The Flintstones. Yes, we are talking about that modern Stone-Age family from the town of Bedrock. With their dinosaur pet named Dino, foot propelled cars, animal skin clothes, letters written on stones, and yabba-dabba-doo yells. While this cartoon is fairly harmless, it is a clear example of the great misconception many people have about the early humans. Evolutionists have succeeded in painting an almost animalistic picture in our minds of the earliest of humans. It is a picture of a primitive and uncivilized people – club carrying, extra hairy, loud grunting, hunched over, and cave dwelling men and women. It is easier in people’s minds to accept evolution if you picture the first humans as being more ape like in knowledge, behavior, and relationships. An honest look at both the Bible and history produces a very different image of early man… an image of civilization and intelligence.
Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, were nothing like primitive animalistic cavemen. In fact, during Adam and Eve’s earliest hours they possessed the ability to communicate, which is one of the characteristics that sets mankind distinct from the animal world. In the very beginning we read about them speaking, understanding, and maintaining very logical conversations. God spoke to Adam and Eve commands which they clearly understood (Genesis 2:16; 3:2). When God created woman, Adam had this to say: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man” (Genesis 2:23). When Satan tempted Eve to break God’s command we read of Eve reasoning back and forth with Satan about this matter (Genesis 3:1-5). This communication is nothing like the grunting of cavemen that evolutionists would like for us to envision. Adam also had the ability to name all of the animals and remember those names. The Genesis record tells us, “So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field” (Genesis 2:19-20). This task demanded a strong memory, creativity, and a great intellectual capacity. He was also given the responsibility of tending and keeping the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15). Real gardening requires great knowledge of plants and great knowledge of the land as well as the physical ability to work both, yet from the beginning Adam and Eve carried out this task. If the first man and woman were uncivilized cavemen, God’s instruction to “fill the earth and subdue it” would have been an impossible task! (Genesis 1:28). How could the first man and woman accomplish all of this? It is because they were not the result of some long evolutionary process, but were people who started out life having been created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).
The next few generations from Adam and Eve demonstrate the same level of intelligence and civilization. One of their sons, Cain, was a gardener and their other son, Abel, kept livestock (Genesis 4:3-4). This not only shows a great level of intelligence, but also specialization in society as each man worked at a different occupation. Enoch, one of the sons of Cain, managed to build a city (Genesis 4:17). This fact alone refutes the caveman perception, but it also shows a level of understanding in the realms of sociology and architecture. As Genesis records more of Adam and Eve’s descendents, we read of even more industriousness, creativity, and specialization. Moses wrote, “Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forget of all instruments of bronze and iron”