Why do some people find it so unacceptable to be closely related to apes? There are probably many reasons why people don’t want to consider themselves as highly evolved monkeys. Some of the reasons are purely religious, and some of them may just be out of a sense that people are clearly on an evolutionary branch all to themselves. Why would we ever have been related to the apes? Despite the evidence that we are related to them, some still find it repulsive.
It says in the Bible that God created man in his own image, and that we were the creatures that were to have dominion over the Earth. This could certainly be a good reason why people would be disgusted to find out that this is not the case at all. Instead of being created in the image of God, we were created in the image of an ape. I could see where people would be a little disillusioned by that fact.
When you look at an ape, you see something that is big and hairy. It might be smart, but all it does is eat, grunt, and mate. Is that the type of beings that humans are really related too? Is this where we get our instinct, and is there where we really began. It seems a little bit too over the top to take. However, if you really look closely at an ape, can’t you seem some human traits? They have a lot of the same genes that humans do.
If we are related to apes, it means that humans are not immune from evolution. It means that humans are nothing special, other than the fact that we are the most intelligent species on Earth. All the things that we do, and everything that it means to be human could just be a cosmic accident. We might not be anything special after all, and this makes people upset. If we just evolved to what we are today, what is our significance in the universe?
Some people just refuse to see the facts for what they are. If evolution is proved correct, then the Bible has to be reevaluated. It doesn’t mean that God didn’t make us, it just means that we weren’t necessarily made special. Maybe we weren’t the first species that God made, and maybe that means that we are just the best attempt that God made. That could offend some people who might think that because the Bible says we were made special, that it is so.
Being related to an ape isn’t a big deal. It isn’t a terrible animal, and it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. So we might not be special, so what? We still have all the same tools, and react the same ways to our lives, we just might be wrong about how we were made. It isn’t that bad to have to revisit our roots every so often.
