How to Block a “Slam Dunk”! Part 1

And the hits just keep on coming!  To those who tell me that people aren’t interested in the origin’s debate, you’re not looking very hard.  The attacks are all around us.
Prior to becoming a Christian I loved basketball, it was my god for a long time.  If I had more time I’d tell you of my favorite blocked shot, it was awesome!  It’s not easy to block someone’s shot.  In order to be the best player possible I would scout my opponent.  Later, as a coach I taught my players to do the same thing .  By knowing the opponents strengths and weaknesses you could be a better defender.
Even though I’m not a PhD scientist I’ve been studying this topic for almost 30 years now.  I’m not perfect and I don’t know everything.   In order to be effective though I’m constantly studying the opposition.  This 3 article series is what I’ve found in rebuttal to the claims that were made in the following article.
The following is the headline that was on the main page for Yahoo! News recently.

Screenshot from Yahoo News.
Ouch!  Dr. Braterman has information proving what I’ve known to be true for almost 30 years is wrong, what should we do?
Let’s do what we should do whenever we’re challenged.  Look at the evidence, dig in and find out who’s telling the truth.  That’s the process that led to my becoming a creationist.
I’ll never forget cold-calling both creationists and evolutionists and asking them point-blank questions and then listening to their responses.  I spoke directly to Dr. Eugenie Scott, President of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) who, at that time, was one of the most visible opponents of Christianity and especially creation.
Her response as to why there’s a lack of transitional fossils was key to my embracing creationist teaching.  She explained that as humans evolved the areas that were changing involved cartilage changing.  The problem is that cartilage doesn’t fossilize very well which is why we don’t see that many transitions!
I’m sorry, this is just not a very good explanation for the lack of evidence as you’ll see.
Now, fast-forward 28 years and Dr. Braterman has published his article with actual evidence so let’s address it!  Here’s the first sentence:
“The 2001 discovery of the seven million-year-old Sahelanthropus, the first known upright ape-like creatures, was yet more proof of humanity’s place among the great apes.”

Who is Sahelanthropus?  (By the way, starting January 2018 we’re going to have online classes available for both college credit and just to gain knowledge.    This outreach is called Academy of Hope and will have a variety of courses.  One of the courses that I’ll teach is called “What About . . . Human Evolution?  19 Ancestors and Counting!”  This class was filmed in Tanzania, Africa and covers all of the supposed ancestors that you see in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History’s, Hall of Human Origins.  Sahelanthropus is one of those supposed ancestors.)
Sahelanthropus is known from a single extremely distorted skull.  Take a look at the reconstruction for yourself.
Please keep two things in mind when considering Sahelanthropus as a human evolutionary ancestor:
1.There are no bones below the skull! That’s very important, especially if you 2.want to know how the animal moved.
The bones that they have are very badly distorted.
Who cares if they’re distorted, what difference does that make?
Well, according to one secular scientist, “It is possible for the distortion of a fossil to render certain features impossible to measure, as well as give it an appearance that it did not have in life, which can in turn affect its reconstruction.”  That would mean the distortion can totally “distort” the interpretation.
When you study this specimen you’ll find that it’s far from being a poster child for human evolution, it’s actually very controversial even within the evolutionary community.  Do your own research, but here’s what I found.
According to an article in “Wired” magazine:

1. They’re not totally positive where the bones came from. “The remains were not found in the area’s fossil deposit, but instead they had weathered out of the 7 million year old rock and may have even been moved by people sometime before their discovery.”
2. The evidence for being bipedal like humans is miniscule. “. . .the small canines and forward-oriented foramen magnum are not enough to designate Sahelanthropus  as a human.”
3. They even wrote that it “probably was not a human but instead an ape with human-like traits.”[1]

In a “Smithsonian Magazine” two University of Wisconsin professors suggested that Sahelanthropus “was not a hominid, just some kind of ape.”I[2]
Brigitte Senut suggests that it’s an early gorilla.[3]
Finally, in Autumn 2016 Scientific American released a Special Edition of their magazine highlighting all of the supposed human evolutionary ancestors for humans.  Here’s their chart:

[4] When you look closely at this new tree you’ll notice something very important.  Please allow me to zoom in on the bottom left “branch” of the tree for you:

Can you now see what I’m talking about?  Do you see Sahelanthropus?  Does that “branch” lead to anywhere?  And the answer is, NO, it actually leads nowhere!  On their own charts, it’s an evolutionary dead end at best … but it does NOT lead to humans.
So, in the very first line of this article that supposedly “slam dunks” what I’ve been studying for almost 30 years he uses something that doesn’t support his claims.  It would be funny if it wasn’t so deceitful and unprofessional.
His next argument deals with the usage of words and playing word games.  It will take a little to flesh it out. (Get it, “Flesh it out!”  You start with bones and then you build your story on top of them!  Sorry.)
Anyway, we’ll address it in part 2 of “How to Block a Slamdunk!”  Until then,
Stay Bold!
[1] https://www.wired.com/2011/02/ancestor-worship/
[2] http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/sahelanthropus-tchadensis-ten-years-after-the-disocvery-2449553/
[3] http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/toumai.html
[4] Scientific American, Special Autumn Edition, 2017