Who Was Adam?

Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross

Introduction

Discusses the dialog between scientists and creationists - one of mutual disrespect. An appeal for dialogue and putting creation to the test.

1. The Differences Between David and Darwin

A survey of the materialist landscape including Sagan's "pale blue dot", a survey of Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould's "Wonderful Life" and "replaying life's tape". Brief survey of hominid discoveries. Several quotes critical of creationism including H. James Birx. All this is contrasted with David's song in Psalm 8.

2. Fossil Record Facts

p27 Recap of Piltdown Man hoax - the fact that it was slow in being exposed may reflect the fact that it fit scientists' presuppositions about the evolution of man.

p27 Australopithicus discovery 1924

p28 Alexander Kohn quote

p29 Hominid in this book used for bipedal primates, but not for man.

p30 Almost all paleoanthropologists believe homo sapiens sapiens doesn't extend back more than 100,000 years.

p31 Map of hominids with dates

p34 Lucy is australopithicus afarensis, discovered 70's, Donald Johnson, 40% complete.

p34 "Tuang Child" 1924 Raymond Dart first australopithicus

p34 First "homo" type about 2 million years back

p35 H. engaster "Turkama Boy" nearly complete, Kenya

p36 Neanderthal - about 130,000 to 30,000 years

p37 Diagram of hominids.

3 A Scientific Creation Model

p42 Geisler quote "Indeed, many of the greatest champions of the highest view of Scripture have held divergent views regarding the age of the earth."

p42 References "A Matter of Days".

This chapter outlines the elements of the "Scientific Creation Model" of RTB

  1. God created the first humans (Adam and Eve) both physically and spiritually through direct intervention.
  2. All humanity came from Adam and Eve
  3. Humanity originated in a single geographical location (the Garden of Eden).
  4. God created Adam and Eve relatively recently, between 10,000 and 100,000 years.
  5. Humanity's female lineage should trace back to an earlier date than the male lineage.
  6. God prepared the planet for humanity's advent, then created Adam and Eve at a special moment in the Earth's history.
  7. Human beings share physical characteristics with animals.
  8. Humanity, made in God's image, displays unique characteristics distinct from those of all other animals.
  9. Life spans of the first human beings were on the order of several hundred years and became significantly shorter after the Flood.
  10. A universal flood shaped early human history.
  11. Humanity spread around the world from somewhere in or near the Middle East.

The chapter ends with the list of RTBs Human Origins Creation Model Predictions

  1. Humanity traces back to one woman (Eve) and one man (Noah).
  2. Humanity's early population size was relatively small.
  3. Humanity originated in a single location in or near the Middle East.
  4. Humanity's origin dates back to between 10,000 and 100,000 years.
  5. The origin of the female lineage (Eve) predates the origin of the male lineage (Noah).
  6. God created humanity at the "just right" time in Earth's history.
  7. Human culture appears and expands explosively in the archeological record since humanity's origin.
  8. Humans share anatomical, physical, biochemical, and genetic similarities with the extinct hominids as well as ith great apes and other animals.
  9. A universal but local flood, that impacted all of humanity, shaped human history.
  10. Human life spans (once longer than 900 years) became progressively shorter after the flood.
  11. Humanity spread around the world from in or near the Middle East relatively recently.
  12. The seeds of human civilization and agriculture had their birth in or near the Middle East.

4. It's All in the Genes

p54 Review of DNA, mutations

p58 Types of mutations

p58 DNA sequence genealogies

p59 Neutral mutation # as a molecular clock

p59 Extraordinary genetic unity of humans vs other species

p61 Starts discussion of the use of the Human Genome Project (HGP) to provide tools for tracing ancestry. An interesting section on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to analyze heritage. Discusses Chromosome 21 which has 32 million nucleotides and was found to have 35,989 SNPs. SNPs can occur in characteristic groupings called haplotypes. Out of an astronomical number of possible haplotypes, just 3 haplotypes describe 80% of the diversity of Chromosome 21. This kind of specificity provides tools for tracing lineage. These haplotypes are discussed more in Ch 8 about the movement of human populations, and form much of the evidence suggesting that all human groups trace back to East Africa.

Tracking of genetic content with these tools has shown that non-African humans are a subset of African .

p62 Mitochondrial DNA and maternal lineage.

  • 1980 Wesley Brown
  • 1987 Allan L. Wilson, characterized "mitochondrial Eve" as being about 200,000 years ago
  • 1991 Repeat by Wilson, 166000-249000 yrs

It is interesting that while I was reading this, a related discussion was taking place on the Apologist's net. "Just to add a little to what Sue, Anthony, and Kevin have shared, I took the Human Origins class year with Fuz Rana and he gave a few additional types of corroborating dating to support Y chromosomal and Mitochondrial DNA dating. Microsatellite DNA shows humanity appearing between 70,000-140,000 years ago. Tapeworms and Malaria can be dated at roughly less than 120,000 to 160,000 years ago, and body lice seems to have originated around 70,000 years ago. I think the relevant point of the dating is not that it is amazingly accurate, but that all the data is much more recent than would have been thought by evolutionary scientists and that it all traces back to a single pair or very small group near or in Africa." "Fuz Rana addresses this issue in a recent article titled, " New Archeological Evidence Fills the Gap in the Biblical Case for Human Origins." Fossil evidence places the origin of the modern human form in Africa around 100,000 years ago, consistent with the genetic data. Archeological sites indicate these individuals possessed the advanced cognitive abilities and symbolic capacities associated with modern man. Therefore, it appears likely that mankind arose around 100,000 years ago, although the evidence is fragmentary and more is needed to establish it as fact. Most of the fossil and archeological evidence for the emergence of modern man comes from Cro-Magnon man who appears in Europe around 40,000 years ago. The simplest way to explain the discrepancy in dates is that Cro-Magnon man is the ancestor of the earlier African population which migrated throughout the world following the events at Babel. This is supported by the fact that this the same timeframe modern man seems appears in other locations, such as Asia and Australia." While RTB has long pointed to 40,000 years ago for the origin of man, it appears they are following the science and moving towards the older date.

p65 Y-chromosome DNA study of lineage

p66 first suggested 270,000-188,000 with population <10,000 but subsequent studies got 35,000 to 47,000.

p68 Other lineage methods

  • Nuclear genes
  • Pseudogenes
  • Endogenous retroviruses
  • Microsatellite DNA
  • Minisatellite DNA
  • SINE DNA ~10% of human genome
  • Linkage disequilibrium

p71 Human parasites also give ages in same general range

  • Tapeworms
  • Malaria
  • Lice - head and body lice separate info

p74 Argues against a population collapse as the reason for a small original human population.

5. Bones and Stones

p77 Dordogne, France Cave with >100 carvings, 1000 yards extent, dated 30,000 years.

p78 ~40,000 years, sudden appearance of man

p79 What is the Image of God? Box

p81 Luminescence dating

p84 100,000-40,000 yrs stasis of tools, sudden shift at 40,000

p87 Humans - jewelry 39000-43000 around humanity's origin

p88 150 caves with painting and carving

p89 Ivory flute - Germany - 30-37,000yrs

p91 Distinctives of early humans

p92 Fundamental biological change at about 50,000yrs, a sociocultural big-bang. Discusses Klein's scenario.

6. The Best Possible Time

This chapter outlines many of the finely-tuned parameters that had to be in place for humanity. Material like "Why the Universe is the Way It Is" with elements of "Rare Earth" thrown in.

p98 Large scale fine tuning of the universe

p98 Goldilocks galaxy

p99 Role of long period os simple life

p100 Milky Way's narrow time window

p102 Just right solar moment

p104 100-200 million years outside limit for habitable Earth

p105 24hr period of Earth's rotation just right

p106 Beneficial tectonic activity

p109 "All the necessary windows for human life and human civilization opened at just the right time and all at once. .. at the perfect moment in Earth's history.

7. How the Fountain of Youth Ran Dry

p113 Oxidative stress, free radicals - considering the causes of aging.

p114 catalase, superoxide dismutase, methionine sulfoxide - helping to understand aging.

p114 Caloric restriction lengthens life.

p115 Discussion of sirtuin (Sir2) in extending life.

p116 Heat shock proteins act to prolong life

p117 Methuselah gene in fruit flies

p119 Role of radiation risk

8. People on the Move

p124 Many evolutionary biologists hold to the "Out of Africa" hypothesis, and RTB's model also holds to a similar view from the Biblical perspective, i.e. recent origin of man in Garden of Eden, presumably in or near the Middle East.

p125 "Let's Do Europe" Relatively sparse fossil and archeological data indicate human habitation on the order of 40,000 years ago. Mitochondrial DNA studies indicate that European humans show primarily the N haplotype, contrasting with the M haplotype in Asia. The Y-chromosome DNA studies are more detailed and fine the M173 and M17 haplotypes which appear to come from the M45 haplotype which in turn comes from the M89 haplotype found in the Middle East. This kind of mapping suggests that the first European human populations took a roundabout route from the Middle East through central Asia to Europe.

p127 "The Orient Express" Discusses several dates from fossil and archeological evidence, but then focuses on the genetic evidence. Again, it is haplotypes that play a major role in the evidence, with mitochrondrial DNA haplotypes C, D, E and G in the Asian populations, appearing to have come from the M haplotype found in East Africa. East Asia Y-chromosomal haplotypes C & D descend from M168 from East Africa. Projected time 30000 to 40000 years ago and projected route along southern coast and then northward.

p129 "Into the Outback" Y-chromosomal evidence from 12,000 individuals points to African connection. Evidence points to a route along the south Asian coast, and models posit an arrival associated with the last ice age when New Guinea and Tasmania were connected, but still requiring a >50mi sea voyage. Collective evidence suggests 30000-40000 years ago.

p131 "Coming to America" Most agree that population of the Americas came from Asia across the Bering Strait. Though embroiled in multiple controversies, the nearest thing to a consensus is a migration from northeast and southern Asia roughly 15,000 to 12,000 years ago at the end of a great ice age.

p135 The collective picture of all the peoples of the world suggests distribution within the last 40,000 to 30,000 years with a common ultimate origin in East Africa.

p137 Poses the challenge to evolutionary development of man and the RTB model.

9. Is Human Evolution a Fact?

p140 Niles Eldridge on evolution as a theory.

p

p

10. Bipedalism and Brain Size

p

p

p

11 Who Was Turkana Boy?

p

p

p

12. Who Were the Neanderthals

p

p

p

13 What About Chimpanzees?

p

p

p

14 What About Junk DNA?

p

p

p

15 Mankind's Identity Materializes

p

p

p

p

p

p

p

p

p

p

p

p


Reading Reference
Index
 
Software ReferenceR Nave
Go Back