Whether tall or small—people, all!
by David Catchpoole
For copyright reasons we are unable to display here the original images published
in Creation magazine.
Resplendent in Mongolian wedding attire, the world’s ‘tallest living
man’1 at 236 cm (7 ft 9 in), Mr Bao Xishun, towers over his 168 cm
(5 ft 6 in) bride, Xia Shujuan.
Lifesize wax sculpture of the late Robert Wadlow, 272 cm (8ft 11 in) tall, alongside
CMI’s Dr Jonathan Sarfati, who at 182 cm (6 ft) tall is actually of above-average
height (cf. 175.5 cm, a little over 5 ft 9 in for American men), at the Ripley’s
Believe it or Not museum, Gold Coast, Australia, 2006.
Also hailing from Inner Mongolia is Mr He Pingping who stands at just 73 cm
(2 ft 5 in).2
This amazing variety in height illustrates the range of variation in the human kind—variation
which has nothing to do with evolution—and that such variety can be found
even within the same region (in this case, Inner Mongolia).
Such variation can come in handy, as Mr Bao Xishun demonstrated when he used his
long arms to save two dolphins by pulling plastic from their stomachs. Previous
attempts by veterinarians using surgical instruments failed because the dolphins’
stomachs contracted in response to the instruments.1 (The fact that human-designed implements couldn’t
match the utility of human limbs says something about the Designer of that
utility!)
Though Mr Bao Xishun towers over those around him, taller still was Robert Wadlow
(1918–1940 from Illinois, USA), described as ‘the tallest man in medical
history for whom there is irrefutable evidence’ at 272 cm (8 ft 11
in).3 Given that he was still growing during his terminal illness, this is in the
same league as Goliath (1 Samuel 17:4)—something to point out to those who
doubt Goliath could have been as tall as that.
Note that Mr He Pingping is actually shorter than the Flores ‘Hobbit’4—putting paid to any
suggestions that the Hobbit’s short stature as such precludes ‘it’
from being human. No-one would claim that Mr He Pingping is not human.
Whether tall or small, we’re people, all—all descended from Adam and
Eve, created ‘in the image of God’ (Genesis 1:27).
References and notes
- The Washington Post, World’s tallest man weds
5-foot-6 bride, <www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032800241.html>,
29 March 2007. Return to text.
- Bates, C., Worlds apart: The moment the tallest man
met the shortest, The Daily Mail, <www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=468172&in_page_id=1811
&ct=5>, 13 July 2007. Return to text.
- Guiness World Records, <www.guinnessworld records.com/records/human_body/extreme_bodies/tallest_man.aspx>,
3 January 2008. Return to text.
- See Hobbit: New news is good news; <creation.com/hobbitnews>.
Return to text.
A reader’s comment
Louis V., South Africa, 1 December 2009
The logic in this article is strangely elusive. ‘This amazing variety in height illustrates the range of variation in the human kind—variation which has nothing to do with evolution—and that such variety can be found even within the same region (in this case, Inner Mongolia).’ Acceptable: but if it has nothing to do with evolution, why mention evolution at all? Or is it a case of desperately bashing evolution, whether it makes sense or not? CMI’s Dr Don Batten responds:
Hello Louis,
The atheist-humanist elite continually indoctrinates the layman with the deceptive idea that change=evolution, pointing to some trivial variation in some organism. So evolution is a “fact”, they argue, so you evolved from microbes (the old bait and switch trick with definitions). So, we continually make the point that change (variation) is not the same as evolution. The thing that is illogical is the continual misinforming of the public by the proselytizers for atheism. It would be nice if you directed your criticisms to those who are doing this misleading, rather than those of us who are trying to counteract it.
Sincerely,
Don Batten |
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