And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth,...
Acts 17:26
That’s the claim being made by the popular science media
after the discovery of an “ancient human fossil . . . unlike any other
hominin found before” in China.
Q: How should we view this new find within a Biblical worldview?
A: Well, this yet-to-be-classified fossil find consists of some jaw,
leg, and skull bones from a 12- or 13-year-old child.
According to the
popular reports, the “face is similarly structured to that of the modern
human lineage,” but the “lack of chin appears more like that of a
Denisovan.”
--In other words, this human appears, in the evolutionary
view, as a “hybrid” between two branches on our supposed family tree—the
branch that modern man comes from and the branch that gave rise to
“other ancient hominins.”
So really, it’s variety within the human kind.
In a Biblical worldview, we understand that all humans—“modern” man, Denisovan, Neanderthal,
and more—are not separate branches on a family tree as man becomes more
evolved.
All human beings are descendants of the same fully human
couple (Adam and Eve), who were made in God’s image and lived only a few
thousand years ago.
--The individual whose fossilized remains
were discovered isn’t a so-called “hybrid” but rather reflects some of
the human genetic variability we find in the post-flood fossil record.
It appears that God created Adam and Eve with tremendous genetic
variability, some of which we still see reflected today (skin shade, eye
shape, etc.) but some of which has disappeared from the human
population (the Denisovan chin, Neanderthal brow ridge, etc.).
It has
nothing to do with evolution and everything to do with created genetic diversity."
AIG
