One Giant Step for Mankind

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The lead article and front cover picture of the July 23, 2001, issue of Time Magazine promised its readers that a recent discovery in Ethiopia has brought science tantalizingly close to solving the puzzle: "How Apes Became Human."

The discovery consisted of eleven small pieces of fossil bone, including a jawbone and some teeth, from at least five different individuals. The reader is told that these fragments were found scattered over several sites and fortunately were in the same rock layer. That layer was dated at about five and a half million years old. This discovery alone would not have compelled the Time editors to even report it. One of the precious bones, however, was a toe bone whose features "proves the creature walked on two legs." Apes do not habitually walk on two legs and thus it was this toe bone that quickly moved the discovery from relative obscurity to the front page of Time Magazine. The article hails these bone fragments as the earliest link between the ape and man.

Near the end of the article is a revealing statement: The toe bone was not only separated in time by several hundred thousand evolutionary years but was also found ten miles away from the rest of the bone fragments! Time editor's may believe that this is all good evidence that man evolved from the ape's image but Creation Moments suggests it is more credible to believe that man was created in God's image.