Missing Links

Many people are convinced that humans have evolved from lower life-forms. For years and years, researchers have done their best to produce the missing link between man and his supposed animal ancestors. To date, no proof has been found. The “Missing Link” is still missing. Generally speaking, the cycle goes something like this: 1) a unique fossil is found, 2) it is immediately hailed as the long awaited link to our past, 3) careful research is done by both creationists and naturalists, 4) the item is unanimously found to be either a fully formed animal or human – not a transitional being (or sometimes just discovered to be a complete hoax). So the cycle continues! The search must go on! The link must be found!

Much of the controversy can be attributed to one Charles Darwin. In 1859, Darwin wrote a book called On the Origin of Species. While it must be admitted that this work has had a profound impact on the world as we know it, one must also recognize that it is fatally flawed. In this book he stated:

 …the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed on the earth, [must] be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory. (250)

Thus the fossil record in the day of Darwin gave no reason to believe in evolution. But he was undeterred. He was certain that one day the evidence would be presented that proved his theory to be correct. Scientists have been eager to come to his rescue and provide the needed information ever since.

The lineup of proposed (but failed) missing links is crowded. “Nebraska Man” was actually just the single tooth of a wild pig. “Piltdown Man” was the intentional (and deceitful) piecing together of a human skull with the altered jaw of an ape. “Java Man” was the ambitious assembly of a human leg bone and teeth with the skullcap of a monkey. “Lucy” may be the most famous missing link of them all, yet honest research has shown that this creature was simply some type of chimp, not a transition between monkeys and humans. These classic examples are not the end. New “evidence” is brought out on a regular basis. Much ado has been made about “Ida” and “Sediba” but these creatures have been shown to be various types of fully formed primates.

Darwin himself said, “If numerous species, belonging to the same genera or families, have really started into life all at once, the fact would be fatal to the theory of descent with slow modification through natural selection” (268). How true. It seems as though the only link that is missing is connecting the fossil evidence with the word of God. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…and God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds…then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground” (Genesis 1:1, 25; 2:7). If God exists, and if the Bible is His inspired word, then we should expect to find fully formed creatures in the fossil record and no transitional beings. That is exactly what we find.