[Opinion] `Toumai Ape-Man`

The doctrine of creation and evolution theory tend to appear in everything that concerns the human genesis. The doctrine of creation is based on the Bible saying that God has created the man, whereas the evolution theory asserts that human beings originated from lower animals. The doctrine of creation was dominant until the first half of the 19th century. In his thesis presented in 1802 William Paley, a leading British theologian, compared the eyes of animals to a clock and asserted that like any clock has its creator, the eyes of all living creatures have their creator too. By creator Paley implied God.

But the doctrine of creation was shattered when Charles Darwin presented his evolution theory in 1859, creating propitious conditions for emergence of numerous supporting theories and overshadowing theologians. The religion had no choice but to succumb to scientific approaches, such as paleontology and DNA analyses. The resurrection of theology, however, began in the second half of the 20th century, summarized in Judged Darwin (1991) written by a law professor Phillip Jones and Darwin`s Black Box (1996) by a biochemist Michael J. Behe. Those were the representations of a new doctrine of creation based on scientifically proved facts rather than blindly sticking to the Bible.

Recently, new fossils have been discovered that aroused great excitement from evolutionists. Nature, a British science magazine, wrote that fossils dating back to 7 million years the oldest fossils discovered to date - have been found in the Republic of Chad in the middle part of Africa. The magazine reported that a multi-national research team headed by a French paleontologist discovered an almost perfectly round cerebrum, two jaws and three teeth. The research team dubbed the fossils Toumai, meaning the hope of life in the Chad language. The newly found fossils are at least one million years older than any fossils found so far.

Lim Beon-sam, a Professor from KACR, criticized the evolution theory in his book Looking for a Lost Tree of Life, writing that the evolution theory is full of fabrications as oftentimes human remains found in different places are misrepresented as the ones found in one and the same spot and the scientifically proved animals` remains are asserted to be the remains of Hominoid. The new discovery is likely to illicit the same response. Maybe, compromise between the creation doctrine and the evolution theory is impossible forever. Einstein once said, Science without religion is as a big problem as religion without science.

youngeon@donga.com