One Reason to Be Suspicious of Evolutionary Science

I have gone on the record suggesting why I think  Christians should concede theistic evolution. But stories like the following are a reminder of why we should retain a suspicion of evolutionary science.

From last month’s University of Texas at Austin News, Recently Analyzed Fossil Was Not Human Ancestor As Claimed, Anthropologists Say

AUSTIN, Texas — A fossil that was celebrated last year as a possible “missing link” between humans and early primates is actually a forebearer of modern-day lemurs and lorises, according to two papers by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin, Duke University and the University of Chicago.

In an article now available online in the Journal of Human Evolution, four scientists present evidence that the 47-million-year-old Darwinius masillae is not a haplorhine primate like humans, apes and monkeys, as the 2009 research claimed.

Okay, so they got it wrong. A fossil that anthropologists hailed as the “missing link” is actually a lemur skeleton. This isn’t the first time scientists have had to backpedal. And before we use this as evidence of overt scientific fraud, please note that it was fellow anthropologists who debunked the finding. So in this case, science balanced the scale.

No, the thing that scares me about this incident and raises the hackles of my baloney meter, is what happened after the initial discovery.

Last spring’s much-publicized article on Darwinius was released in conjunction with a book, a History Channel documentary, and an exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History. At a news conference attended by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the authors unveiled the nearly complete fossil of a nine-month-old female primate that had been found at the site of Messel in Germany.

So the moment a possible “missing link” had been found, the propaganda machine swung into full gear. The science article was released “in conjunction with a book, a History Channel documentary, and an exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History.” To great fanfare, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg attended the unveiling of the “nearly complete fossil.” Even Google fell into lockstep with a redesigned logo to celebrate the finding.

Question: Do you think the book’s publisher, the History Channel, the National History Museum, Michael Bloomberg, or Google issued a retraction?

This type of stuff is what makes Christians and evolutionary skeptics suspicious. Frankly, the science community seems far too eager to celebrate even the scantest evidence for evolution. This zeal leads to breathless claims and over-hype, much of which often proves unfounded. Granted, Christians may have an artificial and baseless animosity toward science in general. But events like the one above only buttress our suspicions.

Like the boy who cried wolf, the next anthropologist who announces a “breakthrough discovery” should find fewer listeners. While we may be evolving as a species, ad campaigns for the process apparently have a long way to go.