1 One-Evening Compact Books Compact Books For Busy People This Is A Totally Free Resource Offered By The International Apologetics Society (Estd. 1970) IAS offers totally FREE Ebooks from its website at http://www.OnlyFreeBooks.com you can download numerous FREE ebooks from this site. This publication is released in Creative Commons and can freely be used by anyone anywhere under similar conditions. In fact, we encourage you to distribute this work freely for the sake of the gospel of Christ April 2015, September 2018 2 Human Evolution Dr. Johnson C. Philip Dr. Saneeh Cherian Evolution of life is a very old idea, dating at least as far back as the Greek philosophers. However, in modern times it was given a great impetus by Charles Darwin and his theories of origin. Charles Darwin Darwin’s book, Origin of Species, created a great expectation in the evolutionary thinkers in scientific world that now finally human-evolution from monkey- like creatures would finally be demonstrated. This atmosphere of optimism was given further boost by the discovery of numerous monkey and human-like fossils. (Fossils are remains from the past and are very useful for a study of life as it used to be in the past). 3 Names such as Nebraska Man, Java Man, Piltdown Man, Australopithecus, Ramapithecus, Homo Erectus, Neanderthal Man, and Cro Magnon Man became very popular in the evolutionary circle. These are actually names given to the creatures whose fossils were discovered worldwide, mostly by supporters of evolution. These fossil-men were then put together in a certain order to create a chronology of how man evolved. Thus it would be interesting to look at some of these fossils, which we will do in the next chapter. Fake Fossils Nebraska Man: This fossil man (and woman) was created from a single tooth found in Nebraska in 1917. ‘Nebraska Man’ was even presented as a firm ‘evidence’ for human evolution in the famous Monkey Trial in the US. 4 A Reconstruction Of Nebraska Man/Woman Eventually they found more bones of this creature in 1925 and 26. It turned out to be an extinct pig or peccary called Prosthennops serus. In 1927 this truth was announced to the world in the journal ‘Science’ but even today some people keep claiming that Nebraska Man was a true ancestor of modern humans. Pictures of these pigs is shown on the next page: 5 The Piltdown Man: Fossil fragments of the Piltdown Man were discovered in 1912 at Piltdown. They were parts of a skull and jawbone, said to have been collected in 1912 from a gravel pit at Piltdown, East Sussex, England. Piltdown Man ruled the scientific community for more than 40 years and more than 500 learned papers were published on this fossil. 6 A Reconstruction Of Piltdown Man However, in 1953 November Time magazine published the news that Piltdown Man was an outright forgery. This was based upon the careful researches of Kenneth Page Oakley, Sir Wilfrid Edward Le Gros Clark and Joseph Weiner. 7 The Piltdown skull being examined. Back row (from left): F. O. Barlow, G. Elliot Smith, Charles Dawson, Arthur Smith Woodward. Front row: A S Underwood, Arthur Keith, W. P. Pycraft, and Ray Lankester. These were some of the greatest experts of their time. They demonstrated that the so-called fossil was a 'composite' made deliberately by mixing bones from three different species. There was a human skull which was hardly 400 years old, the lower jaw of an orangutan which was around 500 years old, and chimpanzee fossil teeth. These were stained in iron solution and chromic acid to make them look very old. Microscopic examination revealed file-marks on the teeth, which were filed and modified to a shape that 8 was more suited to a human diet that went well with their theories. Unfortunately, even 60+ years after this fraud was discovered, many books related to evolution continue to project the Piltdown Man as man’s evolutionary ancestor. Java Man: This is another famous fossil-man which aggressively was promoted by a group of devoted evolution-proponents. The entire Java Man fossil consisted of only three bones: a skull cap, a femur and one tooth (molar). These were discovered, starting 1881, near Solo river in Java. These were not found in the same pit, but rather underground about 50 feet apart. Had Bible-believing people produced such a fossil, the whole scientific community would have stood against it to claim that evidence found underground 50 feet away from each other cannot be considered as coming from the same individual. Today the scientific community does accept that they do not belong to the same individual. Though the pieces of bones did not come from one pit or from one individuals, they went ahead and created an entity called the Java Man from it. 9 Picture: two views each of the skull-cap, the molar, and the femur found from different locations and depths that made up the famous ‘Java Man’ The popular reconstruction of the so-called Java Man 10 Java Man was eventually named as Homo Erectus and many other things, and was kept in circulation in textbooks for long. However, the discoverer had three a big feud with another evolutionist three decades after the original discovery. To discredit his opponent, the discoverer of Java Man presented two totally human skulls that he had discovered from the strata. In other words, Java Man bones came from the same layers in which modern humans fossils were discovered. Thus Java Man could not have been our ancestor as per the contemporary scientific wisdom because evolutionary ancestors needed to be millions of years older than modern man. Yet, even today many textbooks continue to claim that he was an ape-man ancestor of modern man. So much for objectivity. Summary There are many more fossils which we will describe in other book. However, these three have been presented in this book to show that not all claims related about human evolution from ape-man are based upon facts. All pictures used in this ebook are in public domain. All pictures came from the repository of Commons.Wikimedia We are grateful to everyone who made it possible for us to have these pictures. May God bless all of them. 11 About The Authors Dr. Saneesh Cherian is a Christian communicator, expositor, and apologist. A specialist in sociology, he has advanced degrees in theology and sociology and continues to do research in these areas. He has authored more than 100 books and 1000 articles in English and Malayalam. He is also the Managing editor of several prestigious Christian magazines. He has served as the Academic Dean of several Bible seminaries. Dr. Johnson C. Philip is a senior Christian communicator, expositor, and apologist. A specialist in Quantum-nuclear Physics, he has done advanced studies in physics, archeology, communications and numismatics. He has authored more than 100 books and 10,000 articles. Together Dr. Cherian and Dr. Philip have been laboring to make a large corpus of wholesome Christian writings, most of which can be downloaded FREE from their websties mentioned elsewhere in this work. 12 Please Join Our Mission The International Apologetics Society was established in India in 1970. Our mission is to strive towards a revival of the conservative Bible-believing Christian faith. This needs the contributions of a large number of Christians from all walks of life. Our own contribution would be through a large number of printed and eprint materials on Bible, doctrine, practical life, and Christian Apologetics. All these books/ebooks are being placed in Creative Commons Copyright. Most of them are also being made available totally FREE. This means that everyone everywhere is free to reuse them – as printed copies, on the net, to distribute in classroom, or even for free distribution on your website. Freely you have received, freely you give. Come, let us work together to fill the world with biblical and apologetic material for the sake of a strong Christian witness!! Visit our website for MORE free books. Kindly DO NOT forget to send copies of this ebook to EVERYONE whom you know!! Pass the blessings! http://www.OnlyFreeBooks.com 13 .