Ape to Man -- Did humans evolve from hominids?
In the television premiere of Ape Man: The Story of Human Evolution, former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite declared that monkeys were his “newfound cousins.” Cronkite went on to say: “If you go back far enough, we and the chimps share a common ancestor. My father’s father’s father’s father, going back maybe a half million generations—about five million years—was an ape.” Is Cronkite right? Do we and the chimps share a common ancestor? Or, is this an illustration of the antiknowledge surrounding ape-men?
Ape to Man -- The Illustration
First, whether in Ape Man, National Geographic or Time, the ape-to-man icon has itself become the argument. Put another way, the illustration of a knuckle-dragging ape evolving through a series of imaginary transitional forms into modern man has appeared so many times in so many places that the picture has evolved into the proof.
In light of the fanfare attending the most recent candidates nominated by evolutionists to flesh out the icons of evolution, we would do well to remember that past candidates such as Lucy have bestowed fame on their finders but have done little to distinguish themselves as prime exemplars of human evolution.
Ape to Man -- The Missing Link
Finally, evolution cannot satisfactorily account for the genesis of life, the genetic code, or the ingenious synchronization process needed to produce life from a single fertilized human egg. Nor can evolution satisfactorily explain how physical processes can produce metaphysical realities such as consciousness and spirituality.
The insatiable drive to produce a “missing link” has substituted selling, sensationalism and subjectivism for solid science. William Fix said it best: “When it comes to finding a new trooper to star as our animal ancestor, there’s no business like bone business.”
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