A Feet of Imagination

No story related to human evolution has drawn as much press—and as much imagination—in recent times as the account of family members in Turkey (of Kurdish descent) who walk hunched over, using their hands as well as feet to ambulate. In fact, over a one-week period, more AiG supporters alerted us to this news item than any other we have ever received—by far.1

Photo from BBC.

Initially some scientists thought this bizarre story might have been a hoax, but after studying this family for some time, a TV documentary crew and researchers have concluded that it is not (e.g., the siblings, they discovered, have calluses on their palms). British TV (BBC 2) will broadcast a documentary on this unusual family tonight, and the concern is that these people might be portrayed as “freakish” and perhaps less-than-human because of the evolutionary connection some researchers will make to man’s supposed knuckle-dragging ape-like ancestors.2

Indeed, some evolutionists are claiming that this ability by members of this family to walk with hands and feet helps prove that an ape-like ancestor of man once walked on all fours. Evolutionists generally agree that about 3–4 million years ago, man’s ancestors developed the ability to walk upright. Accordingly, some evolutionists are telling the media that these siblings have reverted to “an instinctive behavior deeply encoded in the brain but abandoned in the course of evolution.”3 This supposedly helps to explain how humans eventually evolved from crawling to walking upright.4

More thoughtful scientists, though, say that there is simply a genetic mutation involved. The siblings appear to suffer from mental retardation (their parents are closely related, perhaps first cousins—but that is not known yet). “In-breeding” can result in genetic defects and abnormalities. That is why the Bible forbids such unions. At the time of Moses, it was declared (in the book of Leviticus) that close relatives could not marry, whereas it was not a problem for Cain, for example, to marry his sister, because both were the offspring of Adam and Eve, who were created physically perfect. Adam and Eve did not have accumulated genetic mistakes that would have caused deformities in their children since the effects of sin and the Curse would not have been great in their offspring’s physical bodies (but over time deformities would increase as generation after generation passed on genetic mistakes). See “Cain’s Wife”

Evolutionary scientists who use this modern-day example of a genetic mistake leading to mental retardation (so that they can try to make a better case for evolution) are the ones who are stooping low and grasping at straw(men). It shows just how weak the evolution worldview must be. Furthermore, these unfortunate people in Turkey are being exploited by the secular media as something of freaks and throwbacks to evolution (almost as if they are not fully human), when they should instead be recognized as descendants of Adam and Eve and created in God’s image—but who have suffered from the effects of the Curse (Genesis 3:15).