God Arises
The Challenge of The Qur’an
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counted the discovery among the great triumphs of
modern man. In authoritative works such as H.G.
Well’s
Outline of History
and Bertrand Russell’s
History of Western Philosophy
,
it was mentioned as
though there was no doubt about the Piltdown
Man’s existence.
For nearly half a century scholars remained
enthralled with this “great discovery”. It was only
in 1953 that some scientists became doubtful. They
extracted the Piltdown man from its iron fireproof
box in the British Museum and subjected it to
detailed modern scientific analysis, studying it from
every relevant angle. Their final conclusion was that
the Piltdown Man was a forgery. The great acclaim
it has received was totally unfounded. What had
actually happened was that someone, who wished
to discredit a rival by playing a trick on him, and
taken the jaw of a chimpanzee and dyed it to make
it look ancient and had then filed its teeth to make
them look human. He then submitted his “find” to
the British Museum, saying that he had come across
it in Piltdown, England. He intended at a later stage
to reveal the whole affair as a hoax, in order to
make his rival look foolish, but when he saw the
