In 1992, the National Cattlemen’s Association launched its soon-to-be massively popular advertising campaign in hopes of convincing more Americans to “eat more beef.” The campaign slogan Beef, It’s What’s for Dinner , became a huge success. After all, we do love our beef. Indeed, in 2023, annual beef consumption was an astounding 59 pounds per person. Not to be outdone, Chick-fil-a followed suit with their famous pair of cows reminding people to “eat more chicken,” which we obviously do. Turns out Americans eat even more chicken than beef, consuming 68 pounds of chicken per person annually. All told across all types and sources, each American eats approximately 271 pounds of meat annually. Only the Australians match us in total meat consumption. But it has not always been that way.
For decades, science has portrayed early humans as great hunters, bagging prehistoric game in large quantities to satisfy their carnivorous diet. Ancient human campsiteexcavationshaverevealed animalbonesbearingmarkingsconsistent withfieldbutcherymethods. These findings were then used to hypothesize that high meat diets must have fueled the evolution of apes into early human beings and contributed to the development of larger brains and bodies. Looking to reinforce these findings, Darwinian evolutionists continued to study a very few sites that produced butchered animal bones, such as Turkana and Olduvai Gorge, repeatedly retrieving more and more bones from the same sites. In time, the sheer number of bones collected from these locations led other scientists to conclude that the evidence of early man’s carnivorous diet was both widespread and certain. In other words, Darwinian scientists made huge assumptions based upon data gathered from an extremely limited number of sites. Little wonder it now looks like their assumptions may have been all wrong. In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. A. W. Barr and colleagues keenly note, “when you quantitatively synthesize the data from numerous sites across eastern Africa to test this hypothesis, the ‘meat made us human’ evolutionary narrative starts to unravel.” Dr. Barr and team, reviewing the existing data, confirmed their suspicion of a high degree of bias, finding that the effort put into sampling was linked to the recovery of bones that showed evidence of meat consumption. The problem, however, was that almost all other early human sites showed no evidence of meat-eating.
From another angle, and in addition to Dr. Barr’s data analysis, researchersreportagrowingbodyof evidence from various sources supporting the idea that early humans were not meat eaters but foraging vegetarians. Strong support for this conclusion comes from multiple sources, including studies of fossilized teeth, which suggest that the first humans had a vegetarian diet. Chemical analysis of early human tooth enamel revealed low nitrogen isotope ratios, consistent with a diet rich in plants. Additionally, there is a general and widespread lack of evidence suggesting that early humans were meat-eaters. On the contrary, evidence of meat-eating emerged sometime after the first humans appeared. As a result of the evidence, along with findings from various similar studies, there is an academic shift away from the long-held consensus that early man wascarnivorous,towardcompelling evidence that strongly suggests a vegetarian diet.
All provocatively fascinating, isn’t it? In truth, however, this scientific discovery is really nothing new under the sun. In fact, the dietaryhabitsofearlyhumanshave been common knowledge dating back to the 15th century BC when Moses wrote of God giving man every plant, and tree, and seed, and fruit saying, “you shall have them for food” (Gen 1:29). No beef, no chicken, no pork, no fish, no fowl, just the plants of the field. The same vegetarian diet that man adhered to in the Garden remained even after the Fall, and man was pushed out of Eden. To be sure, the Bible tells us that the diet of man remained unchanged for ten generations, from Adam to Noah. It is not until after the waters of the Great Flood subside that God expanded the menu to include “every moving thing that lives” (Gen 9:3). The only limitation was that since the blood of animals served as a sacrificial element of atonement for sin, blood itself could not be eaten under any circumstance. While the Levitical food laws were established later in Israel’s history, they did not substantially change the diets of God’s people.
While Americans today enjoy one of the most diverse diets in the world, including a healthy variety of meats, there was a time in ancient history when early humans were strict vegetarians. But Christians really didn’t need science to tell them that; it is precisely the unchanging story told through the Bible. Not only a faith built upon evidence, but also a faith built rock-solid on Jesus Christ: the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Heb 13:8).
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics, and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife Vicki are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore. You can contact him at: dr.kerley@isGoddead.com.