| Dear Friends of Reasonable Faith,
“Full steam ahead!” That is the operative attitude among the Reasonable Faith team during these days of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m so glad that Reasonable Faith is a virtual, web-based ministry with no headquarters, no building, no office staff. All of our contractors, who are scattered literally around the world, work remotely and so can continue their ministries without interruption or slowdown. So whether it’s Kevin Harris or Michael Lepien or Tyson James or the incomparable Zangmeister, or one of many others, all are fully engaged in the work of the ministry.
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| As for me, while I’ve had to cancel my speaking engagements this spring, that has only given me more time to devote to my study of the historical Adam. As a result, I’ve been extraordinarily productive these last few weeks, ploughing through loads of scientific articles in journals like Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Phonetics, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Evolutionary Anthropology, Animal Behavior, Annual Review of Linguistics, etc., which my teaching assistant Tim Bayless obtains for me electronically. Recently I’ve started writing up the results of the last year of my study of the scientific evidence for the time of humanity’s origin, and it is wonderful to have an uninterrupted block of time like this for writing. I’ve found once again, as before, that the discipline of writing up the results of one’s studies and explaining it for others helps to bring tremendous clarity and order to one’s own understanding of the issues.
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Alex Malpass and William Lane Craig on Capturing Christianity
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| Despite what I just said above, I have, in fact, been able to continue to speak publicly despite the quarantine, due to the technological miracles of our computer age. Since our Defenders class is no longer permitted to meet, Jan and I have been recording my weekly lessons at home in my office and then sending them to team members Casey and Caleb for live-streaming at the usual time and posting on Facebook and YouTube. David Wood and Jon McCray were in town to film a documentary they’re doing on the historical credibility of Jesus’ resurrection, which I sat for. At the same time I did a light hearted interview with David on a truly wacky Muslim apologist (which has since received over 100,000 views) and another interview with Jon responding to dopey atheist memes in pop culture. Earlier in the month I did a telephone interview from the U.K. with the eminent journalist David Aiken, whom we met years ago in China, for an online magazine named Godspeed. I recently appeared via Skype on Cameron Bertuzzi’s Capturing Christianity podcast with atheist philosopher Alex Malpass, who is as fascinated with the kalām cosmological argument as I am. We had a two-hour dialogue on the philosophical arguments for the beginning of the universe and took questions from viewers. Cameron is already working to set up two more interviews for me with other scholars, which avoids having to go through airports and the hassles of travel. So we’re trying to exploit the electronic media in every way we can!
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I’ve spent the last year studying the scientific evidence with respect to the question, when did human beings first appear on this planet? Of course, we can’t get a precise or certain answer to this question, but I do think the evidence enables us to narrow the window significantly. In previous reports I’ve shared some of the evidence for the amazing antiquity of behaviorally modern human beings and some of the evidence for thinking that Neanderthals were behaviorally modern. That points to our last common ancestor Homo heidelbergensis as the fount of humanity.
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Permit me to share with you what is undoubtedly one of the most amazing prehistoric archaeological discoveries ever made, which most of you will have never heard of. In 2016 French archaeologists reported on strange circular structures found deep inside Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France. No humans had entered the cave since its natural closing in the Pleistocene Epoch and its re-opening in 1990, guaranteeing that the structures inside are undisturbed. The cave itself is a long, snaking corridor 10-15 meters wide and 482 meters long. The structures are found in a room at an astonishing depth of 336 meters from the entrance, which places them in complete darkness. They consist of about 400 whole or partial stalagmites with lengths of 34 centimeters for the long ones and 29 centimeters for the small ones. The pieces are arranged in two large rings and four smaller heaps. The two rings are composed of one to four stacked layers of aligned stalagmites. Traces of fire are to be found on all six structures.
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Uranium-series dating gives a reliable age of 176,000 years, making them among the oldest constructions made by man. Neanderthals were the only humans living in Europe at that time. Jacques Jaubert, the lead archaeologist at the site, comments on its significance:
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This type of construction implies the beginnings of a social organization: This organization could consist of a project that was designed and discussed by one or several individuals, a distribution of the tasks of choosing, collecting and calibrating the speleofacts [stalagmites], followed by their transport (or vice versa) and placement according to a predetermined plan. This work would also require adequate lighting. . . . The complexity of the structure, combined with its difficult access (335 m from the cave entrance), are signs of a collective project and therefore suggest the existence of an organized society that was already on the path to ‘modernity’.
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No one knows what would prompt these early humans to penetrate deep into the interior of a cave, torches in hand, to build such structures. Such activity may well betoken ritualistic or symbolic behavior, thus underlining the human status of the individuals involved. This is but one more piece of evidence that we and Neanderthals are both members of the human family descended from Adam.
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Obviously, I won’t be traveling in April but will continue to practice social distancing (i.e., continue to study and write as usual!). On April 14 I’m scheduled to appear on Capturing Christianity with biologist Joshua Swamidass to talk about different views on the historical Adam. I’m also scheduled to do an interview with John Anderson, former deputy Prime Minister of Australia, for his podcast Conversations on the challenges of contemporary secularism, but we’ll have to see if it needs to be postponed.
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Please stay safe, all of you, especially those who do not have the luxury of working from home, as I do. We know that many are suffering both health-wise and financially, so we pray that the LORD will give you strength to persevere!
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For Christ and His Kingdom,
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After many years (over 20) of wrestling struggling, dealing with horrific existential dread, doubt, and disbelief.After millions of questions After so many years of struggling with pornography and alcohol. After watching soooo many debates and sites like these and listening and reading many different books and talks from different people.. After so many years of sin sin sin sin sin. After so many years of Asking God if he is there, I finally, FINALLY FIIINNNNAAALLLLYYY in the last few days became a Christian. I can't point to one particular moment when I asked like a lot of people but I just suddenly in my heart know this is right. I don't know what to do with myself right now honestly, but I just now know that I want to follow Jesus. I want to change, I want to be like him because he is the freaking man. Like this guy lived life with purpose and direction and joy. I just feel the need to tell everyone everywhere that I can that I am at long last something I was never sure I would be. I AM A FOLLOWER OF JESUS, and I am NEVER turning back, so long as I have strength. I don't know what to do next but I want this. more than anything else, I want this. It is like a giant weight was lifted off my shoulders. This is amazing. wow. Ok the end. Thank you Dr. Craig and everyone at this site. I am not good at words right now but I am just so grateful because without this site I never would have realized the great hope of Jesus. I hope you or whoever runs the site see this and know how grateful I am if I ever meet you in person I just wanna give you all a BIIIIIGGG HUG. THANKYOU!!!
Joseph
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