
PILTDOWN MAN

.   The remains of Piltdown Man were allegedly discovered in 1912 by Charles 
Dawson, an amateur fossilogist. He produced some bones, teeth, and primitive 
implements, which he said he found in a gravel pit at Piltdown, Sussex, 
England. He took them to Dr. Author Smith Woodword, an eminent paleontologist 
at the British Museum. The remains were acclaimed by anthropologists to be 
about 500,000 years old. A flood of doctoral disertations were performed on 
Piltdown Man. Surely, this find will stand the test of time and establish 
evolution as a fact of science; or will it? 

.   All was well until October of 1956 when the entire hoax was exposed. 
Reader's Digest came out with an article, summarized from Popular Science 
Monthly, entitled The Great Piltdown Hoax. Using a new method to date bones 
based upon fluoride absorption, the Piltdown bones were found to be 
fraudulent. Further critical investigation revealed that the jaw-bone actually 
belonged to an ape that had died only 50 years previously. The teeth were 
filed down, and both teeth and bones were discolored with bichromate of potash 
to conceal their true identity. And so, Piltdown Man was built upon a 
deception which completely fooled all the "experts" who promoted him with the 
utmost confidence.  According to M. Bowden: 

   "...the person responsible for placing the faked fossils in the pit
    was Teilhard de Chardin S. J."

.   Teilhard authored several philosophical books in which he attempted to 
harmonize evolution and Christianity. Exasperated by the lack of convincing 
evidence for Darwin's theory, Teilhard was apparently motivated into assisting 
the theory of evolution by fabricating the needed missing link. 

.   It should be noted that Piltdown Man was viewed in stately museums and 
studied in major textbooks for several generations. What will today's "facts" 
of humen evolution turn out to be in the near future? And so, once again, the 
veracity of "experty testimony" is called into question. How fitting are the 
words of Scripture which declare: 

.   "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." (Romans 1:22)

From  the book "The Collapse of Evolution"
                by Scott M. Huse
                Baker Book House
                Grand Rapids, Michigan 49516

                                                                                  