THE CREATION IS ENGINEERED – NOT EVOLVED!
Evolutionists constantly emphasize the similarities between apes and man. This emphasis results in the acceptance by many of the idea that apes and man are related. Currently, the main arguments for an ape-to-man relationship depend on fossils and DNA. True science has shown that both of these avenues are not nearly as fruitful as evolutionists would hope. In fact, they are more like evolutionary dead ends!
What the fossils really reveal, at least to one with a biblical worldview, is that the bones being dug up and promoted as showing ape and man common ancestry can be placed into one of the following two categories:
Category 1: Post Flood and Post Babel morphologically variable humans.
Category 2: Unknown or extinct apes from the same period of time.
And, no real transitional fossils to connect the two categories have ever been scientifically confirmed.
As scientists learn more and more about the complexities of DNA and its associated organic machinery, the demonstrated similarities between apes and man continually decrease. Of course, since apes and men both live on planet earth and need to subsist on foods available here, one would expect a certain amount of similarity in their engineered designs. But, we now know the original claims of ape and man DNA similarity were greatly overblown.
DIFFERENCES: What about the differences between ape and man? In Dr. Stuart Burgess’ book Hallmarks of Design, the many unique designs in body, mind and spirit that humans possess are discussed. The ten unique characteristics of humans that Dr. Burgess lists are:
- Upright stature
- Skillful hands
- Unique skin
- Intricate language
- Intricate facial expressions
- Unique intellect
- Unique genetic code
- Unique reproduction
- Spiritual being
- Delicate beauty
Dr. Burgess then proceeds to describe a total of 30 unique features of man which create the unique characteristics that he describes in the list above.
So, these characteristics separate the human not only from apes but from all animal kinds! If we only consider the characteristics of “intricate language” and “unique intellect” much can be learned about the vast difference between a human and an ape. By breaking intricate language and unique intellect into sub-categories of language, literacy, music, mathematics, creativity and dominion we can expose these differences even more specifically:
Language: Apes do not have a spoken language. Only humans do, and all people groups have this ability. While apes can communicate, they cannot speak using grammatical phrases or sentences.
Literacy: While not all humans are literate, all have the capacity to become literate. Apes cannot read or write.
Music: Of God’s created kinds, only humans can create music. Apes cannot do this, and while some animals can “sing,” they express their singing as regular, predictable and repetitious sounds rather than variable, creative music.
Mathematics: Of God’s creatures only man can use and understand mathematics. Apes and other animals do not have this ability.
Creativity: Apes have a limited ability to make tools and build things, but they endlessly produce a stereotyped design. On the other hand, humans are capable of nearly endless creativity.
Dominion: God has given mankind the responsibility for “subduing and having dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:38). No animal has this ability or responsibility.*
Dr. John C. Whitcomb has expressed the differences between man and ape this way: “While the physical differences between man and primates are quite great, the spiritual/mental/linguistic/cultural differences are little short of infinite.”**
In conclusion, the only reason some people accept the the idea of an evolutionary ape-to-man relationship is because they have been convinced to reject the Creator God and bow instead to the authority of man. True science can be easily interpreted to agree with the Bible on the teaching that man is unique among all life; and was specially created in the beginning in the image of the Creator God.
*The listing of language and intellectual characteristics was adapted from an article by David Christie and Russell Grigg, “What Humans Do but Animals Don’t” from Creation magazine, vol. 40 No. 2, 2018, p. 52.
**Kleiss, Richard L. and Kleiss, Christina E., A Closer Look at the Evidence, Search for the Truth Publications, 2003, July 12.
J.D. Mitchell
