The Vanishing Act of Human Evolution

Props for human evolution are disappearing, but evolutionists still use them in their storytelling.

It wasn’t that long ago (at least within the lifetime of many seniors) that Time-Life put out popular books with the iconic ape-to-man lineup.  In the hoary old sequence, hairy Neanderthal Man walked behind naked modern man, grunting obeisance to the superior, talking Cro-Magnon (who had a strikingly European look).  Far behind were the apes, trying to walk upright.  A few transitional forms, drawn with artistic license, filled in the middle.  The figures (all male for some reason), walked single file on an undisputed timeline.  A few more missing links, and the parade would be complete.  So much has changed!

Two recent popular science articles illustrate the tension between observation and story: props have vanished from under the storyteller’s feet, but he keeps talking.

Neanderthal language:  Science Daily updated the status of the hyoid bone in a Neanderthal fossil found in 1989.  The hyoid is a bone in the throat thought to be required for speaking in language.  “It has long been believed that other beings, including the Neanderthals with whom our ancestors shared Earth for thousands of years, simply lacked the necessary cognitive capacity and vocal hardware for speech.”  Imaging at the University of New England seems to have settled the debate:

We humans like to think of ourselves as unique for many reasons, not least of which being our ability to communicate with words. But ground-breaking research by an expert from the University of New England shows that our ‘misunderstood cousins,’ the Neanderthals, may well have spoken in languages not dissimilar to the ones we use today….

“By analysing the mechanical behaviour of the fossilised bone with micro x-ray imaging, we were able to build models of the hyoid that included the intricate internal structure of the bone. We then compared them to models of modern humans. Our comparisons showed that in terms of mechanical behaviour, the Neanderthal hyoid was basically indistinguishable from our own, strongly suggesting that this key part of the vocal tract was used in the same way.

“From this research, we can conclude that it’s likely that the origins of speech and language are far, far older than once thought.“

The facts in the article essentially destroy the myth that Neanderthals were sub-human, but then it goes on to assume the origin of language must have evolved earlier.

Modern footprints:  The Laetoli tracks in Africa have been mentioned numerous times (e.g., 3/22/10); everyone acknowledges they “look” like modern human footprints.  But they can’t be, according to the evolutionary timeline, because they date back to almost 4 million years – long before human ancestors were far enough along to have feet like ours.  It didn’t stop Science Daily, though, from giving good press for “expert” Russell Tuttle to spin the typical evolutionary yarn in his new book, Apes and Human Evolution.  The article, “How Apes and Humans Evolved Side by Side,” shows no shame for the obvious anachronism.  Instead, the old story carries on as if nothing happened.  The article states, “The book explains how apes and humans evolved in relation to one another, and why humans became a bipedal, tool-making, culture-inventing species.”  Some excerpts from the article show a striking disconnect between observational evidence and the evolutionary story:

• The footprints are the oldest evidence that early hominids came down from trees and began walking upright.
• “If you look at the footprints, they are quite similar to the footprints of modern humans,” said Tuttle…
• In the book, Tuttle, one of the nation’s leading paleoanthropologists, incorporates his research with a synthesis of a vast amount of research from other scientists who study primate evolution and behavior.
• The Laetoli footprint pathway is about 90 feet long and provides a small glimpse to the origins of humans.
• They represent one of several early hominid species that evolved, succeeded and then faded away — leaving behind fossils that are the record of our origins.
• Although apes share some characteristics of humans, such as being able to walk upright and being able to communicate with each other, a notable behavioral gulf separates them from people, Tuttle said.
• Early humans’ superior brains and their sociability, possibly developed when they made up bands of small creatures needing mutual defense in open areas, set them apart from other primates.
• Symbolically mediated language is an important part of the human story, but scholars are unable to agree on when or how it developed, Tuttle said. It could have emerged, for instance, when people started making increasingly complex tools and needed to communicate about how to use them. It could have begun as gestures that formed a basis for later verbal communication. The muscles and other organs that would have been involved do not survive in the fossils.
• “As the language of a hominid community grew more analytic, strong selective pressure for rapid analytic learning by children and sharing truthful information among close relatives resulted in language.”
• “…At some point, communication systems became vital for coordinating subsistence activities and resolving disputes within and between groups.”
• “It is time to acknowledge the major advances in behavioral and social sciences that demonstrate the remarkable cognitive abilities of apes. Although they might not be moral creatures, our treatment of them will surely reflect badly on our own morality until we change global public policy,” he writes.

The article points out that Tuttle “will receive the 2014 Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists at its annual meeting in April.”

It’s a perfect award.  Tuttle learned the art of storytelling from the Master.

Every observational fact militates against Tuttle’s story, and against the Neanderthal myth.  The tracks are modern.  The hyoid bone is modern.  Nothing evolved!  What expectation of the evolutionary anthropologists remains that has not already been falsified?  We’ve reported case after case for 12 years!  But over and over, Tuttle weaves his tale, hiding miracles in indirect words like developed, emerged, became, grew, or glimpse into the origin of.  Morality appears out of nowhere, and now we are responsible to be nice to apes, who had more time to evolve morality but never did.  Tuttle’s perhapsimaybecouldness index is sky-high.  The evolution part is complete fabrication.  It’s painful to read it, yet this fake will be honored before a whole society of fawning dupes who believe his illogical, fictional, self-refuting myth.  The two empirical discoveries mentioned in these articles effectively pull the stage out from under him, but Tuttle stands on mid-air, continuing his storytelling act as if nothing happened.  This is why he will get the Darwin Lifetime Aggrievement Award (aggrieve: to oppress or wrong grievously; injure by injustice; to afflict with pain, anxiety).  Good grief.  No—bad grief.  It’s especially grievous to think nobody will be at the AAPA meeting to LOL.