Human brain has downsized, according to articles in Sky News 6 February 2011 and Discover magazine 20 January 2011.
Psychologists David Geary and Drew Bailey of the University of Missouri have conducted a study of human brain sizes using fossil and present day skulls from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. They found the average size of human brains has shrunk since the time of Cro Magnon man – the original cave man, believed to have lived in Europe up till 17,000 years ago. They concluded that brain size decreased as population density increased. Geary explained: “As complex societies emerged, the brain became smaller because people did not have to be as smart to stay alive.”
Other scientists have suggested our brains have just become more efficient, or as we have become more civilised we have become like domestic animals which tend to be smaller in body and brain that their wild equivalents. Kathleen McAuliffe, who wrote the Discover magazine article was so surprised to find out human brains seem to be on the way down she contacted a number of experts to confirm the facts. She wrote: “The more I learn, the more baffled I become that news of our shrinking brain has been so underplayed, not just in the media but among scientists.”
Christopher Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, agreed it was strange that it was not widely known, and commented: “Scientists haven’t given the matter the attention it deserves. Many ignore it or consider it an insignificant detail.”
Editorial Comment: We know from personal experience that Christopher Stringer is right – the provable decrease in human brain size has been ignored. Creation Research has been telling people this for many years, and opponents have even accused us of making it up.
In spite of the belief that humans are evolving upwards, the actual evidence is we are going downhill, consistent with the Biblical history of the world, that God made everything very good, including human brains, but sadly “everything” has been degenerating since man sinned against his Creator as recorded in Genesis 3. It’s the basic reason we need revelation from God, as man’s brain is corrupted and the resulting bias to evil makes us unable to independently discover truth.
Today there is only one way to get a better brain. You have to ensure you will have a resurrection body in the New Heavens and Earth by putting your trust in the Creator Jesus Christ who died and rose again to pay the penalty for the very sin that began the corruption of all things – brains included.
Evidence News 16 February 2011
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