"Missing Links" — Java Man

By Royce Frederick

Evolutionists claim that simple life forms gradually evolved into all of the complex forms of life present today, including man. They search for transitional life forms — “links” — between our human ancestors and (our supposed) non-human ancestors. Occasionally, an evolutionist will announce that a “missing link” has been discovered. Let’s take a closer look at one famous “missing link.”

Dutch physician Eugene Dubois, a fervent evolutionist, set out to find a “missing link.” On the island of Java, he found bone fragments which he named Pithecanthropus erectus (erect ape-man). He first found a skull cap in the fall of 1891. A year later, he found a fragment of a left thigh-bone about fifty feet from the first fragment. These were in an old river bed mixed with bones of other creatures. He then found three teeth, and later found a lower jaw in another part of the island. (Encyclopedia Britannica,1946, vol. 14, p. 736; Evolution: The Challenge of the Fossil Record, Duane T. Gish, Ph.D., 1985, Creation-Life Publishers, El Cajon, California, p. 180; The Collapse of Evolution, Scott M. Huse, 1983, Baker Book House, p. 99).

The “discovery” was named “Java Man” and was highly acclaimed. It is reported that newspapers said, “Perfect Skull of Prehistoric Man, Missing Link Found,” and that a newspaper even said, “Java Man walked erect and had a tail.”

Is it really scientific to gather fragments separated by great distances and claim they all belonged to one creature? Dubois concealed the fact that he also found two human skulls at nearby Wadjak at approximately the same level in the earth. He did not reveal these until 1922, after thirty years of belief in Java man. And, about fifteen years before his death, Dubois changed his mind about the skull fragment, saying it was probably nothing more than a giant gibbon — an ape. (Gish, p. 181.) Another “Java Man” was discovered in 1926 and was likewise welcomed by evolutionists. However, this one turned out to be the knee-bone of an extinct elephant. (Huse, p. 100.)

Several other famous “missing links” have been proven false. In fact, scientists have not yet discovered even one fossil of a lower life form which can be truly shown to be an ancestor of man. Yet artists continue to paint detailed pictures of “missing links.” As G. K. Chesterton put it, “Most evolutionists seem to know everything about the missing link, except the fact that it is missing.”

Man did not evolve from a lower form of life. Instead, on the sixth day of creation week, “...God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:27).