"Surely you’ve seen it: the succession of drawings portraying our supposed evolution from ape-like creature to modern human—an instantly recognizable ‘icon’ of evolution.
But does this icon have any basis in fact? Not according to eminent paleoanthropologist Bernard Wood, of George Washington University’s Department of Anthropology at the Center for Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology. Although a committed evolutionist himself, Wood has written -
But does this icon have any basis in fact? Not according to eminent paleoanthropologist Bernard Wood, of George Washington University’s Department of Anthropology at the Center for Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology. Although a committed evolutionist himself, Wood has written -
“There is a popular image of human evolution that you’ll find all over the place, from the backs of cereal packets to advertisements for expensive scientific equipment. On the left of the picture there’s an ape—stocky, jutting jaw, hunched in the knuckle-walking position. On the right, a man—graceful, high forehead, striding purposefully into the future. Between the two is a succession of figures that become ever more like humans, as the shoulders start to pull back, the torso slims down, the arms retract, the legs extend, the cranium expands and the chin recedes. Our progress from ape to human looks so smooth, so tidy. It’s such a beguiling image that even the experts are loath to let it go. But it is an illusion.”
Our supposed evolutionary origin: frustratingly unclear, according to this leading evolutionist. One of the reasons is apparent in a lengthy review Wood co-wrote with colleague Nicholas Lonergan in the Journal of Anatomy4 about the ‘hominin’5 fossil-naming controversies raging among anthropologists. In context of widespread arguments and disagreements over ascribing genus and species names to particular fossils, Wood and Lonergan highlight the difficulties involved in accurate species identification when only bone fragments or teeth are available:"
CMI
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Romans 1:22,23
