Page 28 - Masters Sample Courses

Study Section13: The Origin of Man

(This is section 13 from the course, Genesis – Creationism)

13.1 Connect

Years ago I was asked to teach a class in a public high school about the importance of
marriage. The class was taught in the school’s science room. Around the perimeter of the
classroom was a continuous shelf about six feet high and at least 30 feet long around three
walls. As I stood there to begin teaching the class, I looked up to the left shelf. The entire
shelf was filled with plastic busts of heads starting with the first one which looked like a
modern ape. But as you proceeded around the room, each bust slightly changed to be more human like.
Finally, when you arrive 30 feet later, the last bust was a normal human head. The display was depicting
the evolution of apes to humans over millions of years. Each bust was labeled with a long name which
was difficult to pronounce, and the approximate age of the fossils used to sculpt the head.

The students thought that each head was a model of a fossil found and of course, the older fossils were
more ape-like and the later fossils were more human-like. This display basically “proved” to the
students that humans evolved from apes. What the students did not know is that most all the models
were not supported by a recongnized fossil evidence, but were created out of the imagination of
scientists and artists who wanted to prove evoluton to be true. Out of the more than 30 or so models,
probably only two were supported by authentic fossil evidence: the ape and the man.

For over 160 years, palenotologists have been searching for fossils that would link the apes to modern
man. They have touted various discoveries as “missing links” between the two species. Let’s look at
their supposed proofs of the evolution of man from ape-like creatures…

13.2 Objectives

1. The students should be able to explain the birth of taxonomical classification systems and how
they have been altered by evolutionary scientists.

2. The students should be able to explain the recapitulation theory.

3. The students should be able to list various “missing links” that are really not missing nor are they links
to anything.

4. The student should be able to explain what a hominid is and demonstrate that hominids are either
ape-like or man-like and are not in proper sequence.

13.3 The Origin of man according to the evolutionist

Biologists have created a taxonomy of organizing living things in groups according to how
they think they have evolved. They are kingdom, phylum (division), order, family, genus,
species. Recently they have added another one called domain which is above kingdom.
This system is based on the work of Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus, who built on John