Apes or Angels?

The title of this book alludes to the looming issue of human nature that was placed before the world by Darwin’s two books, The Origin and TheDescent of Man. I will give the reader a brief taste of Darwin’s life and his famous voyage on the Beagle, followed by a discussion of his work and his legacy.Little discussed in politically correct America is Darwin’s view of Homo sapiens in the form of at least four distinct subspecies.For Darwin it was easy to see that these subspecies were not equal but were all human and worthy of respect. In America Darwin gained acceptance only slowly, but it was in America that his theory was updated and strengthened by three American biologists and called the neo-Darwinian synthesis. Despite general acceptance by scientists everywhere, evolution was opposed by creationists who chose the school biology program to draw a line in the sand. I will discuss the defeat of creationism as intelligent design in the Dover “Scopes” Trial of 2005. Finally, scientific progress now enables us to decide between “apes or angels.”Among the world’s leading democracies, neo-Darwinism is accepted by more than 50 percent of the population-except in the U.S.. Europe now has risen to over 75 percent across its region.Regardless of their biological knowledge, Europeans accept secular values and neo-Darwinism.Europeans do not feel less human for having ape ancestors in their lineage.They have, however, largely given up the idea that Heaven awaits their alleged souls. Human nature is not fully understood but its genetic foundation is under intense analysis by armies of researchers either bent on pure science or medical breakthroughs.The neuroscientist Gerald Edelman, who sees the brain as a Darwinian mechanism, has a model that will greatly enhance our understanding of brain operation as it is verified by further research.20 Edelman believes that robots will “ape” many human traits without ever becoming fully human. Others,however, are not so sure! It would be supremely ironic if the Christian fear of ape ancestry was displaced by a greater fear of robotic human nature. Darwin’s discovery of our “apeness” is now a simple fact of zoological taxonomy which provides a foundation for further speculation.Our quest now is to understand the genetic basis for mind, belief, and personality.Genes somehow build our brains and make us uniquely human, a form of ape whose brains are in some respects qualitatively superior to those of all other creatures.Buried beneath sublime poetry, music, or mathematical cerebration is the older ape of our ancestry, but angels are now seen for the fantastical fabrications they always were.We may turn out to be automatons but the vast complexity of our brains will protect our egos. We have ignorance and self-deception as means of escape from reality anyway. Darwin never found “progress” in nature. Whatever man created culturally, he was first and foremost an animal that belonged to nature.“Free will,” the darling of leftist humanism, derives originally from Christianity, its primary enemy. Thus, as John Gray argues, humanists grasp at free will and progress as central dogmas while much of Christianity retreats to the margins with more doubt than their humanist cousins.21 Learning to live with nature may be far wiser than our current “conquest” which is upsetting global climate patterns and destroying many existing species. Liberal humanism is engaged in human emancipation similar to the Christian project of mortal redemption.History may have no ultimate purpose but liberalism is satisfied with its “Heaven on Earth” equality project. Liberals dream of a global civilization of equals that demands the diminution of Western power.By empowering the weak and poor, they hope to create their egalitarian paradise.Religions, however, are a formidable obstacle to such a project, for they differ in significant ways. Liberalism fails miserably in its belief that Muslims will become reasonable and peaceful once they shed their poverty. Today’s virulent extremists awaiting 72 virgins in paradise are usually highly educated and absolutely uncompromising.Unless they are protected from themselves,liberals, using reason and relative values, will be devoured by the increasing hordes of radical Islamists whose version of paradise is viewed as vastly superior. While we can thank Darwin for identifying our family tree and disabusing us of our wishful thinking, we are less certain of his revelations of human diversity. As modern genetics increasingly supports Darwin’s observations on human variability, the West is embroiled in a political war over the interpretation and meaning of these findings.Secular humanism, set adrift from Christianity in part because of Darwin, now opposes the facts of human inequality first pointed out in 1871 by the great naturalist. As in Galileo’s day, science is under siege for discovering uncomfortable truths.Popes are no longer the enemy, but doctrinaire liberals within the scientific community are! Darwin, the immortal hero of science, gave us ideas that offend both sides in the culture wars.