Of Men and Monkeys

It is said that the difference between the DNA sequences of man and his closest relative in the animal kingdom - the chimpanzee - is no more than 2%¹. And in July 1999, we heard tell of Kanzi² (a bonobo chimpanzee) who has a vocabulary of hundreds if not thousands of words. According to researchers at George State University Language Research Center³, Kanzi can even use those words to express feelings and desires.

So the difference between man and monkey is gradually being whittled away - we are no longer different by being a tool-user, no longer different by being able to talk, and no longer different by being able to feel emotion. So the physical and mental divide between us and the animal kingdom seems to narrow decade by decade.

I must say that I am never impressed by the messages about small differences in DNA. Having been tripped up in the past by the small difference between "now" and "not" (We have been asked to ......... and that is now/not our intention), I know how important small differences can be.

Indeed Christian thought has always carried the message that man was made in the image of God - but an inadequate and flawed image - so imperfect that to try to compare man to God is laughable.

So indeed it is with man and monkey. Any comparison tells us more about the differences than the similarities, although similarities there be. It seems that when God made men and monkeys he showed a true economy of style - the marvel is perhaps not that we are so similar but rather that such small differences can be so important.

Physically we may look a bit like monkeys. Mentally we may sometimes behave like them. But the truth is that mentally and, above all, spiritually we are capable of soaring way beyond the entire animal kingdom.