Re: Music of the ages

Dick Fischer (dfischer@mnsinc.com)
Mon, 21 Oct 1996 19:21:15 -0500

Hi Glenn:

I hesitated to write this for fear of stirring another debate, but I don't
think the evidence you presented supports your logic train.

You said,

>(So what are Christians to think when they find out that Neanderthals
>80,000 years ago were composing music and making musical instruments 90-
>100,000 years ago?)

You also said,

>Neanderthals made phalange whistles (just like anatomically modern man.

A simple whistle as you described makes "composing music" problematical.
Then to conclude that whistling is a religious enterprise is a giant leap
of faith. How about signaling in the event of danger, calling their kids
home to supper, etc? A whistle could have lots of non-spiritual uses.

Then to make this the driving element to date Adam is another stretch.

>These facts also present a tremendous problem for Christian
>apologetics. For the old earth people there is the problem of the place
>of Adam in the human race. Many of these views hold to a recent creation
>of Adam, in the Upper Paleolithic. The problem is that at the same time
>the Neanderthals were making whistles in Prolom II, anatomically modern
>men were just leaving Africa.

The "problem" derives from trying to start the human race with Adam of
Genesis who is better situated (7,000 years ago in Southern Mesopotamia)
to start the chosen race. The "place of Adam in the human race" appears
to be in the flow not at the apex.

>Were there two Adams? A Neanderthal Adam
>and a anatomically modern Adam? The Bible would support only one,
>meaning that the one Adam must be considerably prior to this time.

Or considerably later.

Dick Fischer
THE ORIGINS SOLUTION
http://www.orisol.com