After a discussion in the live chatroom I realised some did not know of the Watchtower’s fake chimp. I first saw it as a link on JanH’s old site, but I can no longer find the URL for the original, which I believe was from the Norwegian Agnostic Society, or something like that.
The next time a dub calls on you ask them why they are forced to believe that chimpanzees do not have canine teeth. They will probably just look dumb at you (unsurprisingly). Ask them to turn to page 94 of the 1985 book “Life-How did it get here? By evolution or by creation?” and look at the picture of the “chimp”:
Above: entitled “Chimpanzee skull” From page 94 of the 1985 book “Life-How did it get here? By evolution or by creation?”
If we compare it to a picture of a real chimp skull we can see the difference:
Above: Real chimp skull from page 73 of "Origins" by Richard Leakey & Roger Lewin (rotated to face same way as others)
Adult chimpanzees have seriously large canine teeth which anyone can see from the television, books or the zoo. But where are the canine teeth in the Watchtower “chimp”? Something is wrong. The picture is used in support of the idea that humans are special creations by God and not the product of evolution. Actually the whole argument the Society uses is a deception. They compare the “chimp” skull with an Australopithecus skull and a human skull to try and show that Australopithecines were “only” ancient apes and are not related to Man. This is of course a red herring! The whole excitement about the Australopithecines was that they were indeed ape-like, but ones that also walked upright like Man! The interesting parts of Australopithecine anatomy have nothing to do with the skull at all! It is just a red herring to discredit the real discovery that the hip and knee joints show that an ancient ape started to walk upright like we do, which of course supports evolutionary theory. The Society faked the chimp picture because if they had used a real chimp skull it might have looked like an evolutionary progression from chimps to humans. That, of course, is a nonsense as modern chimps are not our ancestors as some believe, but the average dub might get the wrong impression so they just faked the picture!
Now, you might say, “It’s a baby chimp! It’s canines haven’t grown yet!” It isn’t. Or, “It’s a deformed chimp!” Even if that were true, would it be honest? Anyway, it isn’t. What is it then? To find the answer of where the Society really got the picture we have to turn to page 85 of the previous evolution book, published in 1967, “Did man get here by evolution or creation?”:
Above: entitled “Extinct ape” From page 85 of the 1967 book, “Did man get here by evolution or creation?”
Compare the 1967 picture with the 1985 picture and you will see it is the same! But notice that in 1967 it wasn’t a chimp but an “extinct ape”! How does what is an extinct ape in 1967 become a modern chimpanzee in 1985? Whether the original picture is also a fake I don’t know, but one thing is clear, the Governing Body have such contempt for the intelligence for the average JW that they just used the old picture in the new book and changed the title from an extinct ape to a living chimp! Of course, if anyone discovered this fraud they could be dealt with by the judicial committees and silenced.
I like this example of Watchtower Society dishonesty (which actually riddles the whole 1985 book) because it is impossible to argue that it is just a mistake as they had to go to some lengths to tart up the old picture, rename it and write the associated paragraphs to support their case – all the while knowing full well they were perpetrating a fraud. It is a clear case of a deliberate lie, hoax, fraud, whatever you want to call it, on the reader. But then, readers of this forum aren’t likely to be surprised by that!
(20 dec 01 - I changed the possibly misleading description of Australopithecus from "ape" to "ape-like")
Religion n.
An organisation designed to promote atheism.