Closing the Door on the Non-Human Neanderthal Myth

by Joshua Gurtler
Modified slightly from the original publication in Biblical Insights Magazine, April 2015.

It was once assumed that Neanderthal man was a missing link in human evolution. Now that evolutionists themselves have thoroughly debunked that idea, public schools continue to teach our most vulnerable young minds that Neanderthal man was an unintelligent, non-human, caveman, hominid race – related to man by common ancestors. One children’s book states, “About two million years ago, ancient humans first traveled out of Africa. Soon they had journeyed east to Java and China, and by over a million years ago their descendants had also gotten into Europe where they eventually gave rise to Homo neanderthalis”(1). What is the impact of this statement? Neo-Darwinian evolution teaches that humans and Neanderthals branched off from a common ancestor hundreds of thousands of years ago and evolved into separate species. Translation: The account of Adam and Eve is a myth. Men supposedly evolved in the following scheme:

Chimpanzee → Ardipithecus → Australopithecus afarensis → Kenyanthropus platyops → Homo habilis → Homo erectus → Homo antecessor → Homo heidelbergensis → modern Homo sapiens sapiens (humans).

Such a scheme effectively mythologizes the Genesis account of Adam and Eve, leading some children to conclude that the textbooks are fact and the Bible is a myth.

Disney-sponsored Bill Nye the Science Guy teaches kids, “Now this process, this thing that happens is called evolution, and it’s been going on for billions of years”(2). “Man and apes came from the same stem of the evolutionary tree, but man branched off and descended, while the apes degenerated. . . .The animals that we descended from that lived millions of years ago used to be able to swing through trees on their tails” (3). These types of unfounded assertions are considered gospel to so many secularists and their pupils today; and, unfortunately, to some believers in Christ, who have compromised the Biblical account of creation (Genesis 1 & 2).

Human or Ape: There’s No “Mr. In-between”

The taxonomic family called Hominids includes both humans and the great apes. We are told that this family also includes intermediate ape-man creatures that humans evolved from – our “ancestors.” In addition, there were non-human creatures such as the boorish, cave-man Neanderthals who, although they were not in direct descent to modern man, shared many human-like qualities. On the other hand, creationists contend that there are no ape-men or unevolved cave-men and that all hominids fall into only one of two distinct categories. Namely, all hominids are either (I) true apes or (II) true humans. Where does that leave Neanderthal? I contend that Neanderthal was 100% human.

Reasons to Believe that Neanderthals were True Humans

1. Coexistence with humans and the same species as humans. Neanderthals co-existed with humans. No evolutionist disputes this point. Despite the children’s books, some secular scientists now, quite surprisingly, even classify Neanderthals as a subspecies of Homo sapiens (viz., Homo sapiens neanderthalensis), which is the same species as humans. In other words, some evolutionists teach that Neanderthals and humans were the very same species (4-7).
2. What about DNA? A groundbreaking 55-author article in Science Magazine compared the genomes of 3 Neanderthals to the genomes of 5 present-day individuals. They concluded (based on their DNA analyses) that humans and Neanderthals were highly genetically similar, and even stated, “Neandertals are expected to be more closely related to some present-day humans than they are to each other. . . The majority of the Neandertal divergences overlap with those of the humans, reflecting the fact that Neandertals fall inside the variation of present-day humans.” (8) In other words, Neanderthals were genetically within the range of humans living today!
3. Interbreeding with Humans. Secular scientists have also slowly come around to admitting, with the creationists, that Neanderthals and humans interbred with one another. So says the prestigious scientific journal, Nature (9, 10).
4. Structurally-similar to humans. It has been known since the 1960’s that the anatomical measurements of Neanderthal man are well within the range of measurements derived from living humans today.
5. Burying their dead. Neanderthals buried their dead with ritualistic honors including flowers. One Neanderthal skeleton is buried along with an elephant tusk, and a Neanderthal child is buried with mountain goat horns ritualistically surrounding the body. Neanderthals maintained family burial grounds in caves or rock shelters in at least 258 sites discovered. At four sites, humans and Neanderthals were found buried together (11). That’s right – together. (NOTE: Humans are the only creatures known to bury their dead, and would likely not do so along with non-human “cavemen,” with whom they could not communicate).

   These burial rituals are similar to those described in the Bible in Genesis. People buried in caves included Sarah (Genesis 23:17–20), Abraham (Genesis 25:7–11), and Jacob (Genesis 49:29–32). This practice took place in New Testament times as well, as both Lazarus and Jesus were buried in caves (John 11:38; Matthew 27:60).

6. Miscellaneous reasons to Believe that Neanderthals were human. Other evidence that indicates the Neanderthals were fully human include their grinding of grain for food, setting broken bones, performing surgery, making ornate jewelry, making musical instruments such as a flute constructed from animal bone, making intricate tools, such as a lissoir bone tool used for working leather, butchering their own meat with knives, hunting and butchering elephants and wooly mammoths, using 6-7.5 foot throwing spears, making a human facemask out of flint, controlled use of fire for cooking and tool working, constructing structured, walled living areas, and separating litter debris from clear ground. Some Neanderthal tools even had handles inserted in them, sealed with an adhesive (bitumen), which was cured at high temperatures (11).

Conclusion

So, who were the Neanderthal? Based on their burial grounds not being immersed in flood sediment, they were probably a genetic variant of humans that spread out and descended from the eight people who survived the Noahic flood. They may have been a tribe that separated off after the languages were confused at Babel. Because they lived closer to Adam, in the post-flood era, their life spans may have been significantly longer than ours today (NOTE: Genesis 9:29 – Noah lived to be 950 years old). This could have contributed to the heavy-boned features of the race, such as their thick elongated skulls and protruding clavicle bones and ridge brows. Let’s recap: Neanderthals acted like humans, interacted with humans, interbred with humans, and were buried with humans in death. So, why not simply conclude that Neanderthals are humans?

References

1. Tatersall, I., and R. DeSalle. 2013. The Great Human Journey: Around the World in 22 Million Days. Bunker Hill Pub: Piermont, NH.
2. Bill Nye the Science Guy- Evolution (1/2). Youtube. Accessed on Jan. 24, 2015
3. Bill Nye the Science Guy- Evolution (2/2). Youtube. Accessed on Jan. 24, 2015
4. The Neandertal lower right deciduous second molar from Trou de l'Abîme at Couvin, Belgium. Toussaint M, Olejniczak AJ, El Zaatari S, Cattelain P, Flas D, Letourneux C, Pirson S. J Hum Evol. 2010 Jan;58(1):56-67.
5. Discovery of Homo sp. tooth associated with a mammalian cave fauna of Late Middle Pleistocene age, northern Thailand. Tougard C, Jaeger JJ. J Hum Evol. 1998 Jul;35(1):47-54
6. Human remains of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis from the pleistocene deposit of Santa [corrected] Croce Cave, Bisceglie (Apulia), Italy. Mallegni F, Piperno M, Segre A. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1987 Apr;72(4):421-9. Erratum in: Am J Phys Anthropol 1988 Jan;75(1):143.
7. Paleoclimatic setting for Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. Boaz NT, Ninkovich D, Rossignol-Strick M. Naturwissenschaften. 1982 Jan;69(1):29-33.
8. A draft sequence of the Neandertal genome. Green RE et al. Science. 2010 May 7;328(5979):710-22.
9. The genomic landscape of Neanderthal ancestry in present-day humans. Sankararaman S, Mallick S, Dannemann M, Prüfer K, Kelso J, Pääbo S, Patterson N, Reich D. Nature. 2014 Mar 20;507(7492):354-7.
10. Sanchez-Quinto, F. et al. 2012. North African Populations Carry the Signature of Admixture with Neandertals. PLoS ONE. 7 (10): e47765
11. The Neandertals: Our Worthy Ancestors, Part II. The Fossil and Archaeological Evidence. Marvin Lubenow. April 11, 2007. Accessed online on Jan. 24, 2015, at