Ii EN JO Y and G IV E These Books of Quality Buckwheat Summer By Ruth Unrau The storyof an eleven-year-old girl's process of "growing up" during one summer's vacati on.
Science and the B ib le / by Bolton Davidheiser
I n 1959 L. S. B. Leakey discovered in East Africa parts of a skull which he said was undoubtedly hu man. Because of its massive molar teeth he called it Nutcracker Man and gave it the scientific name Z injanthro pus boisei. Zinj is an ancient Arabic word for eastern Africa and anthropus is front the Greek word for man. The specific name, boisei, is in honor of a Mr. Boise who helped finance Leakey’s work. Two years later, it was announced that the Geology Department of the University of California at Berkeley had found by the potassium-argon method of dating that the “Nutcrack er Man” was one and three quarter million years old. But anyone who takes the trouble to go to a library and look up papers published by the authorities will no doubt be amazed at the contradictions and uncertainties that he will find expressed about the dating. The fossil remains were found in strata which Leakey had in 1935 des ignated as belonging to the early part of the “ Ice Age,” or Lower Pleisto cene. By 1951, he had changed his mind and said the same material dated from the middle of the Pleistocene, which is not as long ago. After the discovery of “Nutcracker Man,” he changed his mind again and called it Lower Pleistocene. In 1961 Leakey said that the con clusion is inescapable that the culture to which Z injanthropus belonged oc curred in a time called Villafranchian. Later in the same year, G. H. R. von Koenigswald, another noted authority in this field, pointed out that animal fossils which are considered typical of this time in Africa are absent from the strata to which Leakey referred. Of course, layers of rock which lie below other layers should be older than the ones above. However, Leakey and the geologists at Berkeley admit that the strata above and below the site where the remains were found “fail to fall in the proper relative order . . .” The variations reported are between 1.6 and 1.9 million years. They took the average and called the “Nutcracker Man” one-and-three- quarter million years old. The dis crepancy is not considered important by them because there is admitted to be a certain amount of inaccuracy in the method. It is interesting to note that the layer of rock just below the remains tested a quarter of a million years younger than the layer just above, while it should have been old er.
Meanwhile von Koenigswald had tested by the same method a bed of an entirely different kind of rock, called basalt, which lies under the strata that contained “Nutcracker.” According to the results of this test the basalt is about one and one third million years old. Although this basalt must be older than the Z injanthropus remains, it tested nearly a half mil lion years younger. To make matters worse, von Koenigswald believes the test to be so inaccurate that the result is actually half-a-million years young er than the test shows. This would make it nearly a million years young er than the “Nutcracker Man,” though it has to be older. Furthermore, v o n Koenigswald shows that there are several other geological difficulties, including the apparent impossibility of sedimenta tion occurring rapidly enough to have permitted fossilization of the material found fossilized.
Some of her prob lems are: Learning to know Stefana Bar- onski, meeting the mortgage payment, and making her fam ily realize she is Somebody and not just a girl to be ordered around. The family involvement In Martha's p r o b le ms
will Interestall ages. Cloth, $2.75 Don't Park Here By Paul Erb In an era of change and crises, there is "no parking" in science, education^ social and political Ideology, etc., nor can the believer ex pect to "park here" In spiritual growth. He mustever renew and invigorate his faith. "The Christian Ijfe," says Paul Erb, "Is a climb, not a plateau." Cloth, $3.00 Let There Be Music By Lorie C. Gooding Readers will revel
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in this outpouring of song from a truly surrendered Here Is the esence of worship in verse with an appropriate prayer or meditation to complete page. Uplifting, re freshing, devotional. A Bible quotation in troduces each poem — all have intrigu find a deeper faith, wholesome family re lations and healthy human sentiment. Presentsauthentically the life of an Amish family. The author, an Amish woman, weaves many situa tions from life into the plot. Hence the story of dedicated Christian living rings true. Cloth, $3.50. soul. each
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© 1962, Painting by Peter Bianchi, Courtesy National Geographic Magazine. Some rock strata above those which contained the fossil tested a third of a million years younger. Considering the other discrepancies, this may not seem very important, but both von Koenigswald and William Straus of the Johns Hopkins University point out that if a third of a million years elapsed between the times when these two sets of strata were laid down, as the potassium-argon tests show, much erosion would have taken place during this time and its effect should be clear ly visible. However, it is said that this is not the case, in spite of a statement by Leakey in 1959 referring to a “ well-marked break.” Thus there is much confusion among the scientists and there are some real difficulties in the potassium- argon method of dating. Although Christians do not know all the an swers, they have a Rock on which they can depend. There was no Nut cracker Man in Eden.
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The Crying Heart By ClaraBernice Miller Enlightens, pleasesandhelps youto
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Scottdale, Pennsylvania
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NOVEMBER, 1962
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