Did Neanderthals have souls?

Young Earth Creationists, who deny evolutionary theory and argue that God created the universe in the span of six days no more than 10,000 years ago, are not known for their comfort with ambiguity. For them, the most pressing problem each time scientists discover a new hominid is whether the species is ape or human. The former are mere animals; the latter have an eternal soul. The creationist organization Answers in Genesis, which operates the Creation Museum in Kentucky, calls Neanderthals “fully human,” for example, while the 3-million-year-old “Lucy” was clearly an ape. Reasons to Believe, another creationist group, classifies Neanderthals, Homo erectus, and others as animals. Others have speculated that Neanderthals are the people who died in the devastating flood described in the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark. (My cousin, a Christian biologist, recently explored these issues in a fascinating entry on his blog.)

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Creationists are already arguing over the naledi discovery. Kurt Wise, the director of the Center for Creation Research at Truett-McConnell College, told evangelical World magazine that the fossils do represent a fully human species. Answers in Genesis disagrees. Regular contributor Elizabeth Mitchell dismissed the evidence that the naledi buried their own dead, and reiterated that all human species are descendants of Adam and Eve…

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