The cover story of the March 14, 1994, Time magazine which carried the above title, says that "humanity's ancestors left Africa almost a million years earlier than thought, and that modem people may have evolved in many parts of the world all at once." Can you blame one for saying, "Here we go again?" The ever changing story of the speculations about the searchings for ancestors of man does it again! And what's a million years among friends! Can you imagine the hue and cry that would be heard if creationists changed their story every few years like the proponents of evolution do!

The Time magazine article goes on to say, "despite more than a century of digging, the fossil record remains maddeningly sparse. With so few clues, even a single bone that doesn't fit into the picture can upset everything. Virtually every major discovery has put deep cracks in the conventional wisdom and forced scientists to concoct new theories, amid furious debate. Now it appears to be happening once again. Findings announced in the past two weeks are rattling the foundations of anthropology and raising some startling possibilities Humanity's ancestors may have de-parted Africa  the-cradle of mankind  eons earlier than scientists have assumed. Humans may have evolved not just in a single place but in many places around the world. And our own species, Homo sapiens, may be much older than anyone had suspected. If even portions of these claims prove to be true, they will force a major rewrite of the book of human evolution" (emphasis mine-RS).

But this is not the first time the "evolution story" has had to change. William R. Fix in his book, The Bone Peddlers (p. xi), gives a chronology of the proposed ancestors of man and the accounting of the recanting that was done in each case. Neanderthal man first proposed in 1856 as one of the "missing links" was abandoned as an ancestral species by many anthropologies in the 1960s and 1970s. Typical of the bias of so called "scientists" when it comes to evolutionary concoctions is the following admission found in the book The Neanderthals, which is part of the Time-Life series, The Emergence of Man (1973), p. 7. "To most people, Neanderthal man is anything but human  a grunting, shuffling beast rather than an intelligent being. But recently, a true picture of him has taken place, and a different picture it is from the one commonly held. Within less than a generation of our own lifetime, this ancient man has been lifted from the misconceptions of nearly a century to deserved inclusion with the ranks of humanity." On pages 24 and 25 of this same book, pictures are found showing how an artist can take the same Neanderthal skull and put the face of an ape or that of a man on the skull. The pictures are titled, "How Different Faces Fit a Single Skull." This is a frank admission that many reconstructions of skeletons come out the way they do because of the prejudices and assumptions of those who are reconstructing and arranging them (from material on "Fossil Men" compiled by John Clark and presented at Hickman Mills Church of Christ, October 1993).

Homo erectus (Java man, Peking man) first proposed in 1891 as a "missing link" was made highly questionable by the discovery in 1972 by Richard Leakey of the famous skull 1470. Piltdown man first proposed in 1912 was exposed in 1953 as a hoax. Hesperopithecus first proposed in 1922 was found in 1927 to have been an extinct pig. Australopithecus africanus first proposed in 1924 was disqualified by the discovery of skull 1470 in 1972. Australopithecus robust us first proposed in 1938 was disqualified by discovery of Homo habilis in the 1960s. Gigantopithecus first proposed in 1946 was dropped by most anthropologists as too improbable by 1950. Zinjanthropus first proposed in 1959 was displaced by Leakey's discovery of Homo habilis in the 1960s. Homo habilis first proposed in 1960, ancestral status still remains indeterminate. Ramapithecus first proposed in 1964 was found in 1979 to be the ancestor of Organgutan. Lothagam man first proposed in 1967 was disqualified by new measurement in 1977. Australopithecus afarensis "Lucy" first proposed in 1979 has been beset by man's problems and mounting controversy since the early 1980s.

Not much seems to have changed in the area of evoluntary speculation since 1989 when the following words were penned. "For years, scenes from the daily life of our ancient ancestors have been rendered with a dab of science and a bucketful of speculation. Based as much on wishful thinking or intellectual fashion as the scanty fossil evidence left by our ancestors. . ." (U.S. News, Feb. 27, 1989). The theories of men can change daily but the Lord "is the same yesterday, today and forever" (Heb. 13:8). One day perhaps man, in all his wisdom, will find the answer God gave a long time ago about how man began. "In the Beginning, God..."

Guardian of Truth XXXVIII: 21, p. 13
November 3, 1994