Fred’s article has already been demolished in the thread Randy provided a link to. One thing I don’t see mentioned there is something that was pointed out to Fred when he provided this same article during his brief but heavy handed moderating on the old OCW board. In that thread someone questioned him about the validity of this quote from his article:
The alleged ape-man ‘Lucy’ is another example championed by many evolutionists, but disputed by other qualified evolutionist scientists. Renowned anatomist Lord Solly Zuckerman once scornfully denounced A. afarensis as nothing more than a bloody ape! 10
10 Roger Lewin, Bones of Contention, 1987, p.164, 165
That question, indeed the entire post was deleted. I can only assume because that poster dared to point out Fred’s own sleight of hand ness.
This is how the actual quote from Zuckerman as recounted in Bones of Contention reads:
One of the ironies of this occasion, which is usually little mentioned, was the surprising haste with which Zuckerman was prepared to accept Leakey's presentation. His Lordship's scorn for the level of competence he sees displayed by paleoanthropologists is legendary, exceeded only by the force of his dismissal of the australopithecines as having anything at all to do with human evolution: "They are just bloody apes," he is reputed to have observed on examining the australopithecine remains in South Africa.
Leakey‘s presentation was on skull KNM-ER 1470 assigned to Homo habilis. The presentation was made in 1972 at a meeting associated with the Royal Zoological Society in London. Zuckerman’s made the they are just bloody apes statement before A. afarensis was even discovered.
No matter how you view this it’s clear Fred has misquoted his source. But then that’s nothing new for a creationist.
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