That Ken Ham…What a Neanderthal! (Or, “The Rise, Genetic Mutation, Interbreeding, and Extinction of Neanderthals…All Within 200 Years!)

In the countdown to Ken Ham’s visit to my town next week, I am making a concentrated effort to write a few more posts on the claims that the folks at Answers in Genesis routinely make. Today, I want to comment on Ken Ham’s February 19^th post about Neanderthals, entitled, “Neanderthals—Descendants of Adam.”

Genomes and Family Trees
Now, in case you are unaware, let me briefly summarize what scientists know about Neanderthals. Based on the study of the Neanderthal genome (yes, that’s right—we have mapped out the Neanderthal genome, just like we have mapped out the human genome), scientists have been able to calculate the following:

• The group that would become Homo sapiens split off from Neanderthals about 600,000 years ago—Neanderthals moving off into Europe and Asia, while Homo sapiens remained in Africa.
• 100,000 years ago, though, as Homo sapiens migrated into Europe and Asia, they bumped into Neanderthals again (imagine that—after 500,000 years), and were still so closely genetically-related, they were able to interbreed with each other, that is why there are traces of Neanderthal genes in some humans who are of European descent.
• Neanderthals died out about 30,000 years ago.

If you are wondering how scientists can figure this stuff out from the genome, let me provide a very simple (hopefully not oversimplistic) example. Studying the genome is like looking at the “family tree” of humanity (and of course in this case, Neanderthals). The genome is very much like an actual picture/diagram of a family tree. All the genetic material is simply mapped out—it’s just a matter of reading all of it. Therefore, scientists have been able to see all of this before their eyes. They’re not guessing—they’re just reading the data that the genome(s) provide.

Enter Ken Ham
In any case, it is the recent news that humans and Neanderthals interbred 100,000 years ago that Ken Ham decided to comment on. His reaction was pretty simple: the fact that Neanderthals and humans interbred has been known for years—it’s just that “evolutionists” now put the date at 100,000 years ago, not 6,000 years ago.

Of course Neanderthals and humans interbred, Ham says, because Neanderthals were fully human, period: “Neanderthals simply represent a people group that formed after the dispersion at the Tower of Babel, after the Flood, just a few thousand (not hundreds of thousands) years ago. They had unique characteristics that likely became more prominent as they were isolated from other people by the divinely created language barrier.”

And that’s that—end of the post.

Now, What Do I Know? I’m Just a Caveman!
Now, I am no scientist, and I am not going to get into the question of “Were Neanderthals human?” From my layman’s point of view, the fact that they could interbreed with Homo sapiens tells me at the very least they were certainly close enough.

What I want to comment on is Ham’s incredible dismissal out of hand of the genetic evidence from the genomes of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Remember, it’s not like scientists are just pulling numbers out of the air with blind guesses. They are looking at the mapped out genomes (i.e. just look at that print out of the family tree). They are then simply doing the calculations of what is there. And based on what they are looking at (kind of sounds like Ken Ham’s “observational science”!), they are able to calculate that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals interbred 100,000 years ago.

And yet in response, Ken Ham says, “Nuh-uh! Neanderthals are just a people group descended from Adam and Eve 6,000 years ago, and who were one of the groups who dispersed from the Tower of Babel 4,000 years ago! They had different physical characteristics because they were isolated, due to the different languages!”

Let’s Get Biblical…Biblical…I Wanna Get Biblical…
So let’s play along for a moment:

2,000 years ago, at the time of Christ, there were human beings—no Neanderthals anymore, just human beings, right? Right.

3,000 years ago, around the time of King David, there were human beings—no Neanderthals anymore, just human beings, right? Right.

Somewhere between 3,500-3,800 years ago, around the time of Abraham, there were human beings—no Neanderthals anymore, just human beings, right? Right.

Ken Ham says Noah’s flood happened 4,000 years ago…and then came the Tower of Babel…and then came Abraham. So it seems that Ken Ham is suggesting that the Neanderthals were a distinct group that developed after the Tower of Babel, who developed enough genetic differences with a span of, what? A couple hundred years at best? And then they interbred with the rest of Adam’s offspring when they regained contact, and then they died out virtually immediately, right before the time of Abraham?

Or does Ken Ham suggest that Neanderthals lived well into the time of Abraham, Moses, and David? If he does, is there any biblical evidence that would suggest this? (Well, there are those Geico commercials!) And before you venture a guess like, “Perhaps the giants like Goliath were really Neanderthals,” let me stop you right there. Goliath was believed to be anywhere between 7-10 feet tall. The average height of Neanderthals was 5’5”—so no, Goliath was not a Neanderthal.

Come Now, Mr. Ham…This is Just Getting Ridiculous
It should be obvious: Ken Ham’s claim about Neanderthals simply is not based in any known reality. He would have you believe that the only reason why Neanderthals are believed to be a distinct species from Homo sapiens is because they experienced rapid genetic mutational differences over the span of 200 years. To that, all I can say is this: every now and then we find that there has been some isolated tribe in South America that has been discovered—a people group that no one has ever known about, seemingly living in isolation from the world for hundreds of years. And do you know what we’ve discovered? They’re still fully people. They share the same human genome. Isolation for hundreds of years does not produce a radically distinct genome.

Yet those facts, plus the facts of the Human genome and the Neanderthal genome, plus the fact that there is no mention of Neanderthals in the Bible, plus the fact that Ken Ham provides no scientific or biblical facts for his claim, do not seem to deter Ken Ham from making something up entirely. Who needs scientific or biblical evidence anyway? Answers in Genesis apparently has the God-like ability to speak things into existence ex nihilo.

And even though such claims remain ex nihilo (for there is no trace of their validity in the known world), there are still some who will still believe it. It’s no wonder that God’s people in the Old Testament were told to stay away from pork products.

But if you just want to see Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer for a good chuckle, here you go. He makes a better case than Ken Ham.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/unfrozen-caveman-lawyer/2862211