This is Part II of an interview with Jim Brennamen about cave men and early humans.
Question: Do you find the Bible accounts of early man to be accurate?
Jim: I have come to the conclusion after years of research and reading on the subject, that no one has a real hold on understanding early man. However, what the Bible presents remains unchallenged by any of the “latest” fossil finds or DNA research or archaeological discoveries.
We should always make sure we are starting with a firm grasp on the facts as revealed in the simple straight-forward reading of Scripture. All humans originated as the descendants of a single pair directly created by God at what Jesus called the “beginning of the creation” about 6000 years ago (Mark 10:6). Hang your hat on that peg. Draw that line in the sand. Stake your “view” on that biblical fact.
“But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’
The Bible is the only source for an accurate record of origin for all men, and so, yes the Bible would be fully accurate in all that it affirms about early man.
Question: Do evolutionary scientists sometimes alter archaeological information to fit an evolutionary format?
Jim: Not only do they alter the information, at times they also suppress what does not fit their naturalistic agenda. They simply do not report any dating conclusions that fall outside of their timelines. And they always manipulate any evidence to conform to their staunchly held presuppositions. The famous Piltdown man is an example of an intentionally manipulated fossil fraud – combining chimpanzee and human bones and attempting to pass it off as a “proto-human” missing link.
Question: What about Cro-Magnon man? Are they different enough from modern humans to warrant a separate designation?
Jim: I have never been able to understand why scientists want to make Cro-Magnon (C-M) man an early step in the gradual rise of “Anatomically Modern Human” (AMH), since C-M were typically physically superior to AMH! C-M had larger cranial capacity and the adults were generally taller than even vitamin enhanced humans of our day! The Cro-Magnons averaged 6 feet 7 inches (2 meters), which could well have given rise to the ‘giants’ referred to in Classical and Biblical texts.
A skeleton estimated as being 10,000 years old was found in the ‘tomb of Palli Aike’ in Tierra del Fuego in 1969-70 and has been identified as Cro-Magnon, which indicates that this human family also spread to South America. Of course, for creationists, the date assigned to these finds is incorrect. This family of humans evidently made a rapid migration from the area of Babel, and moved, without pausing for very long in the journey, directly to the most distant location, the tip of South America.
These Patagonians are post flood (4300 years ago), and by the way, Patagonia (Tierra del Fuego) is one place with an almost identical Flood Lore to what we read in our biblical account!
The Patagonians were early descendants of the sons of Noah who moved rapidly from Babel. This was no gradual dispersion over time, but an earnest and relentless mission to go as far away as possible as quickly as they could. And their hale condition and wholesome physiques seem to show that they are not quite as degraded in stature and robustness as their later more frail and delicate progeny! Yet even today, native Patagonians are generally taller than others in South America.
There is very little treatment of the early Patagonians in Creationist literature, but evolutionary scientists identify the ancient inhabitants of the tip of South America as Cro-Magnon types.
The problem with evolutionary scientists today is that they are so locked into the gradual rise of AMH from earlier hominid and primate ancestors that they can’t even consider that we might rather be devolving from a previously better state. We started out better, in the pristine ancestry of Adam and Eve as revealed in the Biblical account of the “very good world.”
Michael Oard writes about the dispersion of people following the Flood, and so-called cavemen, in his book Frozen in Time, which is available on-line: http:www.answersingenesis.org/articles/fit/man-during-ice-age
Question: What are the differences in the physical characteristics of Early Modern Humans and today’s modern humans?
Jim: The Early Modern Humans (EMH) are perhaps a bit more robust, particularly seen in femore–the leg bones. But still all of the EMH fossils are post flood and are a reflection of the biblical record of decline in the human family following the Flood (Genesis 10-12).