Changes

'''Piltdown Man''' was a notorious hoax perpetrated early in 20th century [[Great Britain]], in which a medieval human skull was combined with the lower jaw of an [[orangutan]] and subsequently "found" in a gravel pit in the near the village of Piltdown, England. Hailed as the "[[missing link]]" between man and ape-like species by promoters of [[evolution]] for decades, Piltdown man was exposed as a fraud only through later scientific testing and simple observation.  The refusal of the discoverer to allow independent scrutiny of his claims enabled this fraud to persist '''''for over forty years'''''.

'''Piltdown Man''' was a notorious hoax perpetrated early in 20th century [[Great Britain]], in which a medieval human skull was combined with the lower jaw of an [[orangutan]] and subsequently "found" in a gravel pit in the near the village of Piltdown, England. Hailed as the "[[missing link]]" between man and ape-like species by promoters of [[evolution]] for decades, Piltdown man was exposed as a fraud only through later scientific testing and simple observation.  The refusal of the discoverer to allow independent scrutiny of his claims enabled this fraud to persist '''''for over forty years'''''.

Critics of evolution believe that the Piltdown man was not an isolated incident of bad judgment by evolutionists and that the examples of the Nebraska Man, Java Man, Ocre Man, [[Neanderthal]]s, and Flores Man can be cited. <ref>[http://www.nwcreation.net/evolutionfraud.html "Evolution Fraud"], Northwest Creation Network</ref> Rather than admit the defects in their methods that facilitate hoaxes, many evolutionists simply rewrote their alleged tree of ancestors without the Piltdown man in it (a clear case of [[evolutionist denial]] and not of science working as intended, since the fraud was easily detectable immediately if scientific methods had been used by evolutionists).

Critics of evolution believe that the Piltdown man was not an isolated incident of bad judgment by evolutionists and that the examples of the Nebraska Man, Java Man, Ocre Man, [[Neanderthal]]s, and Flores Man can be cited.<ref>[http://www.nwcreation.net/evolutionfraud.html "Evolution Fraud"], Northwest Creation Network</ref> Rather than admit the defects in their methods that facilitate hoaxes, many evolutionists simply rewrote their alleged tree of ancestors without the Piltdown man in it (a clear case of [[evolutionist denial]] and not of science working as intended, since the fraud was easily detectable immediately if scientific methods had been used by evolutionists).

==History==

==History==

Shortly afterward, Piltdown Man was declared the most important [[fossil]] find in Europe.  The ''[[New York Times]]'' declared it to be the true [[missing link]]; a headline from that paper would read “[[Charles Darwin|Darwin]] [[Evolution|Theory]] Is Proved True.”  A leading British scientific journal chimed in:

Shortly afterward, Piltdown Man was declared the most important [[fossil]] find in Europe.  The ''[[New York Times]]'' declared it to be the true [[missing link]]; a headline from that paper would read “[[Charles Darwin|Darwin]] [[Evolution|Theory]] Is Proved True.”  A leading British scientific journal chimed in:

:''The fossil human skull and mandible to be described by Mr. Charles Dawson and Dr. Arthur Smith Woodward at the Geological Society as we go to press is the most important discovery of its kind hitherto made in England.  The specimen was found in circumstances which seem to leave no doubt of its geological age, and the characters it shows are themselves sufficient to denote its extreme antiquity.''<ref>''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', December 19, 1912, pg. 438; article “[[Paleolithic Age|Paleolithic]] Man”</ref>

 

The fossil human skull and mandible to be described by Mr. Charles Dawson and Dr. Arthur Smith Woodward at the Geological Society as we go to press is the most important discovery of its kind hitherto made in England.  The specimen was found in circumstances which seem to leave no doubt of its geological age, and the characters it shows are themselves sufficient to denote its extreme antiquity.<ref>''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', December 19, 1912, pg. 438; article “[[Paleolithic Age|Paleolithic]] Man”</ref>

Its "extreme antiquity" was thought to have been between 400,000-500,000 years ago, based on the animal teeth found with the remains.  The result of their deductions wasn't just scientific excitement; it was national pride.  [[Germany]] had [[Heidelberg Man]], the [[Indonesia|Dutch East Indies]] had [[Homo erectus|Java Man]]; in the announcing of Piltdown Man, the British Isles could lay claim to the first Englishman.<ref>http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/tenness5.html</ref>  In gratitude to its discoverer, evolutionary scientists give it a formal name: ''Eoanthropus dawsoni'' - "Dawson's dawn man".

Its "extreme antiquity" was thought to have been between 400,000-500,000 years ago, based on the animal teeth found with the remains.  The result of their deductions wasn't just scientific excitement; it was national pride.  [[Germany]] had [[Heidelberg Man]], the [[Indonesia|Dutch East Indies]] had [[Homo erectus|Java Man]]; in the announcing of Piltdown Man, the British Isles could lay claim to the first Englishman.<ref>http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/tenness5.html</ref>  In gratitude to its discoverer, evolutionary scientists give it a formal name: ''Eoanthropus dawsoni'' - "Dawson's dawn man".