The Theory of Evolution claims that everything about humans can be explained by slow steady natural developments over time from other forms of life. And Christians (myself included) have expended countless hours and pages refuting the archaeological and geological evidence. But in the process of denying that man physically descended from other animals, we have missed the point entirely.
It is not man’s physical make-up that make us unique. In these things, we are very much in the animal kingdom, even according to the Bible. What makes us unique from animals are things like music, art, reasoning, games, religion, morality, tools, monogamy, and generosity.
And whether you believe Evolution gives a dubious or a credible account of our physical heritage, it gives no account or evidence whatsoever of how these things might have gradually developed from animal ancestors. For all the similarities we share with beasts in our bodies, we are incomparably different in every other area. And it is this radical distinctness which demonstrates us to be that mixture of the natural and the Divine on which the Biblical story really depends.
1 comment:
“For all the similarities we share with beasts in our bodies, we are incomparably different in every other area.”
I’m sorry, but this is simply not correct.
You say that among the things that make us unique are tools and games. This is quite obviously false – we have all seen animals playing (admittedly basic) games, and the use of tools in the animal kingdom is well documented (monkeys using sticks to get termites from a hole, for example, or using rocks to open nuts.) It is easy to see how the use of tools became more complex with humans, where a rock tied to a stick and a chipped flint arrowhead have evolved in to the huge variety of tools we have today.
Likewise, most of the other examples are not unique human qualities. We see basic forms of generosity in the animal kingdom (in grooming rituals, for example) and the theory of evolution would say that those who are more generous are likely to have a higher group status, get more benefits in return and be more likely to pass on their genes (hence generosity continues and develops).
Monogamy is slightly difficult, in that I would argue that it is not an inherent human trait - certainly there are billions and billions of people in the world who do not behave in a monogamous way. It seems more likely (to me) that monogamous people are suppressing their urges, rather than that all the other people are fighting against their inbuilt monogamy in order to have multiple partners. That is slightly off topic anyway – the point is that there are examples of monogamy in nature so it cannot be cited as a unique human characteristic.
I should point out that I am in no way an expert on any of these things. There are plenty of people who can give a far more coherent argument and provide far better examples. If you choose to look for it, that is.
Post a Comment