Expert: John Shea - 4/4/2004

Question
Hey John,
 1) You Experts are really great!
 2) I have followed the creation-evolution "debate" since college. Creationists claim there is abundant fossil evidence of the "giants" described in the Bible. Everything grew much larger before "the flood" but mainstream science refuses to accept/print their research. PLEASE address this issue for me! Is there ANYTHING to ANY of it?! Am I just a sucker!?  

Answer
Dear John
Sorry for the delay, I thought I answered this one already, and just now noticed it in the "pending" folder.
1. Thanks
2. There is a line in Genesis:  "There were giants in the earth in those days" or something like that.  It's not clear if the Genesis author(s) are talking about giant people or giant animals.   One possibility is that the authors of genesis observed fossil remains of extinct mammals eroding from the ground.  The ancient Greeks and Romans observed the same thing and interpreted them as the remains of giants (cyclops), dragons, and other monsters.  Check out this reference if interested.
Mayor, A. (2000). The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Pleistocene (Ice Age) humans were bigger (more robust) than human from more recent periods, but not to such a degree that one would call them giants.
My guess:  This is a metaphor for some aspect of Southwest Asian creation myths that meant something to the Genesis authors, but whose precise meaning is lost to history.
Genesis, or the creation myths of any pre-scientific society, is not a particularly good guide to explaining the fossil record.
Cheers,
John Shea