Joachim Neander was a devoted 17th century Calvinist theologian who spent so much of his life in a valley ruminating over the marvels of God’s creation that we named the valley after him. In 1856 we discovered a fossil in the Neander Valley, named it the Neanderthal Man, claimed it was a missing link between apes and humans and used it against Creationism. How ironic was that?
Now a report claims Neanderthals were also, well—humans! Evolution appears to be a theory that’s slowly casting doubts upon itself. Discoveries previously thought to be missing links now have to be reconsidered. An open mind simply isn’t enough, it has to be discerning also. If you find it absurd to have your parents blood-tested for evidence of kinship, that's faith at work, not empiricism. Perhaps this is what makes faith more precious than hard evidence. Perhaps the act of faith is the very element that makes us human—a missing link worth pondering.