Josiah Concept Ministries

I’ve reorganized the Articles main page, so hopefully it will be easier to browse. Take a peek, let me know what you think, and enjoy a few of my essays!

Brian from Laelaps writes:

I would be very interested in hearing your interpretation of the hominid fossil record (i.e. Homo sapiens down through Proconsul). I know you’re busy and have quite a bit to work on with your book and all (and also I know you recently said that you’d rather focus on the salvation message rather than on geology/evolution/human origins), but I would be interested just to see how you interpret the fossil evidence for our ancient ancestry.

Well, you’re right: I don’t have the time to treat this issue with the respect that it deserves. It is a very interesting question and I will certainly explore it further. Right now, I only have very superficial information with which to work, and therefore my early conclusion will probably make you wince in the agony of my ignorance.

The question is written from an evolutionary point of view. This means that it assumes that I would interpret these fossils as ancestral to a modern human, because the question further assumes that evolution is a foregone conclusion. I don’t believe that it is. In other words, I believe what the Bible teaches: each animal reproduces after its own kind (Gen 1:24-25), and men and women were made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27).

I don’t deny the existence of these fossils. I deny the modern scientific interpretation of these fossils. I don’t believe that they are our ancestors. Perhaps they represent an extinct species of monkey, or perhaps they are simply modern humans. To the latter case, it is my understanding that our hominid “ancestors” are each only known from single, incomplete skeletons. That means that we are essentially guessing that this skeleton represents one of an entire race; it may only be an individual with an unusual deformity.

I’ve either made all kinds of sense or just stuck my foot into my mouth and swallowed. I’m hoping the first, but I give you permission to flame the living heck out of me if the latter is true.