News to Note, June 2, 2012

1. Obscured Knowledge of Original Domestic Dog

Designing man’s best friend has obscured knowledge of the original domestic dog.

2. Evolutionist Considers Skeptics a Threat to Human Survival

Famous evolutionist considers skeptics a threat to human survival.

3. Teeth Track Early Agricultural Society

Teeth track patrimony (property inherited through the male line) and prosperity in early agricultural society.

4. Define Habitable

Define habitable. It’s harder than it sounds!

5. Disagreements on Climate Change

Scientifically literate people can disagree about the causes and cures of climate change, study finds.

And Don’t Miss …

Flute carved from mammoth ivory.1

• Flutes carved from bird bone and mammoth ivory have been found in the Geissenkloesterle Cave in southern Germany. Reported in the Journal of Human Evolution, animal bones in the same strata have been carbon-dated at 42,000 to 43,000 years old. Discoverer of the previous record-holder for “oldest musical instrument,” Tübingen University’s Nick Conard, said, “These results are consistent with a hypothesis we made several years ago that the Danube River was a key corridor for the movement of humans and technological innovations into central Europe between 40,000–45,000 years ago. Geissenkloesterle is one of several caves in the region that has produced important examples of personal ornaments, figurative art, mythical imagery and musical instruments.” Researchers believe the findings are evidence for human occupation of central Europe prior to the “last” ice age. Of course, as other articles on this website explain, there really is solid evidence for only one Ice Age, and its onset is easily explained as a result of the global Flood that occurred around 2350 B.C. The inflated dates sometimes found using carbon-14 dating are explained in A Creationist Puzzle. From biblical history, we can conclude that people dispersing across the post-Flood world after the Tower of Babel incident would have reached many parts of the globe, including central Europe. Be sure to read how the “cavemen” that played these flutes can be explained within the biblical timeline in the Answers magazine articles listed below.
  

  Diagram from Snelling, Andrew and Mike Matthews. 2012. When Did Cavemen Live? Answers 7 no. 2:50–55. Click image to enlarge.

  For more information

  • Were Cavemen Real?
  • The Ice Age
  • Only One Ice Age
  • A Creationist Puzzle
  • C-14 Dates for Pre-Flood Fossilized Wood
  • Doesn’t Carbon-14 Dating Disprove the Bible?
  • Carbon-14 Dating
  • Carbon-14 in Fossils and Diamonds
  • See also Answers magazine volume 7, number 2 (April–June 2012) which contains several articles and helpful diagrams explaining how “cavemen” can be explained within the biblical timeline in the special feature: “Finding a Home for Cavemen: Who were they? When did they live? How are they different?”
• According to a recent Gallup poll (results released June 1), 46% of Americans maintain a creationist view of the origins of man: that man was created essentially as we see man today less than 10,000 years ago. This percentage is essentially unchanged over the past three decades. About a third of Americans have a belief best described as theistic evolution, the idea that humans evolved from other forms of life with God’s guidance. 15% espouse evolution without divine involvement. As shown in the colorful graph accompanying the announcement, the creationist fraction and its belief about human origins has not changed significantly despite bombardment with evolutionary claims in the media and in the educational system. The “theistic evolution” fraction of 32% is slightly down from the 30-year average of 37%, and the secular evolution fraction of 15% is slightly up from the 12% average. Whether these changes are significant statistically, from the standpoint of biblical authority, it makes sense that those who take a “theistic evolution” position—essentially accepting God’s role in Creation but not accepting His Word on what He did as true—would be on a slippery slope that could ultimately lead them to disavow God’s role in Creation and even in their lives. While it is encouraging to see the fraction of Americans who still acknowledge the truth about God’s role in creating humans is not dropping, we must remember: (1) that many of the 46% will not be biblical creationists, in that they may believe in a very old earth (and they may even accept evolution when it comes to animals), and (2) that this particular poll question began in 1982, after many years of evolutionary indoctrination. (For instance, the “Lucy” fossil was discovered and widely publicized as “the missing link” between ape-like ancestors and humans in the 1970s.) Answers in Genesis mission continues to involve showing people that the answers revealed in God’s Word actually do explain the so-called “evidence for evolution” without any evolution at all. We hope to equip people all over the world with powerful answers from God’s Word and thereby see a great rise in the number of people trusting God not only for information about humanity’s past but also their own eternal futures. And we invite our readers to visit the Creation Museum (where the entrance ticket is now valid for two days) near Cincinnati, Ohio, to see the new “Lucy” exhibit which opened last weekend and shows clearly that the evolutionary story about “Lucy” and all the other australopithecines is simply artistic imagination.