The 10 Things You Should Know About the Creation vs. Evolution Debate by Ron Rhodes

things.
    Today Neanderthal man has been recategorized as truly
human and, creationists believe, is a descendant of Noah." He
was very muscular, powerful, and thickset," but such features
are certainly within the gene pool for humanity. Such robusticity can be found on an individual basis in modern living populations today.12 Some scholars suggest that the reason for his
muscular, stocky body relates to the tough environment in which
he lived. His robusticity was due to the hard labor he had to
engage in just to survive.13
    The evidence shows that Neanderthal man, when in good
health, stood fully erect and walked in a normal fashion with a
normal posture like modern humans.14 He certainly had a fully
human brain capacity.'' The evidence shows that he sewed clothes
from animal skins, built shelters, had a form of writing, practiced religious ceremonies, played musical instruments, made
and used various tools (including axes, borers, scrapers, points,
and knives"), fashioned stone arrowheads, used fire for cooking, painted pictures, used language to communicate, buried the
dead, and even placed flowers upon graves. Sometimes he buried
the dead with various objects, suggesting the possibility that he
had some kind of belief in the afterlife." He also displayed social
care. "Some skeletons show the marks of obvious injuries or illnesses suffered sometime before death, evidence that there must
have been social care to support certain ailing or disabled individuals."" These are not things one would expect of a savage
apelike creature.'9 Clearly, Neanderthal man was a Homo sapi-
ens.20

Java Man (Pithecanthropus Erectus)
    Java man, also known as Pithecanthropus erectus (Greek:
pithecos = ape, anthropos = man, erectus = erect, and thus "erect
ape-man""), was discovered by a Dutch physician named
Eugene Dubois in Trinil, Java in 1891. Dubois had no formal
geological or paleontological training, and his search team
consisted of prison convicts under the surveillance of a couple
of army corporals.22
    Dubois discovered a single skull cap and a tooth about a
month apart. At first, he thought these items belonged to a chimpanzee (the cranial capacity was certainly much smaller than that
of a human23). Later, however, a thigh bone (femur) that obviously belonged to a human appeared, and Dubois revised his
thinking about the skull cap and tooth, concluding that all these
items belonged to one animal named Pithecanthropus erectus.24
He dated this find at about 500,000 years old.
    Dubois's discovery was met with mixed reaction. Some
experts, such as Rudolph Virchow (who founded the science
of pathology), doubted that these items belonged to a single
individual. He said, "In my opinion, this creature was an animal,
a giant gibbon, in fact. The thigh bone has not the slightest
connection with the skull. `15 Other experts felt that all the items
were essentially apelike. Still others considered them to be
human. Today, most experts in the field consider the Pithecanthropus erectus to be an extinct, giant gibbon-like creature
(an arboreal ape) that bears no relation to humans.2G This creature is not the transitional link evolutionists were hoping for.

Piltdown Man (Eanthropus Dawsoni)
    Charles Dawson discovered Piltdown man, also known as
Eanthropus dawsoni ("dawn man"), in 1912 in Piltdown,
England. The discovery included a dark brown skull, a jawbone,
and a few teeth, and was said to be the remains of an ape-man
who lived at least 500,000 years ago (perhaps even 750,000 years
ago). Such esteemed scholars as Dr. Arthur Smith Woodward,
paleontologist at the British Museum, and Dr. Henry Fairfield
Osborn, paleontologist of the American Museum of Natural
History, were fully convinced of the validity and significance
of this ape-man discovery.27 Osborn believed the discovery
proved man had descended from apes in view of its apelike and
humanlike anatomical characteristics.28
    Unfortunately for