Are Museum Specimens Faked?

The cartoon reproduced on this page slyly conveys the impression that museum speci­mens of fossils are "faked," or manufactured for the occasion. But this is not often the case. Hence it would be a mistake for any Adventist minister to take such a cartoon seriously. Yet it is a fact that many religious workers have so little knowledge of these sub­jects that they might even consider this car­toon or others of a similar nature as good ammunition against the theory of evolution. It would be a calamity if some evangelist should make a slide from such a picture, to use in a serious discussion of scientific ques­tions.

If the reconstructed fossil skeletons were really fabrications, or even if they were as­sembled arbitrarily from hones found scattered promiscuously, we might in good reason com­plain of the falseness of such reconstructions. But there are no more careful or accurate workers in any line of science than those who make the study of fossil bones, shells, etc., the business of their lives. The bones and the shells are real enough and are usually shown exactly as they appear after being cleaned from the earth or rock materials found adhering to them. The bones of big dinosaurs, fossil ele­phants, titanotheres, etc., are put together with the most extreme care and accuracy. We have no just complaint in these respects.

What we do have a right to complain of is the way in which unproved and false theories are injected into the serial arrangement of the fossils with respect to one another. They are often arranged in the museums in a supposed chronological sequence, so as to convey the impression that certain of these fossils are older than others. Thus do scientists claim to arrange them in a genuine chronological order for the world as a whole. But this is a false and unscientific assumption—the idea around which the entire theory of organic evo­lution has been built up.

We have a right to protest the museum ar­rangement of the many so-called "horses," placing them in alleged chronological order, with the little ones before the larger ones. The same applies to the museum arrangement of the fossil elephants and several other groups, as well as the arrangement of fossil shells so that they seem to support the evolu­tion theory. We also have a right to protest against the hideous "reconstructions" of human heads and bodies from ambiguous fragments. And even more serious than this, because it is more likely to deceive the public and to teach false and dangerous doctrines, is the artificial arrangement of these fossil human remains in an alleged historical order, with the brutal, apelike specimens coming first, and the human-resembling specimens later.

This chronology is a pure guess, and is the most blameworthy feature about museum specimens. The fact that plaster models have been made of fossil human remains is not so, likely to deceive us. For any person of intelli­gence knows that such a reconstruction is pure guesswork. Whereas the average person is very likely to suppose that the chronological order of these specimens is reliable and scien­tific, which is not the case by any means.

The same principles apply to the fossils of reptiles or mammals, such as the big dinosaurs, elephants, and mastodons. These are seldom "reconstructed" into plaster-of-Paris casts. Almost invariably they are the actual skele­tons articulated in a reliable or scientific man­ner. Hence the cartoon appearing herewith conveys a wrong impression entirely. The hones have not been faked. Nor can they be assembled or articulated in various whimsical ways, as the cartoon would imply. It is the serial arrangement of the various animals to suit a false theory of a relative chronology which we can justifiably challenge, for such an arrangement is a genuine fraud on the pub­lic—a fraud which the average visitor to the museum does not recognize as a fraud at all.

I am writing thus, because in many instances Adventists and other religious people have con­tracted unjust and ignorant prejudices against the entire subject of the fossils. Such persons might think that this cartoon is a good joke, and become even more confirmed by it in their entire rejection of the evidence of the fossils. But genuine fossil remains, like true archeo­logical remains, show us what living things were like in the long ago.

We should always remember that the genu­ine things of nature are second only to the Bible in teaching us about God and His deal­ings with the world. We do not lose interest in certain parts of the Bible merely because some people make a wrong use of them. Why should we contract a prejudice against the study of the fossils, just because certain peo­ple have made wrong use of them? Let the study of the fossils be encouraged, for they are eloquent testimony of "the world that then was, which, being overflowed with water, per­ished." However, let this study be carried on honestly and sincerely, without any false or unjustified assumptions or theories.