{"id":471,"date":"2009-02-27T08:56:04","date_gmt":"2009-02-27T13:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/?p=471"},"modified":"2009-02-27T08:56:04","modified_gmt":"2009-02-27T13:56:04","slug":"some-of-us-are-closer-to-primates-than-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rationalitynow.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/27\/some-of-us-are-closer-to-primates-than-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Some of Us Are Closer to Primates Than Others…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"monkey-0214-12\"<\/p>\n

I\u00c2\u00a0couldn’t possibly\u00c2\u00a0count on all of “God’s” appendages how many crazy fundie opinions I have read or heard through the years,\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0but this one might take the cake.<\/p>\n

Sean McDowell at WorldViewTimes.com has written a brilliant article<\/a> on the recent “Monkey Attack” in Connecticut. His\u00c2\u00a0article\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0ingeniously illustrates why Charles Darwin was directly responsible for this animals savagery.<\/p>\n

Allow me to quote Sean:<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, we need to ask a basic question: How could something like this happen? How is it that we live in a culture where people think it’s safe to have a chimpanzee as a pet? Where do people get the idea that we ought to take a wild animal and treat it like a human being? The chimp owner treated the animal like a son who ate at her table, slept in her house, and even drove her car. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ideas do not exist in a vacuum. In fact, there is one culprit for the idea that human beings and chimps are really not that different and should be treated that way: Darwinism<\/strong>.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yep, Darwinism!\u00c2\u00a0 Sean’s article\u00c2\u00a0seemed silly enough so as not to even deserve rebuttal… but I couldn’t help it.\u00c2\u00a0 Sean is right about one thing. Ideas don’t exist in a vacuum. Blind faith exists in a vacuum. To blame a scientific theory\u00c2\u00a0(Darwinism) for an animal attack is silly, but to suggest that this theory alone makes the case that we are similar to chimps is insulting. Darwinism,\u00c2\u00a0by itself,\u00c2\u00a0doesn’t suggest we are similar to apes. It is\u00c2\u00a0evidenced by our own DNA! We share 95% of\u00c2\u00a0our DNA sequence and 99% of the coding of DNA sequences with primates. Sean continues:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, ironically, this week we witness a brutal act that seems to logically follow from Darwin’s ideas. You may be wondering how I can possibly link Darwin to this atrocious event. But think about it, if humans are deeply related to chimps then why not expect them to act that way?
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The attack, “logically follows Darwin’s ideas<\/span><\/span>?!?<\/span><\/span>” Crazy person says what? This last statement almost<\/em> sounds crazier than the rantings of The Banana Man himself, Ray Comfort (Monkey story = Banana Reference).\u00c2\u00a0 Sean wants to know why, if we are so “deeply related,” chimps don’t act more human? We need to first identify which humans Sean is referencing. I guess Sean “disremembered” these world class examples of God’s work:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n