is actually comprised of a few tooth and bone fragments of Au. anamensis, an ape-like species that lived a little over 4 million years ago. Incredibly, claims of "intermediacy" are based upon 2-3 fragmented canines of "intermediate" size and shape. This has now led to grand claims in the media of finding a "missing link." Because some bone fragments from Ardipithecus ramidus and Australopithecus afarensus were also found in the area, MSNBC highlighted these finds on a front-page article calling this "the most complete chain of human evolution so far." Media coverage of this find thus follows an identical pattern to that of Tiktaalik: incredibly overblown claims of a "transitional fossil" follow stark admissions of how previously bleak the evidence was for evolution. Moreover, claims that this find enlightens "human evolution" are misleading, as these fossils come from ape-like species that long-predate the appearance of our genus Homo, and thought to be far removed from the origin of "humans."

[Conservative Texan Mom]

I've been thinking quite a bit about the Genesis account of creation. Most scholars seem to attribute its authorship to Moses. Now, quite obviously, Moses wasn't there. I do believe the Bible to be God's inspired word. Moses would have had to be inspired in some fashion as to know what to write. This could have come in a dream, or vision, or some other revelation. Perhaps it was not unlike the imagery of Revelations itself. Which makes me wonder how Moses would have interpreted what he saw into written language. If it were by some form of evolution, would this account for verses in Genesis that are worded in such a manner as, "the land produced vegetation," and "the land produced living creatures", and also " the Lord formed man from the dust of the ground." Cellular organisms would appear invisible. In a vision, this could possibly appear as life sprouting from the Earth. I do not think Moses would have written Genesis in the wording of a scientific thesis. It would be a very long book, and probably not well understood by the people of the time, or even Moses himself. He would have written his vision according to his interpretation, I imagine. I don't know. God could have done it the YEC way, but this is something to consider.

Something else of interest is Romans 1:20

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.


This makes me consider that we will never be able to find evidence of God apart from nature. Nature is his creation, and could be the very method he used to bring all things about. Nature could be God's invisible qualities? Perhaps we are studying evidence of Him, and confirming Him everyday, and do not realize it.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"This makes me consider that we will never be able to find evidence of God apart from nature. Nature is his creation, and could be the very method he used to bring all things about. Nature could be God's invisible qualities? Perhaps we are studying evidence of Him, and confirming Him everyday, and do not realize it."

That is similar to what Einstein thought; for him, understanding the laws of nature WAS studying God. Now, he was not a theist, and his conception of God was little more than those laws of nature, but the idea that by studying the natural world you are also learning more about God was there in his thoughts.

Ultimately, it's a theological position, one that can't be proved or disproved. It does seem to me to be the best way available for a believing Christian to reconcile their faith with what the physical evidence is.

[Conservative Texan Mom]

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (KJV)
The Bible is the Word, therefore it is God.

I have seen this interpreted to mean Jesus was the Word, and He was with God.
Here is an example.
Luke 5:1
[ The Calling of the First Disciples ] One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God,

The Bible did not exist as we know it. The people were listening to Jesus. There are many other examples of this.

[Conservative Texan Mom]

I don't consider myself a theist. I can see that evolution does occur. I am not sure to what degree. There are places where evidence seems more thorough than others. So, I'm not against it. I'm just not convinced of it in the full scope either.
One thought I have had was that a variety of unique cellular organisms were created to develop into their own kinds. I have a whole lot of thoughts floating around in my brain these days. Also, that when God breathed life into man, he was referring to eternal life, at which point we were set apart from other living things. I have no conclusions, just a lot of thoughts and ideas. I find it all fascinating, and faith strengthening!

My feelings regarding the study of this is that there is much we will never know. I liken it to the assembly of a beach from a grain of sand.

[andysandmikesmom]

You have Freepmail...

[Liberal Classic]

I sometimes imagine a conversation between Moses and the Lord going roughly along these lines...

Moses: O Lord, where did the world come from?

The Lord: Well, about fifteen billion years ago, I got around to creating the universe. Within the first billionth of a second, I had the fundamental forces of nature established, such as gravity, nuclear forces, and electromagnetism...

Moses: Lord, what is a billion?

The Lord: Ah, a billion is a one followed by nine zeroes.

Moses: What then, O Lord, is a zero?

The Lord: Hmm.

The Lord: In the beginning, I created the heaven and the earth. Now the earth was unformed and void...

[Conservative Texan Mom]

LOL!

[metmom]

That's good.

Although there is a lot of criticism of the creation account because it does not conform exactly to what we know at the present, it certainly was written so the almost anyone of any educational level could understand it. It is as accurate as can be considering the whole of it is covered in just a few verses. Obviously God considered THAT He did it to be much more important for us to know than the exact mechanism of HOW He did it. Of course, for as smart as we think we are, even if God explained the *how*, I think it would still be beyond our comprehension as much as it would have been to those who penned the Scripture.

[Conservative Texan Mom]

I think one day we may all be surprised at how many things we think we know, that turn out to be wrong. My feelings are that, if the how of creation was essential to salvation, it would take up more than a couple of chapters.

I've read that verse in Romans many times, but it stood out in a different way to me today. "Invisible qualities", that's powerful!

[metmom]

I find Col 1:17 very interesting. "And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together."

The implication being that He is actively holding things together. And we call it gravitation and strong and weak molecular forces. Scientists had to come up with some explanation as to why the nucleus of an atom doesn't fly apart. And I still can't figure out where these ancient folks would even get the idea that everything needed to be held together in the first place; it doesn't seem like they would have any reason to come to that conclusion by deductive reasoning based on the level of understanding of the physical world that they had at the time.

Who knows, maybe we really ARE measuring the power of God that is at work holding things together and don't even know it. The evidence of the existence of God could be sitting right under our noses and be unrecognized.

[jec41]

Nature could be God's invisible qualities? Perhaps we are studying evidence of Him, and confirming Him everyday, and do not realize it.

Read all possible of Greek mythology for many of the things of Genesis and Revelations have been written before. Keep in mind the id ego and superego of Freud and the white and black horse controlled by a driver of Plato. Compare the philosophies and some thought as to some origins might be possible. Is this your only thread tonight?

[wallcrawlr]

thats clever

[Conservative Texan Mom]

There didn't seem to be a lot of action on the threads last night. I posted a few things, mostly on this thread. There was a funny satire about Darwin and light bulbs. It poked fun at everyone of us, and our differing views. There weren't many posts to it last night though.

The kids and I studying Greece last spring. I read a lot of mythology. It was very interesting. The tale of Hercules is compared to Christ. That being that Hercules is the son of Zeus, and that he leads a difficult life in service to others. Although, Hercules is driven out of guilt for horrible things he does when he's out of his mind. Hera supposedly cast a curse of insanity on him out of jealousy. This is a different motivation than Christ. Eventually, and this is another parallel, Zeus brings Hercules up to Mount Olympus to live with the Gods. The conception of Hercules is different. Zeus disguised himself because he wished to "do it" with Hercules mother. Hercules, himself, was not planned. The conception of Christ is "immaculate", and it happened as a foundation for the plan.

Revelations is a difficult book for me to grasp. It is so full of imagery. I haven't read it since we finished Greece though. It would be interesting to go back and see what stands out.

Here is the Greek myth of creation.


In the beginning there was only chaos. Then out of the void appeared Erebus, the unknowable place where death dwells, and Night. All else was empty, silent, endless, darkness. Then somehow Love was born bringing a start of order. From Love came Light and Day. Once there was Light and Day, Gaea, the earth appeared.
Then Erebus slept with Night, who gave birth to Ether, the heavenly light, and to Day the earthly light. Then Night alone produced Doom, Fate, Death, Sleep, Dreams, Nemesis, and others that come to man out of darkness.

Meanwhile Gaea alone gave birth to Uranus, the heavens. Uranus became Gaea's mate covering her on all sides. Together they produced the three Cyclopes, the three Hecatoncheires, and twelve Titans.

However, Uranus was a bad father and husband. He hated the Hecatoncheires. He imprisoned them by pushing them into the hidden places of the earth, Gaea's womb. This angered Gaea and she plotted against Uranus. She made a flint sickle and tried to get her children to attack Uranus. All were too afraid except, the youngest Titan, Cronus.

Gaea and Cronus set up an ambush of Uranus as he lay with Gaea at night. Cronus grabbed his father and castrated him, with the stone sickle, throwing the severed genitals into the ocean. The fate of Uranus is not clear. He either died, withdrew from the earth, or exiled himself to Italy. As he departed he promised that Cronus and the Titans would be punished. From his spilt blood came the Giants, the Ash Tree Nymphs, and the Erinnyes. From the sea foam where his genitals fell came Aphrodite.

Cronus became the next ruler. He imprisoned the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires in Tartarus. He married his sister Rhea, under his rule the Titans had many offspring. He ruled for many ages. However, Gaea and Uranus both had prophesied that he would be overthrown by a son. To avoid this Cronus swallowed each of his children as they were born. Rhea was angry at the treatment of the children and plotted against Cronus. When it came time to give birth to her sixth child, Rhea hid herself, then she left the child to be raised by nymphs. To conceal her act she wrapped a stone in swaddling cloths and passed it off as the baby to Cronus, who swallowed it.

This child was Zeus. He grew into a handsome youth on Crete. He consulted Metis on how to defeat Cronus. She prepared a drink for Cronus design to make him vomit up the other children. Rhea convinced Cronus to accept his son and Zeus was allowed to return to Mount Olympus as Cronus's cup bearer. This gave Zeus the opportunity to slip Cronus the specially prepared drink. This worked as planned and the other five children were vomited up. Being gods they were unharmed. They were thankful to Zeus and made him their leader.

Cronus was yet to be defeated. He and the Titans, except Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Oceanus, fought to retain their power. Atlas became their leader in battle and it looked for some time as though they would win and put the young gods down. However, Zeus was cunning. He went down to Tartarus and freed the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires. Prometheus joined Zeus as well. He returned to battle with his new allies. The Cyclopes provided Zeus with lighting bolts for weapons. The Hecatoncheires he set in ambush armed with boulders. With the time right, Zeus retreated drawing the Titans into the Hecatoncheires's ambush. The Hecatoncheires rained down hundreds of boulders with such a fury the Titans thought the mountains were falling on them. They broke and ran giving Zeus victory.

Zeus exiled the Titans who had fought against him into Tartarus. Except for Atlas, who was singled out for the special punishment of holding the world on his shoulders.

However, even after this victory Zeus was not safe. Gaea angry that her children had been imprisoned gave birth to a last offspring, Typhoeus. Typhoeus was so fearsome that most of the gods fled. However, Zeus faced the monster and flinging his lighting bolts was able to kill it. Typhoeus was buried under Mount Etna in Sicily.

Much later a final challenge to Zeus rule was made by the Giants. They went so far as to attempt to invade Mount Olympus, piling mountain upon mountain in an effort to reach the top. But, the gods had grown strong and with the help of Heracles the Giants were subdued or killed.


A lot of marital problems and treachery going on there.

It is interesting how the Greeks related death to dark, and light to love. This is very similar to the Bible.

I think it was you who wrote about the white and black horse the other day. I need to go read that! Insightful!

Something I notice on these threads, Creationist often get linked to religious fanatics, and atheist get linked to communist Marxist.

[Conservative Texan Mom]

I meant to include this in the previous post as a topic of interest. It is in Acts 17. The apostle Paul uses Greek beliefs to teach Christianity.


In Athens
16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." 21(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

[jec41]

Genesis 6;1,2 And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them. That the sons of God saw the daughters of men and they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose.

A practice of Greek Gods although in my older Bibles the word wife is not used. But I would ask were the Gods dark and preferred those fair.

One can find many references of Hades in the Bible. He was the brother of Zeus and lord of the under world. He was not death but the keeper of the dead. Death was Thanatos and in Revelations you will find Hades and Death riding together on two different horses. Many interpret that as a future of destruction. Others see it merely as explanations of their functions

[Elsie]

"In the beginning........."

 

But WAIT!! There's MORE!!

 

Even BEFORE the 'beginning'!

---

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NIV 1 Peter 1:17-21
 17.  Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.
 18.  For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers,
 19.  but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
 20.  He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
 21.  Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

 

 

NIV 1 Corinthians 2:7
  No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

 

NIV 2 Timothy 1:8-10
 8.  So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,
 9.  who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
 10.  but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

 

NIV Titus 1:1-4
 1.  Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness--
 2.  a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,
 3.  and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
 4.  To Titus, my true son in our common faith:   Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

 

 

Just how did these ignurt goat-herders have such a concept as 'before time' anyway???

 

 

[Conservative Texan Mom]

Very good point!
God exist apart from time, at least I think so. I don't think it applies to him. Actually, I think he created time. Therefore, I think he masters it. There are many examples in the Bible were God not only exhibits his power to see beyond time, but also refers to his existence before time.

It boggles my mind to try to put it in perspective. I am of the belief that Christ is, and has always been. I would also think that the only way the authors of the Bible could know, or understand, or even think in such a realm, would have to be inspired by God.

It's kind of weird, to consider that time is a creation in itself that makes our existence possible. Wow! Do ya just get chills sometimes when contemplating these things!?! The power exhibited by God in all things just floors me! I can't even begin to imagine. Hey, if you get the chance, read Job 38 today. I swear, it's like the ground shakes beneath me when I read that! It just gives a scope to the measure of what we witness each day.

[Creationist]

You are right the Bible as we know it did not exist.

But the Old Testament did, not as the Old Testament but the Torah. I believe it is Leviticus that instructs the Levities on how to preserve the Torah. Because many times Jesus refers to fulfilling the prophecy.

[Conservative Texan Mom]

We had the opportunity to sea the Dead Sea Scrolls at a museum in Alabama last spring. Leviticus is among them. It was an interesting exhibit.

[Creationist]

It was once explained to me like this about God and time.

God is like a spectator of a parade watching from a high rise building he can see the whole line the beginning the middle and the end all at the same time. Yet he has the ability to step into the parade at any point. And since he created everyone and everything in the parade he can see it before it even started.