Who's in the Human Family?

A Sidebar to "Homo Fabricator" by Hugh Ross

There is a healthy debate within the Christian community about whether humans are genetically related to Neanderthals, Homo erectus, or other similar members of the genus Homo like the Denisovans. In this article, Hugh Ross discusses stone tools produced by monkeys and chimpanzees which are not only primitive but stagnant—meaning they never progress to more advanced technological stages. He argues that the same is true of tools made by Neanderthals and Homo erectus—they never become advanced, and therefore, these creatures weren’t related to modern humans like us.

Human technology, on the other hand, bursts onto the scene already in an advanced state. Mainstream researchers have recognized an “explosion” or “revolution” of modern, humanlike culture in the archaeological record showing the abrupt appearance of advanced creativity, technology, art, and culture—showing the rapid emergence of self-awareness, group identity, and symbolic thought. One review dubbed this the “Creative Explosion.” However, this explosion of modern, humanlike creativity does not appear until about 70,000 years ago.

This presents a puzzle: The hominid fossil record shows that the humanlike body plan appeared about 1–2 million years ago in the form of Homo erectus (or with Neanderthals, at about 500,000 years ago), but modern humanlike intelligence does not appear until about 70,000 years ago. Christians who take a traditional view of Adam and Eve have developed different ways of resolving this question.

I. Ancient Creation

Some hold that Adam and Eve were specially created by God hundreds of thousands of years ago, which allows them to be ancestors of other humanlike members in the fossil record like Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and the Denisovans. Together, all of these fossil types can be considered part of the same human species, Homo sapiens.

+ PLUSSES: This view times the origin of humans with the appearance of the humanlike body plan in the fossil record. It also recognizes that Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo erectus are highly similar to modern humans both morphologically and genetically.

- MINUSES: Presumably Adam and Eve are highly intelligent, but clear-cut evidence of high intelligence in early humanlike hominids is either only circumstantially present or simply not found. There are also questions about whether biblical genealogies can be stretched to accommodate an Adam and Eve that were created hundreds of thousands of years ago.

II. Separate Creations

Another view proposes that Adam and Eve were specially created by God around 70,000 years ago—separately from other hominids such as the Neanderthals, Denisovans, or Homo erectus. Under this view, God created those humanlike hominids hundreds of thousands of years earlier to prepare the biosphere for the eventual arrival of modern humans. But once God created Adam and Eve, they and their descendants did not interbreed with any of these preexisting hominids, who lacked the Imago Dei and were not highly intelligent.

+ PLUSSES: This model elegantly times the creation of Adam and Eve with the appearance of modern human intellectual activity in the archaeological record.

- MINUSES: Despite their humanlike body plans, Neanderthals, Homo erectus, and Denisovans are no longer considered to be related to humans or part of the human family. This model also rejects some (admittedly controversial) evidence of advanced intelligence in early hominids. Although this model proposes a more recent creation of humans compared to the “Ancient Adam and Eve” model, it is still unclear whether biblical genealogies can accommodate an Adam and Eve who lived 70,000 years ago.

III. Recent Creation

This model proposes that Adam and Eve were specially created quite recently—perhaps only 6,000 to 10,000 years ago—and that other humanlike hominids in the fossil record—Homo erectus, Neanderthals, or Denisovans, are all descended from Adam and Eve. How can this be when these groups lived tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years earlier? Proponents of this view question and reject the dating methods.

+ PLUSSES: This view recognizes the high morphological and genetic similarities between modern humans and other humanlike hominids, such as the Neanderthals, Homo erectus, and Denisovans, and places them within the same species. It also accommodates traditional interpretations of biblical genealogies by allowing a recent creation of Adam and Eve.

- MINUSES: This model requires rejection of large amounts of mainstream science that has used geological, archaeological, and biological techniques to date humans or humanlike fossils to tens or even hundreds of thousands of years in age.

Hugh Ross and his thoughtful colleagues at Reasons to Believe prefer Model II, “Separate Creations.” In their book Thinking About Evolution: 25 Questions Christians Want Answered, they cite much evidence to argue that Neanderthals, Homo erectus, and Denisovans don’t exhibit advanced culture and thus don’t belong within our human species. However, proponents of Model I, “Ancient Creation,” note that some mainstream paleoanthropologists believe these hominids showed good evidence of high intelligence.

This friendly debate will undoubtedly continue, as the mainstream scientific community has not resolved these questions, either. For now, there are multiple options for Christians to consider regarding when Adam and Eve lived, and whether we’re related to other “hominids.”