Picking and Choosing Evidence

Finally, humans, or at least our immediate ancestors, have left us a documentary record of their own existence, demonstrating in many different ways that they have been around for far longer than 6000 years.

One example of this writing is the book of Job found in the Bible, Genesis found in the Bible, and so on. Yet Genesis is the foundation from which a 6,000-year-old earth comes. Why ignore what is written in this ancient document?

We do know a great deal about many post-Babel civilizations because they have left many artifacts, buildings, and even documents. However, to interpret a timescale for certain events in history without a direct eyewitness elicits imagination. Other old writings are Enuma Elish, a Babylonian creation account (obviously not a slight variant of molecules-to-man evolution but distorted variant of the truth), ancient Egyptian writings, and so on. Yet these are post-Babel, which was about 2242 BC according to the biblical chronology by Archbishop Ussher.

Ancient Egyptian civilization, for example, began along the Nile river about 13,000 years ago, where stone tools dating from this period have been discovered,

Besides, is this time based on actual documentation or is it based on the radiometric dating of C-14 or other methods? Much of these timespans from secular sources are based on C-14 dating of artifacts, the Sothic theory, or other dating methods riddled with unknowable assumptions and ignoring recent research (please see Radiometric Dating—Not Infallible and the research in RATE, Vol. 1 and RATE Vol. 2).

Why are eyewitness accounts ignored, such as the Bible, when looking at the past? If someone said they found a Civil War gun buried in an old battlefield in Virginia and dated it to 8,000 years ago, it would be illogical to reject the eyewitness accounts of the battle and war and start telling people that the Civil War happened 8,000 years ago.

and analyses of ancient pollen found at archaeological sites indicate farming of wheat and barley.

We certainly don’t deny the fact that the ancient Egyptians farmed, but how does that prove their civilization started 13,000 years ago?

Evidence for large building construction in Egypt also goes back at least 8000 years.

Once again, what is this date based on? An actual written record or an interpretation of certain facts that do not give actual dates? If you look at eyewitness accounts in history, even excluding the Bible, you arrive at date that is similar to the Bible’s teachings. To quote Larry Pierce:

The Byzantine chronicler Constantinus Manasses (d. 1187) wrote that the Egyptian state lasted 1663 years. If correct, then counting backward from the time that Cambyses, king of Persia, conquered Egypt in 526 BC, gives us the year of 2188 BC for the founding of Egypt, about 60 years after the birth of Peleg. About this time Mizraim, the son of Ham, led his colony into Egypt. Hence the Hebrew word for Egypt is Mizraim (or sometimes ‘the land of Ham,’ cf. Psalm 105:23, 27).1

In Europe, humans as well as other hominid species living over the past 100,000 years have left us a documentary record in different forms.

What is your assumption that the documentary record was made by "other hominid species" based on? We would contend that these records (assuming this refers to such things as cave drawings, petroglyphs, and the like) were made by early humans—those that lived after the dispersion at Babel. Japheth’s descendants moved toward Europe after Babel (c. 4,200 years ago), and Bill Cooper’s brilliant research into ancient genealogies of Europe confirms the biblical account! Please read After the Flood.

Neanderthals, for example, who lived in Europe from 100,000 years ago till about 24,000 years ago have left not only many fossil skeletons, but sophisticated toolkits consisting of hand axes and spears. There is clear evidence that Neanderthals buried their dead, as well as constructed complex shelters.

We agree with the evidence, but how does finding an axe or a spear relate to how long ago they lived? Relying on fallible dating methods? With such faith in dating methods, you have no choice but to believe that the Mt. St. Helens eruption didn’t happen in 1980 and 1982. After all, dating methods reveal that Mt. St. Helens’ lava dome was 340,000 to 2.8 million years old!2

Neanderthals were simply humans, in some cases with certain diseases such as rickets and arthritis (see “The Neandertals: Our Worthy Ancestors, Part II”), and even many evolutionists agree as to their humanity.

Perhaps most remarkable, humans themselves have left a clear documentary record of their existence going back at least 30,000 years. This comes from artwork found in caves, particularly those found in modern France and Germany. These beautiful images of bison, horses, and deer tell us not only that these early humans were capable of an artistic appreciation of the world around them, but it also tells us what animals were cohabiting with humans at the time. These are dated by not only geological methods, but also by radiocarbon dating of the pigments in the paintings themselves. A foot-tall lion-headed human figure carved from mammoth ivory was found in a cave in Germany dating back 32,000 years.

Many of these cave drawings have been found, but as noted earlier, these sort of “dating methods” are riddled with assumptions. On one hand, many evolutionists believe that the animal depictions are of real animals that lived with humans; however, when they see cave drawings of dinosaurs, they simply dismiss them as mythical creatures, since dinosaurs and humans living together does not fit into their paradigm. When clear evidence points to a recent cohabitation of humans and dinosaurs, it is simply rejected based on their biased belief system.

Actually, the best documented text indicating dinosaur and human cohabitation is the Bible (Job 40 and 41 and Genesis 1:24-31). Dinosaurs are land animals, so they were made on Day 6. Adam and Eve were also made on Day 6, so, naturally, they would have been alive at the same time.

However, dinosaurs and humans co-existing is excluded a priori in the evolutionary timescale; thus, the possibility of them living together is excluded without recourse to the evidence—or the discounting of any evidence to the contrary. Apart from the Bible, there are also hundreds of texts that contain the descriptions of ferocious creatures and dragons, like Beowulf. But since these texts contain such descriptions, they are classified as mythological rather than historical. [Ed. note: see Dinosaur Q&A for more evidence of dinosaur and human co-existence.]

So why is it that evolutionists get to pick and choose what evidence is historical and which is mythical? Indeed, it is to fulfill their pre-existing paradigm, which is a very un-scientific thing to do. That would be like a drug research corporation picking and choosing only positive test results to report to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). People would lose faith in the drug research corporation, and sue for the unreported negative side-effects.

There is no documentary evidence, geological evidence, or biological evidence of any cohabitation, which is completely consistent with the knowledge that dinosaurs disappeared around 65 million years ago.

There are plenty in the fossil record to show them living in a post-Flood world and dying off ever since for the same reasons animals are on the endangered species list!

Some of the most interesting sets of paintings include tracings of human hands, over 10,000 years old (some as ancient as 27,000 years old), demonstrating that perhaps these early humans wanted to leave a permanent record of their own existence. Happily, the messages they have left us in this form have survived to the present time. We should celebrate this wonderful gift of our ancient ancestors to the modern world.

Again with the dates—did the recent Mt. St. Helens eruption occur over 2.8 million years ago? The authors have raised up fallible dating methods and man’s interpretation of such dates as greater than a perfect God who was an eyewitness to it all. Please be praying for these authors to realize their misconceptions and their need for salvation in Christ:

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:1–3)