Notable Darwinist says humans evolved from apes

Some Darwinists are now claiming that humans did not evolve from apes but that humans and apes both evolved from some "common ancestor." However, well-known hominid paleontologist Richard Leakey says that humans evolved from apes. A recent news article said,

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Deep in the dusty, unlit corridors of Kenya's national museum, locked away in a plain-looking cabinet, is one of mankind's oldest relics: Turkana Boy, as he is known, the most complete skeleton of a prehistoric human ever found.

But his first public display later this year is at the heart of a growing storm -- one pitting scientists against Kenya's powerful and popular evangelical Christian movement . . . .

. . . . . "I did not evolve from Turkana Boy or anything like it," says Bishop Boniface Adoyo, head of Kenya's 35 evangelical denominations, which he claims have 10 million followers. "These sorts of silly views are killing our faith."

He's calling on his flock to boycott the exhibition and has demanded the museum relegate the fossil collection to a back room -- along with some kind of notice saying evolution is not a fact but merely one of a number of theories.

Against him is one of the planet's best-known fossil hunters, Richard Leakey, whose team unearthed the bones at Nariokotome in West Turkana, in the desolate, far northern reaches of Kenya in 1984.

"Whether the bishop likes it or not, Turkana Boy is a distant relation of his," Leakey, who founded the museum's prehistory department, told The Associated Press. "The bishop is descended from the apes and these fossils tell how he evolved."(emphasis added)

Humans are usually considered to be apes themselves, and if humans are defined as apes, then according to evolution theory humans by definition evolved from non-human apes (also sometimes called "anthropoid apes"). And relatively speaking, I wonder what is so terrible about saying that humans evolved from apes and monkeys when Darwinism says that humans evolved from much lower forms of life, going down to protozoa.

The article also says,

Leakey fears the ideological spat may provoke an attack on the priceless collection, one largely found during the 1920s by his paleontologist parents, Louis and Mary Leakey, who passed their fossil-hunting traditions on to him.

The museum, which attracts around 100,000 visitors a year, is taking no chances.

Turkana Boy will be displayed in a private room, with limited access and behind a glass screen with 24-hour closed-circuit TV. Security guards will be at the entrance.

"There are issues about the security," said Dr. Emma Mbua, the head of paleontology at the museum. "These fossils are irreplaceable and we wouldn't want anything to happen to them."

Insurance coverage could run into millions of dollars, she added.

Considering Africa's tendencies towards instability and violence, I think it would be a good idea for the museum to try to compromise with the Kenyan fundies, as by posting the evolution disclaimer that Bishop Adoyo proposed. Better safe than sorry.

The article also says,

"Turkana Boy is our jewel," she said. "For the first time, we will be taking him out of the strong room and showing our heritage to the world."

I cannot understand how a fossil can be viewed as a source of pride, but that is how the British also viewed Piltdown Man, which was exposed as a hoax.