This post comes from Calvary Chapel Pastors
In this 5 part series you may have been wondering, why I would take so much time to focus on some bones? Well, the answer is because these bones are being used to create doubt about the Word of God. And the only reason they can be used with such success is because Christians:
- Don’t know what the actual evidence is!
- Don’t critically evaluate what the evidence!
- Think it doesn’t matter!
This is why we’re spending so much time on this. This is real world evangelism and Christians must take this seriously. By the way, when it comes to point number 3 above, it absolutely does matter! Remember, 50% to 88% of young folks raised in the church are walking away at age 18!
Our heart at rforh is to reduce that number and we’re trying to accomplish this by educating Christians on what the Word of God teaches and training them to use critical thinking when evaluating current issues.
So, with that intro, let’s move onto the teaching. We’ve covered Lucy’s skull reconstruction and the hips and knees. We’ve shown that regardless of the big claims that say Lucy is an apelike ancestor to humans the observational evidence doesn’t quite back that up.
In this article we’ll deal with the hands and the feet! Now, since we don’t want to be accused of using Christian/creationist sources, I’ll make my case by showing you a picture from Vanderbilt University (there’s another picture of Lucy’s remains here if you’d like to check it out).
Have you noticed that the observational evidence for Lucy’s hand and feet is . . . . nothing? That’s correct, nothing!
Please remember, Lucy is a single specimen within the Australopithicus afarensis “kind” and they did not find any hand or foot bones for the specimen called Lucy.
Consider the reconstruction below.
Pretty loving couple, don’t you think?
Now, notice the human hands and human feet on not only Lucy, but on her mate as well! And take a look at the reconstruction of Lucy at the London Natural History Museum below.
Another example. Look below at the way the hands are depicted at the St. Louis Zoo exhibit entitled the Living World.
It looks as if Lucy’s thinking about, “What’s for dinner?”
These are just a few of the thousands of false reconstructions that we see in museums, on TV, in magazines, etc. — and they are deceiving people. Christians, as well as non-christians, need to know the truth so let’s address it.
Now this is important, remember they did not find any hand or foot bones from Lucy — but they did find hand and foot bones from other Australopithecines. So, the real question is, “Do the fossil hand and foot bones they found from other Australopithecines support the claim that Lucy had human hands and feet?”
Ahhh, that’s a very fair question so let’s see where the observational evidence takes us.
Not too long ago I had the privilege to take more than 150 young folks through the David Koch exhibit on human evolution at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. (more about that in the next article). We looked at all of the supposed evidence for human evolution. Lucy was the star, and yes, she was depicted with human hands and human feet.
Of all the exhibits in the world on human evolution, the one of Lucy in the Smithsonian is supposed to be the latest, greatest and most up-to-datest! And we can show that it’s inaccurate.
So, what’s the truth? Below is a chart comparing the curvature of the fingers between, Bonobo (type of chimpanzee), Chimpanzee, Gorilla, Human and AL333 (the australopithecines specimen of hand and feet bones that they did find — remember, none were found with Lucy’s bones). The further to the right the dark line is, the more curved the finger.
(J. Stern & R. Susman, 1983, Am. J. Phys. Anthropology 60:279-212)
Note that the circle with the dot inside is evidence for AL333 (australopithecines specimen) and that it shows that the fingers were just as curved, if not more curved than a chimpanzee. Hmmm! That isn’t what we saw in the other pictures.
Let me give you another source showing that Australopithecine hand bones are NOT human. Take a look at the write-up beneath the picture below. (Thank you Rich for this!)
“This cast of an Australopithecus afarensis hand shows the characteristic long, curved finger bones. These are more like the hands of living apes than they are modern human hands. The cross section of the finger bones is also squarish, indicating either a partly arboreal lifestyle or that this is a primitive feature retained after they moved into a more terrestrial lifestyle.” reference: australianmuseum.net.au
Anything jump out at you?? How about the line, “These are more like the hands of living apes than they are modern human hands.”
That statement tells that observational evidence of the hand bones is most likely that of a dead ape. So, why do they show human hands and feet on Lucy when the observational evidence that they found (remember, they aren’t Lucy’s bones) were more curved than a chimp?
By the way, the exact same thing is true when it comes to the toes of Lucy. Take a look at the picture below to see how Lucy’s foot is depicted at the St. Louis Zoo exhibit entitled the Living World.
Look familiar? Seriously, a little Nair and pedicure and it would look exactly like a human’s foot.
Well, what’s the truth? Let’s go back to the secular sources and see what we can find. Notice that the chart below shows that the toe bones they found (AL333, not Lucy) were more curved than a chimpanzee.
(J. Stern & R. Susman, 1983, Am. J. Phys. Anthropology 60:279-212)
I know that some will still not agree, so I’ll give one more secular source on this issue to support the fact that Lucy did NOT have human hands and human feet.
Ian Tattersall, who is not a creationist, in his book, Extinct Humans states the following:
Did you catch that last part? “In keeping with Lucy having had long and strongly curved finger and toe bones, as do chimpanzees and orangutans”! I rest my case. If you see human hands and human feet on Lucy, you are being deceived!
Well, we’re almost finished with this series on Lucy. We’ll wrap it up with the next article. It’s my hope and prayer that you are being encouraged to look closely at what the world is teaching and to not just blindly accept the words of man, including me. Search for the truth in all things.
All of this information, plus more was captured on DVD at the Becoming Bold Conference last year. “Human Evolution: Is That All You Got!” is one of five educational and motivations DVDs in the Becoming Bold set. You can purchase the Becoming Bold DVD set at the Calvary bookstore or the bookstore at Reasons for Hope website. The videos will equip and encourage you to Know it! Live it! and Share it! — all for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Stay bold,
ck
continue reading the views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of Calvary Southampton
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