Humans—Who Are We?

IT SEEMS that humans have an identity problem. Evolutionist Richard Leakey observes: “For centuries philosophers have dealt with aspects of humanness, of humanity. But, surprisingly, there is no agreed-upon definition of the quality of humanness.”

However, the Copenhagen Zoo boldly gave its opinion by way of an exhibit in its primate house. The 1997 Britannica Book of the Year explains: “A Danish couple moved into temporary living quarters at the zoo with the intention of reminding visitors of their close kinship to the apes.”

Reference works give credence to such an alleged close kinship of certain animals with humans. The World Book Encyclopedia, for example, says: “Human beings, along with apes, lemurs, monkeys, and tarsiers, make up the order of mammals called primates.”

Yet, the fact is, humans are brimming with unique traits that do not fit the animal mold. Among these are love, conscience, morality, spirituality, justice, mercy, humor, creativity, awareness of time, self-awareness, aesthetic appreciation, concern for the future, the ability to accumulate knowledge over generations, and the hope that death is not the ultimate end of our existence.

In an attempt to reconcile these traits with the animal mold, some point to evolutionary psychology, which is an amalgam of evolution, psychology, and social science. Has evolutionary psychology shed light on the puzzle of human nature?

What Is the Purpose of Life?

“The premise of evolutionary psychology is simple,” says evolutionist Robert Wright. “The human mind, like any other organ, was designed for the purpose of transmitting genes to the next generation; the feelings and thoughts it creates are best understood in these terms.” In other words, our whole purpose in life, as dictated by our genes and reflected in the workings of our mind, is to breed.

Indeed, “much of human nature,” according to evolutionary psychology, “boils down to ruthless genetic self-interest.” The book The Moral Animal says: “Natural selection ‘wants’ men to have sex with an endless series of women.” According to this evolutionary concept, under certain circumstances immorality for women is also seen as natural. Even parental love is seen as a gene-inspired ploy to ensure the survival of offspring. Thus, one view emphasizes the importance of genetic legacy in making sure that the human family is perpetuated.

Some self-help books now ride on the new wave of evolutionary psychology. One of them describes human nature as “not very different from chimpanzee nature, gorilla nature, or baboon nature.” It also states: “When it comes to evolution, . . . it’s reproduction that counts.”

On the other hand, the Bible teaches that God created humans for a purpose beyond simply breeding. We were made in God’s “image,” with the capacity to reflect his attributes, especially love, justice, wisdom, and power. Add the unique traits of humans that were mentioned earlier, and it becomes clear why the Bible sets humans above animals. The Bible, in fact, reveals that God created humans with not only the desire to live forever but also the ability to enjoy the fulfillment of that desire in a righteous new world of God’s making.—Genesis 1:27, 28; Psalm 37:9-11, 29; Ecclesiastes 3:11; John 3:16; Revelation 21:3, 4.

What We Believe Makes a Difference

Determining the correct view is far from academic, for what we believe about our origins can affect how we live. The historian H. G. Wells noted the conclusions that many reached after Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species was published in 1859.

“A real de-moralization ensued. . . . There was a real loss of faith after 1859. . . . Prevalent peoples at the close of the nineteenth century believed that they prevailed by virtue of the Struggle for Existence, in which the strong and cunning get the better of the weak and confiding. . . . Man, they decided, is a social animal like the Indian hunting dog. . . . It seemed right to them that the big dogs of the human pack should bully and subdue.”

Clearly, it is important that we gain a correct view regarding who we really are. For, as one evolutionist asked, “if plain old-fashioned Darwinism . . . sapped the moral strength of Western civilization, what will happen when the new version [of evolutionary psychology] fully sinks in?”

Since what we believe regarding our origins affects our fundamental views on life and on right and wrong, it is vital that we take a close look at this whole question.

In the Image of God or Beast?

THE first man, Adam, was called a “son of God.” (Luke 3:38) No animal has ever enjoyed that distinction. Yet, the Bible shows that humans have a number of things in common with animals. For example, both humans and animals are souls. When God formed Adam, “the man came to be a living soul,” says Genesis 2:7. First Corinthians 15:45 concurs: “The first man Adam became a living soul.” Humans are souls, so the soul is not some shadowy entity that survives the death of the body.

Concerning animals, Genesis 1:24 says: “Let the earth put forth living souls according to their kinds, domestic animal and moving animal and wild beast of the earth according to its kind.” So while dignifying humans by revealing that we were created in God’s image, the Bible also reminds us of our humble status as earthly souls, along with the animals. Yet, there is something else man and beast have in common.

The Bible explains: “There is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies . . . There is no superiority of the man over the beast . . . All are going to one place. They have all come to be from the dust, and they are all returning to the dust.” Yes, in death man and animals are also alike. Both return “to the ground,” “to dust,” from which they came.—Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20; Genesis 3:19.

But why are humans so profoundly distressed by death? Why do we dream of living forever? And why must we have a purpose in life? Surely, we differ greatly from animals!

Where We Differ From Animals

Would you be happy to go through life with no purpose other than to eat, sleep, and reproduce? The thought repels even dedicated evolutionists. “Modern man, this enlightened skeptic and agnostic,” writes evolutionist T. Dobzhansky, “cannot refrain from at least secretly wondering about the old questions: Does my life have some meaning and purpose over and above keeping myself alive and continuing the chain of living? Does the universe in which I live have some meaning?”

Indeed, denying the existence of a Creator does not still man’s quest for a meaning to life. Quoting historian Arnold Toynbee, Richard Leakey writes: “This spiritual endowment of [man] condemns him to a lifelong struggle to reconcile himself with the universe into which he has been born.”

Yet, the fundamental questions about human nature, our origins, and our spirituality persist. A huge gulf obviously exists between man and animals. How great is that gulf?

A Gulf Too Wide to Bridge?

A problem fundamental to the theory of evolution is the vast gulf that separates humans from animals. Really, how vast is it? Consider some of the things that evolutionists themselves have said about it.

A prominent proponent of the evolution theory in the 19th century, Thomas H. Huxley, wrote: “No one is more strongly convinced than I am of the vastness of the gulf between . . . man and the brutes . . . , for he alone possesses the marvelous endowment of intelligible and rational speech [and] . . . stands raised upon it as on a mountain top, far above the level of his humble fellows.”

Evolutionist Michael C. Corballis observes that “there is a striking discontinuity between humans and the other primates . . . ‘Our brain is three times as large as we would expect for a primate of our build.’” And neurologist Richard M. Restak explains: “The [human] brain is the only organ in the known universe that seeks to understand itself.”

Leakey acknowledges: “Consciousness presents scientists with a dilemma, which some believe to be unresolvable. The sense of self-awareness we each experience is so brilliant it illuminates everything we think and do.” He also says: “Language does indeed create a gulf between Homo sapiens [humans] and the rest of the natural world.”

Pointing to another marvel of the human mind, Peter Russell writes: “Memory is undoubtedly one of the most important human faculties. Without it there would be no learning . . . , no intellectual functioning, no development of language, nor any of the qualities . . . generally associated with being human.”

Furthermore, no animal engages in worship. Thus, Edward O. Wilson notes: “The predisposition to religious belief is the most complex and powerful force in the human mind and in all probability an ineradicable part of human nature.”

“Human behavior poses many other Darwinian mysteries,” acknowledges evolutionist Robert Wright. “What are the functions of humor and laughter? Why do people make deathbed confessions? . . . What is the exact function of grief? . . . Now that the person is gone, how does grieving serve the genes?”

The evolutionist Elaine Morgan admits: “Four of the most outstanding mysteries about humans are: (1) why do they walk on two legs? (2) why have they lost their fur? (3) why have they developed such large brains? (4) why did they learn to speak?”

How are these questions answered by evolutionists? Morgan explains: “The orthodox answers to these questions are: (1) ‘We do not yet know’; (2) ‘We do not yet know’; (3) ‘We do not yet know’, and (4) ‘We do not yet know.’”

A Shaky Theory

The writer of the book The Lopsided Ape noted that his aim “was to provide a broad-brush picture of human evolution through time. Many of the conclusions have been speculative, based as they are mainly on a few old teeth, bones, and stones.” Indeed, even Darwin’s own original theory is not accepted by many. Says Richard Leakey: “Darwin’s version of the manner of our evolution dominated the science of anthropology up until a few years ago, and it turned out to be wrong.”

Many evolutionists, according to Elaine Morgan, “have lost confidence in the answers they thought they knew thirty years ago.” Thus, it is not surprising that some of the theories held by evolutionists have collapsed.

Woeful Consequences

Some studies have found that the number of females a male animal mates with is related to the difference in body size between the sexes. From this, some have concluded that human sex habits ought to be similar to those of chimpanzees, since chimp males, like their human counterparts, are just a little larger than the females. So some reason that like chimps, humans should be permitted to have more than one sex partner. And, indeed, many people do.

But what seems to work well for chimps has generally proved to be a disaster for humans. Promiscuity, the facts show, is a road to misery strewn with broken families, abortions, disease, mental and emotional trauma, jealousy, family violence, and abandoned children growing up maladjusted, only to continue the hurtful cycle. If the animal mold is correct, why the pain?

Evolutionary thinking also casts doubt on the sacredness of human life. By what authority is human life sacred if we say there is no God and view ourselves as nothing more than higher animals? Our intellect perhaps? If that were so, then the question raised in the book The Human Difference would be very appropriate: “Is it fair to treat humans as more valuable than dogs and cats just because we had all the [evolutionary] breaks?”

As the newer version of evolutionary thinking spreads, it “will inevitably affect moral thought deeply,” says the book The Moral Animal. But it’s a cruel morality that rests on the premise that we were formed by “natural selection,” through which process, as H. G. Wells put it, “the strong and cunning get the better of the weak and confiding.”

Significantly, many theories of evolutionists that have nibbled away at morality over the years have fallen before the next wave of thinkers. But the tragedy is that the damage such theories have caused remains.

Worship the Creation or the Creator?

Evolution turns one’s eyes down to creation for answers, not up to the Creator. The Bible, on the other hand, turns our eyes up to the true God for our moral values and our purpose in life. It also explains why we have to struggle to avoid wrongdoing and why humans alone are so troubled by death. Moreover, its explanation of why we are inclined to do what is bad rings true in the human mind and heart. We invite you to consider that satisfying explanation.

Looking Up, Not Down, for Answers

EVOLUTION teaches that a series of changes gradually fashioned us into a higher form of animal. On the other hand, the Bible says that we started off perfect, in God’s image, but that shortly thereafter, imperfection was introduced and mankind began a long downhill ride.

Our original parents, Adam and Eve, began this descent when they sought moral independence and wounded their consciences through willful disobedience to God. They deliberately drove, as though in a vehicle, through the protective guardrail of God’s law and plunged down to where we are now, suffering sickness, old age, and death, not to mention racial prejudices, religious hatreds, and horrible wars.—Genesis 2:17; 3:6, 7.

Animal Genes or Flawed Genes?

Of course, the Bible does not explain in scientific language what happened to Adam and Eve’s perfect bodies when they sinned. The Bible is not a science book, just as a car owner’s manual is not a textbook on automotive engineering. But like the owner’s manual, the Bible is accurate; it is not myth.

When Adam and Eve crashed through the protective barrier of God’s law, their organisms were damaged. Thereafter, they began a slow descent toward death. Through the laws of heredity, their children, the human family, inherited imperfection. Thus, they die too.—Job 14:4; Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12.

Sadly, our inheritance includes a tendency toward sin, which surfaces as selfishness and immorality. Sex, of course, is proper in its place. God commanded the first human pair: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth.” (Genesis 1:28) And as a loving Creator, he made fulfilling that command a pleasure for husband and wife. (Proverbs 5:18) But human imperfection has led to the abuse of sex. In fact, imperfection touches every facet of our lives, including the function of our mind and body, as all of us are aware.

But imperfection has not stamped out our moral sense. If we really want to, we can grip the “steering wheel” and avoid life’s pitfalls by fighting the tendency to veer off into sin. Of course, no imperfect human can fight sin with complete success, and God mercifully takes this into account.—Psalm 103:14; Romans 7:21-23.

Why We Don’t Want to Die

The Bible also sheds light on another puzzle that evolution does not satisfactorily explain: the normal human unwillingness to accept death, even though death may seem natural and inevitable.

As the Bible reveals, death was triggered by sin, by disobedience to God. Had our original parents remained obedient, they would have lived forever, along with their children. God, in effect, had programmed the human mind with the desire for eternal life. “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men,” says Ecclesiastes 3:11, according to the New International Version. Their condemnation to death, therefore, raised an internal conflict in humans, a persisting disharmony.

To reconcile this internal conflict and to appease the natural yearning to live on, humans have fabricated all sorts of beliefs, from the doctrine of the immortality of the soul to belief in reincarnation. Scientists peer into the mystery of aging because they too want to ward off death or at least put it off. Atheistic evolutionists dismiss the desire for everlasting life as an evolutionary trick, or deception, because it clashes with their view that humans are simply higher animals. On the other hand, the Bible statement that death is an enemy harmonizes with our natural yearning to live.—1 Corinthians 15:26.

Well, then, do our bodies give any clues that we were meant to live forever? The answer is yes! The human brain alone dazzles us with evidence that we were made to live much longer than we do.

Made to Live Forever

The brain weighs some three pounds [1.4 kg], and it comprises 10 billion to 100 billion neurons, no two of which, it is said, are exactly alike. Each neuron can communicate with up to 200,000 other neurons, making the number of different circuits, or pathways, in the brain astronomical. And as if that were not enough, “each neuron is a sophisticated computer” in itself, says Scientific American.

The brain is bathed in a chemical soup, which influences the way neurons behave. And the brain has a much higher level of complexity than even the most powerful computer. “In every head,” write Tony Buzan and Terence Dixon, “is a formidable powerhouse, a compact, efficient organ whose capacity seems to expand further towards infinity the more we learn of it.” Quoting Professor Pyotr Anokhin, they add: “No man yet exists who can use all the potential of his brain. This is why we don’t accept any pessimistic estimates of the limits of the human brain. It is unlimited.”

These staggering facts fly in the face of the evolution model. Why would evolution “create” for simple cave dwellers, or even for today’s highly educated, an organ with the potential to serve a million or even a billion lifetimes? Truly, only everlasting life makes sense! But what about our body?

The book Repair and Renewal—Journey Through the Mind and Body states: “The way that damaged bones, tissues, and organs patch themselves up is nothing short of miraculous. And if we stopped to think about it, we would find the quiet regeneration of skin and hair and nails—and other parts of the body as well—profoundly astonishing: It goes on 24 hours a day, week in and week out, literally remaking us, biochemically speaking, many times during the course of our lives.”

In God’s due time, it will be no problem for him to keep this miraculous process of self-renewal going indefinitely. Then, at last, “death [will] be brought to nothing.” (1 Corinthians 15:26) But to be truly happy, we need more than everlasting life. We need peace—peace with God and with our fellow humans. Such peace can be realized only if people truly love one another.

A New World Based on Love

“God is love,” says 1 John 4:8. So powerful is love—especially the love of Jehovah God—that it is the underlying reason why we can hope to live forever. “God loved the world so much,” says John 3:16, “that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.”

Everlasting life! What a marvelous prospect! But since we have inherited sin, we have no right to life. “The wages sin pays is death,” the Bible says. (Romans 6:23) Happily, though, love moved God’s Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our behalf. The apostle John wrote of Jesus: “That one surrendered his soul for us.” (1 John 3:16) Yes, he gave his perfect human life as “a ransom in exchange for many” so that we who exercise faith in him might have our sins canceled and enjoy everlasting life. (Matthew 20:28) The Bible explains: “God sent forth his only-begotten Son into the world that we might gain life through him.”—1 John 4:9.

How, then, should we respond to the love that God and his Son have shown for us? The Bible continues: “Beloved ones, if this is how God loved us, then we are ourselves under obligation to love one another.” (1 John 4:11) We must learn to love, for that quality will be the cornerstone of God’s new world. Today many have come to appreciate the importance of love, even as it is emphasized by Jehovah God in his Word, the Bible.

The book Love and Its Place in Nature noted that without love “children tend to die.” Yet, that need for love does not end when people grow older. A leading anthropologist noted that love “stands at the center of all human needs just as our sun stands at the center of our solar system . . . The child who has not been loved is biochemically, physiologically, and psychologically very different from the one who has been loved. The former even grows differently from the latter.”

Can you imagine what life will be like when all on earth truly love one another? Why, never again will anyone harbor prejudice because a person is of a different nationality, is a member of another race, or has a skin color different from his own! Under the administration of God’s appointed King, Jesus Christ, the earth will be filled with peace and love, in fulfillment of the inspired Bible psalm:

“O God, give your own judicial decisions to the king . . . Let him judge the afflicted ones of the people, let him save the sons of the poor one, and let him crush the defrauder. . . . In his days the righteous one will sprout, and the abundance of peace until the moon is no more. And he will have subjects from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. For he will deliver the poor one crying for help, also the afflicted one and whoever has no helper. He will feel sorry for the lowly one and the poor one, and the souls of the poor ones he will save.”—Psalm 72:1, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13.

The wicked will not be allowed to live in God’s new world, even as is promised in another Bible psalm: “Evildoers themselves will be cut off, but those hoping in Jehovah are the ones that will possess the earth. And just a little while longer, and the wicked one will be no more; and you will certainly give attention to his place, and he will not be. But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.”—Psalm 37:9-11.

Then, the minds and bodies of all obedient humans, including those raised from the grave by a resurrection from the dead, will have been healed. Eventually, everyone alive will perfectly reflect the image of God. At long last the great struggle to do what is right will be over. The disharmony between our yearning for life and the present harsh reality of death will be over too! Yes, this is the certain promise of our loving God: “Death will be no more.”—Revelation 21:4; Acts 24:15.

May you, therefore, never give up in the battle to do what is right. Heed the divine admonition: “Fight the fine fight of the faith, get a firm hold on the everlasting life.” That life in God’s new world is what the Bible calls “the real life.”—1 Timothy 6:12, 19.

May you come to appreciate the truth expressed in the Bible: “Jehovah is God. It is he that has made us, and not we ourselves.” Appreciating that truth is a vital step toward qualifying for life in Jehovah’s new world of love and righteousness.—Psalm 100:3; 2 Peter 3:13.