The supposed evolutionary link between man and monkey has always been hard to swallow. But should an average person like me ever question the incredible advances in the study of origins led by scholars associated with some of the most respected centers of higher learning like Harvard? Maybe.

There is a link between man and monkey: God.

Who made us?

Yale Professor Paul Bloom, a psychologist, speaking at a symposium on ‘Belief and Reason’ challenged a popular assumption that people who believe in God believe only because of their religious upbringing, while those reared in a science-oriented home do not. But Bloom said it’s not quite that simple.  He noted that Helen Keller who became deaf and blind before the age of two grew up with deep inner ponderings: “Who made the sky, the sea, everything?”  Before she knew how to communicate or had received any instructions or influence from others, she wondered this. She intuited that ‘someone’ had created the world. (1)  Hmmm. Interesting.

Professor Margaret Evans, a psychologist with the University of Michigan has been studying for ten years why creationist thinking comes more easily to the human mind than evolutionary thinking. She has been studying children of all stripes – from those of evolutionary biologists to the children of church pastors. Children under age eleven, from all cultures, usually give the same answer to where a fox or a turtle or a human originated. They either say: “God made it,” or more often they personify “Nature” as the source that brought it into existence.  (2)

Based on Evans’ significant research, she has concluded that Creationists will always outnumber Evolutionists because of the innate way humans, for some reason, are programmed to think. How did this amazing innateness come to be? How can science account for such a phenomenon in human beings? Who programmed us to naturally think this way? Hmmm. Possibly God?

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

(Genesis 1:27, BIBLE)

Morals of Men and Monkeys

Read the next few paragraphs carefully. Professor Marc Hauser, Harvard University, is or was arguably one of the world’s best-known researchers who scientifically proved that not just humans are moral beings; monkeys are too. You don’t have to be churched or conditioned to know what is right and wrong. Hauser is a world leader in the field of animal and human cognition. He wrote a book in 2006: “Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong.” (3) The New England Journal of Medicine at that time said: “It offers us the most important scientific contribution to moral psychology in many decades.” (4)

Hauser has a new book in the works: “Evilicious: Explaining Our Evolved Taste for Being Bad.” Here’s the rub: something has shattered much of his credibility as a leading scientist linking the morals of monkey and men.

Harvard hasn’t shared many details but Hauser has been found guilty of eight instances of scientific misconduct involving how he came up with the data, how he used it, what he did with it and how he reported it.  If any, or some or all of his data were fabricated – that’s pretty serious for a scientist.

Yes, call it evilicious. Humans do have a taste for being bad. From scientists to pastors and from princes to prisoners – we do have a tendency to badness. And yes, we are moral beings. We do have a sense of right and wrong.  People from all cultures and religious beliefs do not enjoy being ripped-off, robbed or raped. But we didn’t derive our sense of right and wrong from an evolutionary process that included other animals or monkeys.

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

(Genesis 1:27, BIBLE)

Here’s the Truth

God made humans moral beings. He equipped us with more than instinct – animals have that. He put within humans a moral compass – known as the conscience.  The sense of right and wrong and the ability to reason.

The dark energy inside each person is the result of the first tragic human rebellion against the Creator. You can read about it in Genesis 3. Sin entered the human race at that point. Yes, every single human being has inherited the virus of sin. Have you ever come across a better explanation for the universal flaw in the human family than the ancient record of Genesis 3 and other explanations found in Romans Chapters 3 and 5?

Have you acknowledged God yet in your life? Have you resolved the issue of your (flaw) sin which is offensive to your Creator and prevents you from having a ‘peace’ relationship with God? Unless the barrier of sin is removed you will never have peace within yourself or with God and you will never be in Heaven.

God responded to our bold rebellion in rich grace. He did for us what we never deserved and could never do for ourselves. He provided us with the Saviour. By giving His Son Jesus to bear the punishment of our sins by the cross death, He opened up the way for us to enter into a beautiful, peaceful and eternal relationship with Himself. By accepting Christ as your Rescuer, Saviour and Lord, you will be brought into that relationship with God.

For Christ also suffered once for sins,

the righteous for the unrighteous,

that he might bring us to God…”

(1Peter 3:18, BIBLE)

Your Response?

  1. Scientific American, Creationism Feels Right, But that Doesn’t Make it So, Jesse Bering, March 19, 2009
  2. Ibid.
  3. The New York Times, Harvard Finds Scientist Guilty of Misconduct, August 20, 2010
  4. Mercatornet, Breach of Trust, Michael Cook, September 16, 2010
  5. Ibid.
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