Were Neanderthals Giants?

Look at this:

Neanderthal brain development
Neanderthal brains were similar in size to those of modern humans but differed in shape. What we cannot tell from fossils is how Neanderthal brains might have differed in function or organization of brain layers such as the neocortex. Pinson et al. have now analyzed the effect of a single amino acid change in the transketolase-like 1 (TKTL1) protein on production of basal radial glia, the workhorses that generate much of the neocortex (see the Perspective by Malgrange and Nguyen). Modern humans differ from apes and Neanderthals by this single amino acid change. When placed in organoids or overexpressed in nonhuman brains, the human variant of TKTL1 drove more generation of neuroprogenitors than did the archaic variant. The authors suggest that the modern human has more neocortex to work with than the ancient Neanderthal did. —PJH

Human TKTL1 implies greater neurogenesis in frontal neocortex of modern humans than Neanderthals
ANNELINE PINSON ID et al.| 9 Sep 2022, Vol 377, Issue 6611, DOI: 10.1126/science.abl6422
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl6422

And Pääbo stated that Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA (which is lacking in our post-Flood dates) was halfway between man and ape.

Two options.

• When angels mated with women, God punished them in their offspring by making their sons and daughters apelike.
• Deliberate abuse of some CRISPR (technic or demonic) to make some men have some apelike features.

For the second option, see:

Stalin’s ape-man Superwarriors
by Russell Grigg, First published: 20 August 2007, Re-featured on homepage: 4 April 2012
https://creation.com/stalins-ape-man-superwarriors

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin wanted to rebuild the Red Army, in the mid-1920s, with Planet-of-the-Apes-style troops by crossing humans with apes. This was according to a report in The Scotsman newspaper on 20 December 2005.

Well, what Stalin failed by crossbreeding, some pre-Flood man or madman (dare one single out Tubal-Cain?) or falling angel (according to the view that some angels fell after Satan did, by lusting after the women whose guardian angels they were), succeeded by some kind of CRISPR. The idea would have been "with such soldiers to our disposal, no one will dare make war with us" ... and the result would have been everyone made war, and despite being dumbed down some Neanderthal tribes broke loose of the control.

Jonathan Sarfati* contests pre-Flood man having this kind of technical proficiency with the reference Genesis 6:11 And the earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity. The KJV has instead: The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

Well, the thing is, Sarfati reasons like "since the earth was filled with violence, no one had the peace to invent things, to develop technologies" ... and my answer is, what if the violence was actually a result of such inventions already being made? Plus obviously, scientists on arms projects tend to get peace and comfort while developing means of violence. They too would be involved in an earth filled with violence, not because they were disturbed by violence, but because they were given physical peace and comfort in order to make their contribution to the violence.

Here are a few verses from Genesis 6 and from Baruch 3:

Genesis 6: [1] And after that men began to be multiplied upon the earth, and daughters were born to them, [2] The sons of God seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair, took to themselves wives of all which they chose. [3] And God said: My spirit shall not remain in man for ever, because he is flesh, and his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. [4] Now giants were upon the earth in those days. For after the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, and they brought forth children, these are the mighty men of old, men of renown. [5] And God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, ... [11] And the earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity. [12] And when God had seen that the earth was corrupted (for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth,)

Baruch 3: [26] There were the giants, those renowned men that were from the beginning, of great stature, expert in war. [27] The Lord chose not them, neither did they find the way of knowledge: therefore did they perish. [28] And because they had not wisdom, they perished through their folly.

It is also possible that this is not so much about Neanderthals as about even more debased races, and that Neanderthals were halfway out of this. Despite an inhibited neo-cortex. The reference to not finding knowledge does not rule out technical proficiency, since the previous verse specifies "expert in war" - everything about arms and survival skills, the Neanderthals would have been great and knowledgeable, it is the moral knowledge and perhaps the knowledge of Genesis 3 events and Genesis 4 events, right just a few centuries earlier, that they didn't find. You do find plenty of people today who are technologically proficient, but who believe Columbus discovered the earth wasn't flat or things like that. Even with a normal neo-cortex.

Actually, Sarfati gave another argument that I need to answer:

Another well-known creationist leader claimed Noah and his contemporaries could have had tools, machines and techniques not inferior to those of today.

This is obviously fallacious: if they had techniques just as good as ours, then why didn’t they use a lightweight and strong titanium alloy, attach an outboard motor, and for good measure, videotape the events for posterity?

Noah and his family could have been blocked out of certain techniques, for "refusing to take the mark" in the pre-Flood sense, and therefore being impeded from normal buying and selling.

And Noah could also have seen how the wickedness was increasing due to increased technologies and voluntarily have chosen to do without certain of them. Plus he knew many of them would be unworkable in post-Flood conditions. How do eight men start an electricity plant to make video tapes work? Hence the need to have a daughter in law with Neanderthal heritage who could share easily available techniques for survival. Magdalenian was how Noah's family adapted Mousterian. And Mousterian in the pre-Flood world coexisted with, not necessarily computers, but more things like CRISPR and atom bombs. Things which we have fortunately not dug up. My take on where to look for Henoch in the land of Nod? Like, the Himalayas are certainly East of Eden, and God could have used that much sediment to bury a city that had gone that bad.

Or a high tech war ended up eating up all the technology. Was it Einstein who said "I don't know how the third world war will be fought, but the fourth will be fought with clubs and sticks"?

Sarfati makes another argument:

Historically and logically, the rise of modern science depended strongly on certain assumptions, and these were derived from a biblical Christian worldview, including honesty, rationality, and a Lawgiving Creator and upholder of the universe.

Right ... Tubal-Cain invented metallurgy, as we know from the Bible, and he was just so pious, so just, no evils abounded in his family ... wait, did you mention Genesis 4:23? It seems Lamech made the remark after Tubal Cain had become an inventor.

And even during the wars, there was peace within the countries; e.g. even though the UK and US were on war footing, these nations maintained order. The Flood was different: a society full of violence.

I would state that "maintaining order" is perfectly compatible with "iniquity" and actually even with "violence" on a mental or institutional level - Strong's 2555 (chamas) is used of false witnesses in Exodus 23, and of cruelty of mocking comforts in Job 19:7. It's no longer a question of the Sabaeans, but of Baldad. KGB can "maintain order" for scientists to work in, but it's still violence if they are into developing Novichok. And violence if they are left alone from mobs who don't appreciate them developing Novichok.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Ember Wednesday after St. Lucy
14.XII.2022

* Quote and link:

Furthermore, such claims overlook a vital factor: intelligence is not enough for scientific advance. ... But the pre-Flood world was far from a biblically-based civilization; rather, it rejected God and was full of violence (Genesis 6:11, Hebrew חָמָס hamas). These are hardly the conditions required for good scientific research, and this is the main thing overlooked by those who overstate Noah’s technology level.

https://creation.com/computers-on-the-ark