Rethinking Human Origins

Museums have a profound influence on how people imagine the past. From dioramas of dinosaurs to reconstructions of prehistoric humans, they do more than display bones—they tell stories. These stories shape how the public perceives itself in relation to nature and history. This is why Casey Luskin’s critique of the Smithsonian’s Hall of Human Origins in the New York Post deserves attention. Luskin charges the exhibit with “monkeying around” with evidence, downplaying the uniqueness of humanity by overstating our similarity to apes and depicting disputed fossils as if the debates were long settled.¹

As Luskin raises these concerns, an extraordinary new study in Nature (April 2025) offers striking confirmation. For decades, we were told that humans and chimpanzees differ by only about one percent in their DNA, a slogan repeated so often it became a cultural cliché. Yet the Nature paper, providing the first telomere-to-telomere (T2T) genome assemblies for six ape species, shows that the real picture is far more complex: only about 85% of nucleotides match one-to-one between humans and chimpanzees.² Roughly 15% of the genome is divergent due to structural differences, insertions, deletions, and non-alignable regions.

This convergence of critique and science reminds us that humans are not reducible to slogans or simplistic evolutionary charts. The evidence itself demonstrates that human origins are marked by complexity, abrupt differences, and profound uniqueness.

The Smithsonian and the Story We Tell

Museums do not merely present facts; they curate narratives. The Smithsonian, as America’s preeminent museum, shapes the intellectual imagination of millions of visitors each year. Yet Luskin observes that its Hall of Human Origins often presents disputed evidence as if it were settled consensus.

For example, placards confidently display the claim that humans and chimps are 98.8% genetically similar, suggesting that our distinction is marginal. Such a claim does more than communicate science—it conveys a worldview. If humans are nearly indistinguishable from chimps, then morality, rationality, and even culture are framed as mere evolutionary accidents.

The actual science, however, presents a very different story.

More Than One Percent: The New Genomic Reality

The Nature paper dismantles the simplistic “1% myth.” By analyzing complete ape genomes—including chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, orangutan, and siamang—the study uncovered that between 12.5% and 27.3% of ape genomes could not be aligned to human sequences.³ When combined with the 1.6% single-nucleotide variation, this yields roughly 15% divergence between humans and chimpanzees.

This does not erase the genetic kinship between humans and chimps. But it does mean the oft-cited “1% difference” slogan fails to capture the reality. The distinction is much greater, and far more complex, than previously admitted.

The most significant point here is that the closer the data is examined, the more human uniqueness emerges—not less. The origin of digital information encoded in DNA remains unexplained by chemistry alone. Just as letters on a page require an author, sequences that produce meaning and function require an origin beyond raw matter.⁴

Bones, Bipedality, and Bold Claims

The Smithsonian depicts Sahelanthropus tchadensis and Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy) walking upright with distinctly human posture. But the evidence for this is far from settled.

Studies published in Nature and the Journal of Human Evolution suggest that Sahelanthropus’s femur may be closer to quadrupedal apes than to bipeds.⁵ Even Lucy’s skeleton shows a mix of features, some consistent with upright walking, others with tree climbing. To portray these figures as fully upright hominins is not objective science but artistic license.

The pattern of abrupt appearance remains striking. Humanity arrives in the fossil record with larger brain size, tool use, and symbolic behavior. The discontinuity between earlier hominins and humans remains unbridged, reflecting a gap that simple reconstructions cannot erase.

When Art Becomes Argument

Reconstructions play a powerful role in shaping public imagination. Sculptures of hominins gazing into the distance, expressive eyes filled with emotion, and lifelike poses suggest near-human cognition. But as Harvard anthropologist Earnest Hooton once remarked, such restorations have “very little, if any, scientific value.”⁶ They are, at best, informed speculation.

The problem is not the artistry itself but the subtle authority it conveys. When visitors see Lucy posed like a modern human, they absorb a narrative of inevitable progression. Yet this is not the voice of the fossils themselves, but of human imagination imposed upon them.

Evolutionary Narratives: Gradualism vs. Abrupt Shifts

Darwin envisioned evolution as a slow, gradual accumulation of changes. The Smithsonian echoes this model with displays that show a neat, ladder-like progression from ape-like ancestors to modern humans.

But the reality is less tidy. Ernst Mayr acknowledged persistent “gaps” between australopithecines and early Homo.⁷ The new genomic data reveal large structural differences that cannot be reduced to incremental nucleotide substitutions. In other words, human distinctiveness is not merely the product of slow tinkering—it involves sudden leaps in complexity.

The sudden appearance of uniquely human capacities—language, art, morality, worship—aligns with this same pattern of discontinuity. Complexity does not always build slowly; it can appear abruptly, fully integrated, and functional.

When a Theory Becomes Unfalsifiable

Another problem arises when evolutionary theory is treated as unfalsifiable. If a fossil looks transitional, it is hailed as a “missing link.” If it does not, it is dismissed as a side branch. If humans and chimps are 1% different, it proves close kinship; if they are 15% different, it proves the flexibility of evolution.

This elasticity allows the narrative to absorb every challenge, but at the cost of explanatory power. A theory that explains everything explains nothing. Genuine science is marked by the possibility of falsification—by being open to correction when the evidence points elsewhere.

By contrast, certain hallmarks of complexity in biology can be tested: irreducible systems, specified information, and sudden appearance. These features invite explanation not by endless flexibility but by patterns consistent with purposeful design.⁸

Human Uniqueness and the Image of God

At its core, this debate is not just about bones and genomes—it’s about what it means to be human. Genesis 1 declares:

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion…” (Gen. 1:26).

Humanity is uniquely set apart with rationality, morality, creativity, and the capacity for relationship with God. While animals display remarkable behaviors, none bridge the gulf to human self-awareness and spirituality.

The evidence of biology and the testimony of Scripture converge here. Humans are not “just another ape.” The complexity of our genome, the gaps in the fossil record, and the abrupt arrival of symbolic behavior affirm what theology has long proclaimed: humanity is fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14).

A Call for Integrity in Museums and Science Education

So where does this leave us? Luskin’s critique, the Nature study, and the persistent gaps in the fossil record converge on a single message: the story of human origins is more complex than the Smithsonian admits.

Museums should not fear presenting complexity. To acknowledge uncertainty is not weakness but integrity. To admit gaps is not to undermine science but to honor its provisional, ever-questioning nature. Public education should reflect the genuine state of the evidence—not tidy slogans.

Closing Thoughts

The Smithsonian’s exhibit tells a simplified story. But the real story—the genomic data, the fossil debates, the anthropological cautions, the testimony of Scripture—is richer, deeper, and more profound.

Humans are not reducible to a statistic or an evolutionary ladder. The data show discontinuities, complexity, and uniqueness that resist oversimplification. The biblical witness affirms that humanity is the crown of creation, designed with intelligence and purpose, bearing the image of God.

Slogans like “1% difference” distort more than they reveal. Science and faith together remind us: the complexity of life speaks louder than simplifications, and in that complexity, we encounter the wisdom of the Designer.

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Footnotes

1. Casey Luskin, “Smithsonian Exhibit Monkeys Around with the Scientific Evidence on Human Origins,” New York Post, July 26, 2025.
2. Yoo et al., “Complete sequencing of ape genomes,” Nature 628 (2025): 331–345.
3. Richard Buggs, “How Much of a Human Genome is Identical to a Chimpanzee Genome?” RichardBuggs.com, May 6, 2025.
4. Stephen C. Meyer, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (New York: HarperOne, 2009).
5. J. Almécija et al., “Postcranial morphology of Sahelanthropus and implications for hominin bipedalism,” Journal of Human Evolution 142 (2020): 102747.
6. Earnest A. Hooton, quoted in Luskin, “Smithsonian Exhibit.”
7. Ernst Mayr, What Evolution Is (New York: Basic Books, 2001).
8. Michael J. Behe, Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (New York: Free Press, 1996); William A. Dembski, The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).