Apologetics Press, Inc.

Apologetics Press, Inc.

230 Landmark Drive Montgomery, Alabama 36117-2752

? Copyright 2003 ISBN: 0-932859-58-5

Printed in China

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or critical re views.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Brad Harrub (1970 - ) and Bert Thompson (1949 - )

The Truth About Human Origins Includes bibliographic references, and subject and name indices. ISBN 0-932859-58-5 1. Creation. 2. Science and religion. 3. Apologetics and Polemics I. Title

213--dc21

2003111100

DEDICATION

On occasion, there are certain individuals who quietly step into our lives--and who leave such an indelible imprint that we find our existence changed forever.

This book is dedicated to four such individuals, whom we never will be able to repay for their unwavering moral and fi nancial support of our work, and who expect nothing in re turn for their incredible generosity--except our continued pledge to teach and defend the Truth.

This book (and numerous others like it) never could have come to fruition without the ongoing support of these two Christian couples who, although separated by many miles, walk side by side in their combined efforts to ensure the suc cess of Apologetics Press.

This side of heaven, few will know the full impact of their sacrifices. Fortunately, God does.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1 -- The "Record of the Rocks" [Part I] . . . . . . 3

Biological Taxonomy and Human Evolution . . . . . . 4

Did Man Evolve from the Apes? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

An Examination of the "Record of the Rocks" . . . . . 12

Aegyptopithecus zeuxis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Dryopithecus africanus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Ramapithecus brevirostris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Orrorin tugenensis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Australopithecus (Ardipithecus) ramidus . . . . . 27

Australopithecus anamensis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Kenyanthropus platyops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 2 -- The "Record of the Rocks" [Part II] . . . . 41

Australopithecus afarensis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Lucy's Rib Cage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Lucy's Pelvis and Gender . . . . . . . . . . 47

Lucy's Appendages--Made for Bi

pedalism, or Swinging from Trees?. . 50

Australopithecine Teeth:

More Evidence that

Lucy was Arboreal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Australopithecine Ears:

Human-like or Ape-like? . . . . . . . . . 54

Lucy: Hominid or Chimp? . . . . . . . . 55

Australopithecus africanus/

Australopithecus boisei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

The Laetoli Footprints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Homo habilis/Homo rudolfensis . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Homo erectus/Homo ergaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Homo sapiens idaltu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

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What Does the "Record of the Rocks" Really Show? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

The Parade of Fossil Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Neanderthal Man. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Nebraska Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Piltdown Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Java Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Rhodesian Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Chapter 3 -- Molecular Evidence of Human Origins . . 99

Chromosomal Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Real Genomic differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

"Mitochondrial Eve" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

The Demise of Mitochondrial Eve . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

The Molecular Clock

--Dating Mitochondrial Ancestors . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Serious Errors in Mitochondrial

DNA Data in the Scientific Literature. . . . . . . . . . . 126

Neanderthal vs. Human DNA--

Is It a Match? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Chapter 4 -- The Problem of Gender

and Sexual Reproduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

"Intellectual Mischief and Confusion"--

Or Intelligent Design? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

From Asexual to Sexual Reproduction--

The Origin of Sex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

The Lottery Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

The Tangled Bank Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . 145

The Red Queen Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . 147

The DNA Repair Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . 148

Why Sex? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

The 50% Disadvantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Mars and Venus, or X and Y? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Differences Among Various Species . . . . . . . . . . . 164

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