Re: "modern" evolutionary theory/evidence

Glenn R. Morton (grmorton@waymark.net)
Mon, 27 Jul 1998 06:11:43 -0500

At 11:48 PM 7/26/98 -0500, Wendee HOLTCAMP wrote:
>(8) He quotes a Gallup poll that says 47% of Americans believe God created
>HUMANS in their present form within the last 10,000 years, and that only
>38% believe in a "compromise involving some form of divinely guided
>evolution" - his words, not nec. the poll's. Has anyone seen this
>particular poll or know where I can locate the specifics behind it? I would
>be interested in the % of that 47% that believe in evolution of other
>species, but special creation of humankind - that may make the number even
>closer if not skewed the other way. (OF course the whole argument he's
>trying to pull off that "if a majority believe it, than it's true" is
>completely false)

Here is where I have seen that poll:

"By controlling the terminology, then, Darwinists have given the world the
impression that the significant divide in public opinion about evolution is
that between the Genesis literalists and everybody else. This is a sorry
misunderstanding. For the findamental disagreement is not over the age of
the earth or the method of creation; it is over whether we owe our
existence to a purposeful Creator or a blind materialistic process. The 47
percent in the 1991 Gallup poll who say that God created suddenly and the
40 percent who say that God did not create at all. when the majority
finally understands this, it will become possilbe to challenge the monopoly
of evolutionary naturalism both in the media and the educational system." ~
Phillip Johnson, "Creator or Blind Watchmaker?" First Things, Jan. 1993, pp
8-14, p. 9

And it isn't true that modern man appeared within the past 10,000 years:
"Whereas it used to be thought that Neanderthals preceded 'modern' human
beings in the record discoveries at Klasies River in South Africa and
Qafzeh in Israel show the presence of 'modern' human beings around 100,000
years ago, and Qafzeh they were coexistent, even possibly cohabitant, with
Neanderthals. Neanderthals can scarcely be considered our ancestors
therefore. Moreover, it appears that modern human beings and Neanderthals
remained genetically distinct until the disappearance of the latter, some
36,000 years before the present." ~ Kenneth Stewart Thompson, "The
Challenge of Human Origins,", American Scientist, 80, 1992, p. 520

I have an article on death before the fall on my web page that might have
some stuff of interest on another question you raised.
glenn

Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm