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This article is from
Creation 30(3):56, June 2008

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Whether tall or small—people, all!

by

Tall and Small
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.

Also hailing from Inner Mongolia is Mr He Pingping who stands at just 73 cm (2 ft 5 in).2

Jonathan and Robert Wadlow at the Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum, Gold Coast
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.

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).

Posted on homepage: 30 November 2009

References and notes

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Guiness World Records, <www.guinnessworld records.com/records/human_body/extreme_bodies/tallest_man.aspx>, 3 January 2008. Return to text.
  4. See Hobbit: New news is good news; <creation.com/hobbitnews>. Return to text.