Lucy Archives - DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY

October 24, 2024October 21, 2024

Superstar Lucy and Anthropology

American Scientist magazine called Lucy “Paleoanthropology’s Superstar.” Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) is a hominid fossil found in 1974. Paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson named it Lucy because the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was being played on the radio that year. Lucy had a brain size of 450 cc. A modern human’s brain is between 950 cc and 1800 cc, depending on sex and location. What is special about superstar Lucy?

Lucy stood about three feet seven inches tall, weighed around 60 pounds, and had a pelvis similar to a chimpanzee. Lucy’s limbs were close to the ratio of a monkey, with the femur and humerus being about the same size. In humans, there is a 2:1 ratio between these two bones. The opening into the skull through which the spinal column sends its messages to the brain is called the foramen magnum. In a human, that opening is centered in the middle of the skull, allowing a normal vertical position. In a monkey, the foramen magnum is in the back of the skull, so vertical standing is difficult. In the case of Lucy, the foramen magnum is not in the center of the skull and not in the very back of the skull. Vertical motion and standing would have been possible, but walking long distances would be difficult.

Graduate students and anthropologists have used superstar Lucy for fundraising, with many getting support for field research. In the 50 years since Lucy’s discovery, researchers have found many other hominid fossils in better condition than Lucy. The theory of human evolution 50 years ago was a tree with something like Lucy at the base. The newer models are that hominoid history is more of a bush than a tree.

So, where do Adam and Eve fit into all of this? The Bible says that man was formed “from the dust of the Earth … and man became a living being”. The Hebrew used here is “nephesh,” which the Hebrew lexicon says means “animal soul.” The passage does not say how long God took to do that or what process He used. We can understand some of what God did by looking at the fossils. What separates the first human is not his body. Our body chemistry is the same as other forms of life. What sets us apart is our creation in God’s image.

Genesis 1:26-27 describes the unique creation of man – not his physical body. “Let US create man in OUR image” refers to the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.” In other words, the image of God refers to our spiritual makeup. It isn’t our brains or our bodies that make us unique and special. All humans are created in God’s image with a spiritual aspect that can last eternally. The physical body will return to the dust from which it came (Genesis 3:19), but our spiritual body (soul) is not subject to the physical laws that govern all other life on Earth.

As anthropologists focus on superstar Lucy, The big question is, “When will we recognize the unique beauty of all humans and stop killing each other?”

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: “Paleoanthropology’s Superstar” in the November/December issue of American Scientist magazine (pages 326 -327).

June 25, 2020June 24, 2020

Make Sure Your Data Supports Your Conclusions

“THE UNIVERSAL RULE OF GRADUATE WORK–MAKE SURE YOUR DATA SUPPORTS YOUR CONCLUSIONS!”

When I was doing research for my master’s degree, that statement was posted on the graduate studies bulletin board at Indiana University. I have no idea who put it there, but I can tell you it got a pretty strong response from the school’s dean. Unfortunately, there is more truth to it than most of us would like to admit, and it is not just graduate students to whom it applies.

One of the problems any scientific researcher has is getting funding for the work, and you don’t get funding unless you produce results. There have been several cases in National Geographic where the magazine reported some incredible find by a researcher they were funding and later discovered that the claimed discovery was a hoax. We have reported on these in the past. (For example HERE, HERE, and HERE.)

One of the disciplines where this problem has been very apparent is in the finds of fossil humans. In 1974 Donald Johanson found pieces of a skeleton in Ethiopia. While they were excavating the fossil, the radio was playing the song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” Johanson decided to name the specimen “Lucy.” The find was announced at the Nobel Symposium in 1978 and was hailed as the first ape to walk upright, and thus it was a proven link between apes and humans.

The primary evidence that Lucy walked upright was a knee joint, which was clearly from an individual that walked in an upright position. Evidence that the rest of the skeleton was clearly from an ape included a V-shaped mandible, a very small brain, and a humerus and femur that were the same size. Lucy has made the covers of numerous magazines and even toured the United States.

It has now been announced that the researchers found the knee joint, which they used to prove Lucy was walking in an erect position, more than two miles from the rest of the skeleton. It also came from a stratum 200 feet lower than the one where the rest of the skeleton was found. Richard Leakey, the Director of Kenya’s National Museum, said that “the evidence for the alleged transformation from ape to man is extremely unconvincing. It is overwhelmingly likely that Lucy was no more than a variety of pygmy chimpanzee.” Johanson has agreed that Lucy was not related to humans at all.

Why does this kind of thing happen? Researchers tend to accept a theory and then look for evidence to support that theory. They adopt the philosophy “make sure your data supports your conclusions.” The media wants instant gratification, and the result is that front-page stories are frequently not factual. Several books have addressed this problem. The Fossil Chronicles by Dean Falk is a useful resource. See The Wall Street Journal for October 8, 2011, section C6 for a review by Brian Switek.

The researchers are victims of the system, but atheistic attacks on the Bible that depend on the media stories are obviously vulnerable to this issue. We need to have our brains engaged when we read anything, and that is true of the Bible as well as scientific reports in the media.

May 1, 2017June 24, 2020

More on “Lucy”

In 1974 paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson introduced the world to a claimed ancestor of humans and called it Lucy. The scientific name was Australopithecus afarensis or the “southern ape from afar.” The story is that because the song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” was playing on the radio at the time of the discovery, they nicknamed the specimen “Lucy.”

Lucy is being displayed in museums throughout the world and has had extensive exposure in the United States. The claim is that she is a link giving proof of the evolution of humans from apes. Johanson has a model of human evolution suggesting that apes became erect first, and then their brains developed to make them human. It appears that Lucy’s sacrum and hip might have been arranged in a somewhat vertical position to facilitate erect walking, and Johanson feels that is support for his theory.

The truth is that most of what we know about Lucy and about characteristics that separate humans from apes strongly supports the idea that Lucy was a monkey. This find does not support the claims of those who promote naturalism as an explanation of human origins. Here are some of the problems:

1-The brain size of Lucy was about 422 cc. A human’ brain is closer to 1470 cc or more. Chimps’ brains are around 520 cc.

2-Lucy’s mandible (lower jaw) is V-shaped like a monkey’s, not C-shaped like a human’s.

3-Lucy has short, curved toe and finger bones like monkeys. Humans’ are generally straight.

4-Lucy’s humerus (upper arm bone) and femur (upper leg bone) are the same size. A human generally has a 2:1 ratio in size with these bones.

5-Recent studies have shown that Lucy had an exceptionally powerful upper body. This is typical of apes that spend long amounts of time climbing in trees.

6-Lucy’s rib cage was conical (like an ape) while human rib cages are barrel-shaped.

7-Lucy may, in fact, have been a male. The pelvis is heart-shaped and ridge-less which is typical of males.

In the world of anthropology, researchers are making new discoveries. The problem comes when atheists and skeptics lift a discovery out of context and try to use it as a club against those who believe humans are a special creation of God. They ignore the facts or slant them to whatever model they are promoting.
–John N. Clayton © 2017