Speaking of Homo habilis, Davis and Kenyon state,
"Some design proponents point out that its brain case, while larger than
most australopithecines, is really too small for it to be classified as
human (650 cc compared to about 1400 cc for modern man). They interpret it
instead as an extinct primate." (Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon, Of
Pandas and People, 2nd edition (Dallas: Haughton Publishing Co., 1993), p. 109)
Young-earth creationists also follow this line of reasoning. John Klotz
writes in a section defining what man is,
"Man's brain is two-and-a-half to three times as big as the brian of the
largest ape, the gorilla, and his brain is also relatively the
largest."(John W. Klotz, Studies in Creation, (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing Co., 1985), p. 151)
Klotz then goes on to point out the brainsize of the various fossil men,
implying that brainsize is important.
The brain sizes of the various fossil men are as follows:
Australopithecus 350-650 cc
Homo habilis 650 cc
Homo erectus 775-1225 cc
Neanderthal average 1450 cc
Modern Homo sapiens 1340 cc
But brainsize is not important for the definition of humanity. Ralph
Holloway, one of the leading experts on fossil brains, told an
anthropolgoical friend of mine that he knew of a normall intelligent
Australian aborigine woman with a brain size of 750 cc. There has been one
normally intelligent human, alive in this century, having a 650 cc brain
(Guiness Book of Records 1996, (New York: Facts on File, 1995), p. 14) The
man was Daniel Lyon, an Irishman who died in 1907 at age 46. Regardless that
this brainsize is smaller than that of Homo erectus and a one year old Homo
sapiens infant, it seems quite presumptive to place him among the apes
merely upon the basis of his brain size.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm