Was ancient man (or mankind) intelligent? Many Christians today have unanswered questions about the authority of the Bible due to their acceptance of an evolutionary timeline of history and, in particular, their view of mankind within that timeline. If the claims that mankind emerged from the slow process of evolution are true, then the Bible must be wrong, because the biblical record tells us that men were intelligent since the day of their creation (e.g., able to converse with God, able to work, and so on).
Yet our modern society believes we are just reaching the height of human intelligence and capabilities. If we accept this evolutionary view, what do we do with the biblical account about ancient man? Is it completely unfounded and simply a myth? Or is the Bible true and verifiably so, thus making the evolutionary timeline errant?
Most secular historians have not completely ignored the record of the Bible. However, they cite it as simply a source of information (e.g., a document of men, without God). In doing so, they undermine the authority of Scripture by not placing the Bible in its rightful place. Many Christians unwittingly accept this abuse of God’s Word and furthermore even promote it! When it is assumed that the Bible is only one of many records of early man and it is placed in a timeline alongside the other legends predating it, two key points are missed:
1 God existed before creation and is the infinite, omniscient, and omnipresent Creator and, as such, He is the ultimate authority above all things (Genesis 1:1; Isaiah 40:28; Isaiah 40:14; Proverbs 15:3; Psalm 24:1).
2 The Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible, and authoritative Word of God, given to us as God spoke through human writers (2 Peter 1:21; 2 Timothy 3:16).
Therefore, God’s account of what happened at the beginning of time, and since then, is accurate and true, and it is fallible man’s accounts of history that is subject to error. No matter when in human, historic time the Bible was actually penned or by whom, it has priority over any other account. In our book, The Genius of Ancient Man, we refer to this idea as the “priority of God in sequence and time.” God predates the universe and all human history; He was actually there, and His account (which He revealed to us in His Holy Word) is the accurate one.
— Andrew Snelling, David Menton, Danny Faulkner, Georgia Purdom, Answers in Genesis, Ancient Man and Intelligence: Were People Originally Dumb Brutes or Brilliant?, December 7, 2019
The virus goes on and on… Ham believes and wants to correct those who don’t do it right. Yawn. The guy has very little to say and it is no wonder to me that he wanted to have a big boat built. Now, the proof of the ark is the ark! Don’t worry if you don’t get it because it will be repeated every day, every day…
That’s a really special brand of crazy, “priority of God in sequence and time.” . And the adorable little trick of using the bible to prove the bible is true… who doesn’t love that?
As for Ham’s comment which I heard repeated ad nauseam by little Christian homeschoolers, I’ve always thought someone should answer, “Yes, I was there.” They can’t prove you weren’t….
My own response to “Were you there?” is “I didn’t have to be. The rocks were. We geologists know how to ask the rocks questions, and they told us about the history of the earth and the ages of the fossils that show our hominid lineage.”
Of course, the evidence for evolution provided by DNA analysis is much stronger even than the fossil record. I’m not a biologist, so I need to trust the community of biologists who have examined this evidence. Because I know how the scientific method works, I trust them.
I also am offended by the concept that our hominid ancestors were “brutes”. Previous species in the hominid line were probably less intelligent than we are on average; intelligence in mammals seems to require a big brain. But I would not use “brute” even to describe our closest modern relatives, chimps/bonobos/gorillas. They are social animals with complex societal structures. They may, on average, be even smarter than Ken Ham.
“Yet our modern society believes we are just reaching the height of human intelligence and capabilities” says Ken. It does? Where?
This wouldn’t be another false assertion would it, Ken?
These folks presuppose a certain type of God and that this God wrote a book that is necessarily 100% accurate and true, and that any evidence that the accounts in the book aren’t true must necessarily be false. This isn’t how the scientific method works.
Thank you so much for pointing out that those who wrote the Bible “weren’t there” then, either. I used to be an avid creationist not too many years ago and thought this was the trump card! I had since forgotten about that until this post.