The presence of “early modern” human remains in China, dated by secular methods to be 100,000 years old,¹ has created problems for old-earth “progressive creationists,” who accept secular dating and believe God created life progressively over millions of years. According to some models of progressive creationism, Adam was created 50,000 years ago. But if that is true, how could other humans appear in China 50,000 years before Adam? Since progressive creationists generally accept the validity of such dates, they now have a problem with humans living before Adam.

The finding also creates problems for evolutionary theories about the spread of “modern” humans from Africa. The human fossils in China predate this supposed departure from Africa by 40,000 years according to secular dating methods.

Biblical creationists, who base their dates on biblical chronologies, have always accepted that Adam was the first human approximately 6,000 years ago and that all known human remains represent direct descendants from Noah and his family.² It’s the faulty assumptions behind evolutionary dating methods that produce the incorrect dates. So there is no real puzzle for creationists to solve.