Creation Science Rebuttals
Answers in Genesis Daily Feature
War of the Worldviews Preview
Humans: Evolved from apelike creatures?
7 January 2006
by Greg Neyman
© Old Earth Ministries
In the Answers in Genesis daily feature for 7 January 2006, a preview of a chapter about Humans evolving from apelike creatures is given.1
I do find it interesting that Menton keeps getting asked to give speaches in public schools. There are two possible reasons why he is still invited. First, someone on the staff, possibly the teacher of that particular class, is a young earth creationist, thus he has someone on the inside of these schools to lobby for his presentations. The other possibility...it is done by the teacher in order to expose the students to some critical thought. The real question is...what is said after Menton leaves? Does the teacher follow up with a rebuttal of the creationist position? If so, inviting Menton is a tool to show students what is the wrong view of evolution.
In this chapter, Menton points out that "many students are being taught human evolution (often in the social studies class) by teachers who have little knowledge of human anatomy, let alone anything about ape anatomy." However, knowledge of anatomy is not really the issue. It is how you interpret that knowledge. Menton has vast knowledge, yet his old earth counterparts would say his interpretations are foolish. Therefore, knowledge is not the important issue.
Menton goes on to say "the presumed ape ancestry of man is a bitter pill for any Christian who attempts to “make peace” with Darwin." Actually, millions of theistic evolutionists have made peace with Darwin, and there is no bitterness to it. They fully accept both evolution and God, with no conflicts whatsoever. Occasionally, Answers in Genesis will feature testimonies from people who used to be theistic evolutionists, and they will tell of the struggle they went through to believe in evolution and God. In these instances, there is a common thread...they all had young earth influence at some point of their lives. They are the minority, and not the norm for someone who accepts evolution and God. Free yourself from the young earth teachings, and there is no conflict, and you can be a happy, committed Christian.
The article goes on to talk about the sparse fossil hominid evidence for evolution. Yes, this will always be the case. Fossil formation is rare. However, enough fossils exist to show a progression of hominids over the last few million years.
But lets face up to reality. If scientists found thousands of fossil hominids, each one showing evolutionary progression from the one before it, young earth creationists would still not accept it. No amount of evidence, no matter how credible, will convince them.
Menton goes on to say "We know from Scripture that God didn’t create any apemen..." Exactly where does it say that? No verses in Scripture say anything about apemen. When you consider that millions of years of evolution are boiled down to the verses in Genesis 1, it makes sense that God did not mention all the creatures he made, and which are now extinct. Menton says this without any evidence, one way or the other, to prove it.
To sum it up, Menton gives a quote from an evolutionist, who says that their theories are weak due to the lack of data. Note the quote is from 1978! Since then, many more fossil hominids have been found, and evolutionists no longer feel this way. Menton had to go back 25 years in order to find a quote to support his cause.
Overall, this article indicates that Menton's chapter on human evolution contains nothing new that would cause evolutionists to doubt their position.
1 Humans: Evolved from Apelike Creatures...Really?, originally published at answersingenesis.org/home/area/wow/preview/part4.asp
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Answers In Genesis 2006 Daily Features
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