From Dr. William’s expression, it was clear he didn’t know where to begin. Mark, confident in his intellect and the bizarre events surrounding the Aros and Leheb investigations, said:

“You can start from the very beginning.”

“We’re not telling you to go all the way back to Adam,” Süleyman added with a faint smile.

Dr. William nodded.

“Very well. Then let’s begin with fossils.”

Süleyman realized too late that the neurosurgeon was not joking.

“It’s not as simple as digging into soil and finding fossils,” William began.

“Only one in a thousand organisms becomes inorganic and does not simply decay into the earth. Even among this tiny fraction, the likelihood of fossilization is extremely small. The organism must die in the right place. The ideal environment is a muddy, swampy area where oxygen is absent. And most importantly, it must remain undisturbed—possibly for hundreds of thousands of years. Far from settlements and farmland, untouched by human hands. Only then can we say the conditions are suitable for preserving the dead organism… and turning it into a fossil.

“If you consider that out of billions of bones, only a few ever become fossils,
you realize how little information we actually possess about ancient life. And remember—across vast stretches of land, we have no idea where fossils might be located.Excavating every possible area would require immense effort and resources.

It is believed that countless species went extinct without leaving a single trace.
Some researchers even estimate that for every ten to twenty thousand species that once existed,only one has a fossil record we know about. And even among what we have, most fossils consist of only a few bones.

So identifying a species from a handful of bones is incredibly difficult. We cannot know whether the organism was sick, whether it had a broken bone that healed incorrectly,
or any other individual anomaly—and all of these can distort our interpretation.

Even today, the proportions of human bones vary widely. There is no single standard—only a range. Two people of the same height may differ entirely: one may have short legs and a long torso, the other long legs and a short torso. For all these reasons, it is illogical to take a few bones and build sweeping theories that overturn established truths.”

He continued:

“When land animals die, their flesh becomes food for carnivores. Even if bones remain, anything exposed to oxygen decays. This is why more than half of the fossils we possess
belong to organisms that lived in water.”

As William spoke, Süleyman wondered how long this detour into fossils would continue.
Mark, trying to follow the thread, asked:

“Did you discover a fossil? Something unknown—a new species? Is that why someone set you up?”

“No,” William replied.

“Then tell us,” Mark said. “We’re listening.”

The accomplished scientist continued.

“Radioactive atoms are heavy, unstable, and—so to speak—compressed. Because of this, they release various types of radiation in an attempt to break down and become stable.This process is called radioactive decay.

Depending on the element, this decay can occur within seconds, or take hundreds of thousands of years. We call this duration the half-life. Uranium, thorium, and radium are the most well-known naturally occurring radioactive elements.Take uranium, for example.
Once its half-life has passed, half of its atoms will have transformed into lead.

In a fossil sample, we measure the amount of uranium and the lead produced by its decay.
By examining the ratio between the two, we can determine how much decay has occurred—and therefore, estimate the age.This is known as radiometric dating.”

Mark commented:

“So you use this method to determine the age of a fossil.
It must also help confirm whether a specimen is really a fossil, right?”

“To some extent, yes—and to some extent, no,” William replied.

“Not every fossil contains radioactive elements and their decay products.
And this method does not offer precise measurements— it gives estimates on the scale of hundreds of thousands or millions of years. However, every organism contains carbon and its isotope, carbon-14. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,600 years.”

“So carbon-14 analysis is more reliable?” Mark asked.

“What I’m saying is this,” William continued:

“If carbon-14 undergoes ten half-lives, its quantity becomes one-over-1024 of the original.
At that level, detecting its remnants in a sample becomes extremely difficult. That’s why fossils estimated to be older than fifty to sixty thousand years are almost impossible to test using carbon-14. And because we cannot predict a fossil’s age beforehand,
we attempt both radiometric dating and carbon-14 analysis whenever possible.”

“The public knows you as one of the scientists who opposes the theory of evolution—
even one of its leading critics.
So I assume you’re about to connect fossils to evolutionary claims,” Mark said.

“Yes,” William replied. “We’re slowly getting there.”

He continued:

“Although they don’t fully agree among themselves, most evolutionists claim that over a million years ago, a primate that could stand on two legs and resembled a human in certain ways left Africa and dispersed across the world.

They also claim—again, without total consensus—that the transformation into what they call Homo sapiens occurred a mere hundred thousand years ago.

These numbers suggest that the most controversial part of the theory—the transitional fossils between ape and human—should be found within the period between one million and one hundred thousand years ago.

However, there is another group of evolutionists who reject the idea that apes migrated outward from Africa. They argue instead that primitive apes already existed in various parts of the world, and that they evolved into humans independently. According to them, transitional fossils older than one million years could exist in different regions.”

Mark narrowed his eyes.

“With that explanation, I assume you’re emphasizing why radiometric dating is used rather than carbon-14?”

“Yes,” William said. “I’m about to get into the theory itself.”

Süleyman muttered:

“Into it, sure… but I hope we can get out. My head is already spinning.”

William noticed the impatience in his eyes—the sighs, the restless posture.

“I won’t bore you with Darwin, his travels, his books, or those ancient debates,” he said.

“I’ll start in the middle of the page—with the transitional fossils evolutionists constantly reference. First, I’ll describe what evolutionists highlight in the fossils. Then, I’ll give you my interpretation.”

He drew a breath.

“Our first fossil is the Neanderthal man, found in Germany’s Neander Valley.”

“Darwin’s friend, Thomas Henry Huxley, discovered it in a cave and immediately captured global attention. The fossil had pronounced brow ridges and a large nasal cavity. Based on the bones found, they claimed its limb proportions were different from those of humans. But according to reports, Huxley had only discovered a skull and a few limb bones.”

William paused, eyes narrowing slightly.

“Some scientists argued that the anatomical features resembled Mongolian traits,
and that the bones likely belonged to a Mongol-Kazakh soldier who fought and died in Germany in 1814. They claimed the soldier, wounded, might have crawled into the cave before dying— and that the bones held no scientific significance whatsoever. Huxley rejected the story outright, claiming it was illogical.”

William suddenly stopped speaking and asked:

“What does that debate really tell us?”
William asked—and answered his own question before anyone could respond.

“Huxley, who claimed he had found a transitional form, could not definitively say the fossil did not belong to a Mongol. Instead, he attacked the story—that a wounded soldier crawled into the cave before dying—claiming it was illogical.

But consider this: if, according to evolutionists, modern humans emerged over a hundred thousand years ago, is it truly impossible that someone from the Kazakh-Mongol region could have died on German soil within that vast span of time?

Huxley’s inability to deny the fossil’s Mongolian origin, and his fixation on dismissing the story, reveals a deliberate attempt to conceal an inconvenient truth. In other words, ignoring anatomical variation between ethnic groups, and claiming to have found a ‘transitional form’ based solely on the morphology of today’s local population, is a contradiction to science itself.”

William rose from his seat.

“The second controversial fossil is the Java Man.”

“It was announced as a non-human creature that walked upright, based on a fragment of skull and a section of vertebra. Its face did not resemble humans, but its body was larger than an ape’s. Today we call it Homo erectus.

The researcher Dubois found the skull and vertebra. The following year, he discovered a completely modern-looking femur. Many anthropologists immediately concluded that the femur had nothing to do with the Java fossil at all. But Dubois used it anyway, to support his claim that the creature walked on two legs. And despite having only fragments of the skull and a few teeth, he constructed an entire skeletal model from them.”

William continued, his tone sharpening:

“We know Dubois allowed only a handful of anatomists—such as Gustov—to examine his fossils. Their endorsements made him famous. But for the rest of his life, he allowed no one else to study them. They say it was arrogance.”

He turned to Mark.

“You tell me: someone claims to have made a discovery of monumental importance—a transitional form that could shake the scientific world. He wants the attention, the acclaim, the recognition—yet he refuses to allow anyone beyond a chosen few to examine the fossils. And we’re expected to dismiss this behavior as mere ‘pride’? To me, that explanation is absurd.”

William leaned forward, eyes darkening.

“Why wasn’t radiometric dating performed? And if it couldn’t be, why weren’t skeptics allowed to examine the specimen and verify that fact? No—there was something he didn’t want exposed. Something worth hiding. And when a scientist resorts to secrecy, limiting access, shutting doors— it is not humility that is at play, but fear.

Fear that the truth, once revealed, will dismantle the very narrative he worked so hard to build.”

“A person may be arrogant, withdrawn, even eccentric,” Mark said,
“But that still doesn’t justify refusing to let others examine the fossil. If he truly believed in his theory, peer scrutiny would only make him more famous—increase admiration, not diminish it. And if he had retired into his shell, the rational response would be: ‘Here, take the fossil, examine it—I’m done with this.’Yet even then, he should have allowed access.”

Dr. William brushed his hand through the air, as if clearing dust.

“Our third fossil is known as the Taung Child,” he continued.

“In 1924, an Australian anatomist unearthed it from a limestone quarry at the edge of the Kalahari Desert. It possessed childlike human teeth, but the cranial bones—where the brain once rested—were that of a tailless ape. Its age was estimated between 2.4 and 3 million years. But, like Dubois, the discoverer never collaborated with senior European experts, which raised serious doubts. In later years, many authorities stated plainly that the Taung Child was simply a monkey.Its age also conflicted significantly with evolutionary timelines, which is one reason it was quietly abandoned.”

William’s tone shifted—cold, factual, unsettling.

“In the years that followed, fieldwork moved to China and Indonesia. Some researchers claimed that the Chinese, while producing sodium bicarbonate, actually destroyed preexisting Homo erectus fossils in the region. And near Java, local villagers, having heard what scientists were willing to pay, began deceiving researchers—selling rocks as fossils. Worse yet, when genuine fossils existed, they sometimes smashed them deliberately, hoping fragments would fetch higher prices.”

He paused.

“In Kenya, a footprint embedded in volcanic ash was found—
3.6 million years old. From that single trace, researchers concluded that apes could walk upright long before any supposed evolutionary transformation.”

Süleyman, familiar with at least one cornerstone of evolutionary terminology, spoke up, attempting to showcase his intellectual grasp:

“I’ve heard that there are other famous fossils associated with the term ‘Homo sapiens.’
‘Homo’ as in species—and ‘sapiens’ meaning intelligent, knowledgeable, advanced.”

Mark knew Süleyman well. He was certain the man didn’t truly know what he was talking about, yet he also knew Süleyman’s reckless guesses often hit the mark.

Dr. William nodded. “Yes, I almost forgot. We can’t skip Lucy.”

“She was found in Ethiopia, dated to a little over three million years ago, classified as Australopithecus. According to different sources, sixty to forty percent of her skeleton was missing. The skull, for all practical purposes, was nonexistent. Lucy stood about one meter tall and is thought to have been an adept climber. From the small fragment of her skull, researchers estimated she had a small brain.

Evolutionists placed extraordinary value on Lucy. Some even claimed she was the earliest human ancestor ever discovered. For a while, that idea prevailed, until anthropologists began pointing out contradictions. The pelvic structure of humans and apes is strikingly similar—yet Lucy’s wasn’t. This anomaly conveniently supported the narrative: first an ape, then a transitional species like Lucy, and finally a fully evolved human.”

“So what became of Lucy?” Mark asked.

“The answer is obvious. She was a species of ape whose line went extinct. The only real difference from modern apes, based on the fossil evidence, was that she could stand upright. Anthropologists agree that millions of species once roamed the earth, and today only a fraction survive. This fossil belonged to one of those extinct species. Let’s respect the find—but if some people accept that apes existed and reproduced into existence, why refuse to believe that the same creative force could simply bring forth countless species directly?

Every new fossil doesn’t support their story—it dismantles it. Their science is propped up with imagination, not evidence.”

This species usually lived high in the forest canopy. Perhaps they abandoned the forest, or perhaps the forest abandoned them, and they vanished. Considering the fossil record—small, frail bodies, and tiny brains, in other words limited cognitive ability—extinction in a brutal world was almost inevitable.

Over time, fossil research unfortunately turned into a battlefield between God and science, between followers of divine faith and those determined to deny the existence of any creator. For believers, there was no need to hunt down new fossils. But evolutionists were desperate to find transitional forms to validate their theory. Of course, I’m speaking of ideologues here—not the professionals who simply excavated fossils and contributed to science. Some people, driven by ideology rather than evidence, couldn’t find the fossils they hoped for—so they manufactured them.

In 1917, Charles Dawson announced a fossil whose jaw resembled that of an ape, while the skull resembled that of modern humans. Decades later, with modern dating techniques, it was exposed as a hoax—what we now call the Piltdown fraud. It was discovered that Dawson had combined a human skull with an orangutan jaw, then soaked the bones in chemicals so they would erode and mineralize, imitating the appearance of ancient fossilization.

“So, if I understand correctly,” Mark said, “you’re suggesting that some evolutionist scientists not only insulted and dismissed opposing views, but actively suppressed them. They hid their fossils from scrutiny, avoided radiometric testing, and controlled the narrative with media and political influence. Given that, it’s not difficult to imagine that Piltdown wasn’t a lone deception—there may have been many others.”

Dr. William nodded, confirming Mark’s deduction.

“I led the team that uncovered a fraud similar to Piltdown,” he said quietly. “But before we get there, there are things you need to know.”