What About Cave Men?
Q.
Our children’s textbooks are filled with references to half-savage “cave men” from whom we supposedly descended. What can we say to our youngsters about such teachings?
A.
Evolutionists are quite skilled at distortions, half-truths, and the manipulation of evidence to their theoretical ends. Certainly there have been those of the past (and present!) who lived in caves, but the type of domicile in which a being dwells says nothing about his “humanity.” A man who lives in a cave is no more “half-animal” than is a dog “half-human” who happens to live in a house! Consider the following facts:
First, the Bible itself speaks of those who lived in caves. After the destruction of Sodom and the other cities of the Plain, Lot and his daughters “dwelt in a cave” (Genesis 19:30). Caves frequently were used as places of refuge in biblical times (cf. Judges 6:2, 1 Samuel 14:11, 22:1-2, 23:29, 1 Kings 18:4, 19:9; see also other general references, e.g., Numbers 24: 21; Song of Solomon 2:14; Jeremiah 49:16; Obadiah 3).
Second, anthropological evidence from many cave sites reveals a strictly “human” mode of habitation. There is evidence of cooking, sewing, tools, pottery, art work, religious artifacts and even furniture—“a rock-cut divan has been found in the important Caves of Ophel” near Jerusalem (see Miller and Miller, 1944, p. 236).
Third, the more isolated and primitive peoples have continued to live in caves even in modern times. The Pueblo Indians lived in caves. Were they semi-human? A century ago people still were living in caves in Palestine (see McClintock and Strong, 1969, 1:168). In fact, there are many tribes today, composed of people who are unquestionably and totally “human,” yet, who are less civilized than many cultures of the ancient past—thousands of years past! In fact, Carleton S. Coon, an anthropologist with the University of Pennsylvania, has argued that the Neanderthal race had a higher level of culture than some twentieth-century tribes. Neanderthal man was a superior tool maker, skilled as a hunter, employed paint, and had many uses for flint. D.T. Dale of the Smithsonian Institution related that a Neanderthal skeleton found in Iraq had undergone surgical amputation of an arm above the elbow (cited in Culp, 1975, p. 99).
We simply must not be intimidated, therefore, by the “cave men” propaganda in the evolution-dominated textbooks.
REFERENCES
Culp, G. Richard (1975), Remember Thy Creator (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker).
McClintock, John and James Strong (1969 reprint), Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker).
Miller, M.S. and J.L. Miller (1944), Encyclopedia of Bible Life (New York: Harper Brothers).
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