Were Stone Tools Primitive?

Genesis 11:8-9
“So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.”

One of the most persistent rumors of popular evolutionary mythology is the concept of a primitive Stone Age. While serious evolutionists do not view such a time in the same way as the popular thinking, particularly in the media, the idea that there were early human societies that had no technology, save the ability to use rocks, is deeply ingrained. For example, in Douglas Adam’s brilliant comic SciFi novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a sub-ether talk show host greets his listeners thus:

We’ll be saying a big hello to all intelligent lifeforms everywhere and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.

In Langdale, in England’s Lake District, stone tools have been found, along with evidence of product control and management. There also seems to have been a widespread market in these products, throughout the British Isles; Langdale axes have been found in many archaeological sites throughout the islands. Such capitalism is not consistent with the popular evolutionary view of human development, but is entirely consistent with a biblical approach to history. The Tower of Babel incident led to people groups being scattered over the face of the Earth. Refugees arriving in far-flung places, like the British Isles, would have had all the civilization and sophistication of where they had come from, but would not immediately have set up all the required technology. At first, they would have used easier materials, until they were more settled, so the idea of simple tools being used in a sophisticated market economy makes sense, in a biblical framework.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You have given human beings the abilities for intelligence, wisdom, and knowledge. Help Your people to use these gifts wisely, for Your Glory. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Ref: Rodney Castleden, Neolithic Britain: new stone age sites of England, Scotland, and Wales. Routledge. 1992
Image: Castlerigg Stone Circle, site of many Langdale axes, License: released to Public Domain

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