The Chimp Who Changed Our View Of Humans

With our study of The Truth Project, I've found my attention drawn to articles with headlines like the one above. The above title was the one given to it on the Drudge Report. The article was somewhat interesting and humorous in that it talks about a rock throwing chimpanzee. (One of my jokes is the monkeys, or chimps, are always funny.)

What the article claimed to be earth-shattering did not seem to be that big of a deal to me. What was very interesting was the reaction of the scientific community to this chimps behavior. Below is an excerpt:

According to a report in the journal Current Biology, the 31-year-old alpha male started building his weapons cache in the morning before the zoo opened, collecting rocks and knocking out disks from concrete boulders inside his enclosure. He waited until around midday before he unleashed a "hailstorm" of rocks against visitors, the study said.

"These observations convincingly show that our fellow apes do consider the future in a very complex way," said the author of the report, Lund University Ph.D. student Mathias Osvath. "It implies that they have a highly developed consciousness, including lifelike mental simulations of potential events."

Did you catch it? An incredibly obvious look into the worldview of the author of the report, Mathias Osvath. Read the quote again. Did you catch it this time? "Our fellow apes" Those three words reveal a great deal. This viewpoint says, "All things considered, man is no different than monkeys, apes, or chimpanzees." Of course, that worldview leads to two potential problems. Some with this worldview will elevate animals to the same moral/ethical level as man. Others will take that viewpoint and use it as the basis to treat some men as nothing more than an animal. Both attitudes lead to the same result: the cheapening of human life.

You must be on your guard for your own worldview, as well as investing a biblical worldview into your children's lives (and the lives of those around you.) Don't assume that you have to individually change the world when it comes to worldview. What you and I must do is to do what we can with the people in our circle of influence. Share the truth with your family, your friends, and neighbors. Lead them to the truth. If we all do our part, then train those we influence to do the same (making disciples), we can make a difference in our world.