Book Review: Bones of Contention
A Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils
Marvin Lubenow examines in detail the humanoid fossils that have been found to date and comes to some extraordinary conclusions in his book.
One of the most commonly discussed aspects of evolution is the idea that humans evolved from apes. But is this really what happened? Not according to Bones of Contention, by Marvin Lubenow. While Lubenow is unapologetically on the side of creationism, he also treats his subject with exacting thoroughness and care. Before tackling the question of humanoid bones directly, he briefly discusses evolution in general, giving some very telling quotes both from evolutionist scientists and from writers who, while not necessarily creationist, nevertheless published books discussing the problems with evolution. This sets the stage for the rest of his discussion about the fossils themselves.
According to his estimate, there have been found pieces of at least four thousand humanoid remains. This is far fewer than ought to exist if humanoids have been alive for the millions of years that evolutionists claim. On the other hand, it is far more than the general public tends to think exist. Lubenow makes the point that paleoanthropologists complain about the lack of evidence, that is, not enough fossils, when the reality is that there are plenty of fossils, but not enough to support their beliefs.
Besides covering each of the famous cases of fossils, including the ones that turned out to be famous hoaxes, such as Piltdown Man, he discusses in detail the taxonomy of the fossils found. His primary argument throughout the main part of the book is that the various species of humanoids to which the fossils have been assigned are not at all well-defined. Evolutionists have a nice neat timeline of species which are "supposed" to be ancestors of other species or even just thought to have lived earlier than those other species. However, real fossils classified as different species are often dated to overlapping time periods, indicating that one could not have evolved into the other.
In particular, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and our own "modern" species, Homo sapiens, supposedly form an evolutionary sequence. However, there have been fossils classified as Homo erectus that were dated to just a few thousand years ago, and all three groups appear to significantly overlap in time. Lubenow provides a careful chart detailing where along the timeline each fossil of each category has been placed. He also describes how the fossils labeled Homo erectus are hardly any different, physically, than those labeled Homo sapiens.
His conclusions from all this are that both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens are actually fully human; that other "species" such as the ones belonging to the Australopithecus genus are actually various forms of completely non-human apes; and that Homo habilis fossils are badly classified, a mixture of the two types of fossils. This is consistent with his creationist background, where each type of creature always reproduces according to its "kind." (Genesis 1:24, etc.) In other words, his research on humanoid fossils serves to disprove human evolution.
For much more detail and explanation of these conclusions and others, see the book itself. It is well-written, with a wealth of quotes and diagrams. It also contains an appendix in the back discussing the methods used to determine the dates for the fossils. This book should be fascinating reading for anyone interested in human fossils or paleoanthropology.
