Are Monkeys Our Cousins?

It’s About More Than Liking Bananas

Perhaps you have visited zoos and noticed a sign directing people to “Your Primate Cousins.” Most zoos and science museums are evolutionary in their thinking and presentations. As those who recognize the obvious differences between humans and apes because we know we are created very specially in the image of God, we resent these signs. Genesis 1:27 clearly states and was confirmed by the words of none other than Jesus Christ himself,

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Those who have been taught evolution, and unfortunately believe it, have imagined (and that’s all it is, imagination), an ancient creature from whom both humans and apes diverged separately. The problem with this fictitious imaginary idea is that there is absolutely NO EVIDENCE TO SHOW THAT SUCH A CREATURE EVER EXISTED! The truth accepted by most scientists who are honest, is that bones found by paleontologists and claimed to be ancient to the extent of up to three million years, have been proven to be either COMPLETELY HUMAN OR COMPLETELY APE.

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the incredible code of information found in the trillions of cells in humans and in different quantities of all biological life. There are similarities in the DNA between many forms of life which do not reveal evidence that they evolved from one another. But Charles Darwin’s fanciful idea was that all living organisms on this planet did evolve from one original living cell. Biologist Dr. David Menton wrote the following:

“Perhaps the most bitter pill to swallow for any Christian who attempts to ‘make peace’ with Darwin is the presumed ape ancestry of man. Even many Christians who uncritically accept evolution as ‘God’s way of creating’ try to somehow elevate the origin of man, or at least his soul, above that of the beasts.

“Evolutionists attempt to soften the blow by assuring us that man didn’t exactly evolve from apes (tailless monkeys) but rather from apelike creatures.

“This is mere semantics, however, as many of the presumed apelike ancestors of man are apes and have scientific names, which include the word pithecus (derived from the Greek meaning “ape”). 

“The much-touted ‘human ancestor’ commonly known as “Lucy,” for example, has the scientific name Australopithecus afarensis (meaning ‘southern ape from the Afar triangle of Ethiopia’). But what does the Bible say about the origin of man, and what exactly is the scientific evidence that evolutionists claim for our ape ancestry?” ¹

The answer to Dr. Menton’s question is that there is no empirical scientific evidence to confirm that humans and apes evolved from the same supposedly prehuman and pre-ape source. Frost Smith, for Answers in Genesis ministry writes:

“Looking at the numbers of actual bases puts the problem in even clearer light. Conservatively, if the human genome is over 3,000,000,000 base pairs, and the difference is 20%, that is 600,000,000 base pair differences just between humans and chimps! 

“That adds up to a lot of evolution when you consider all the organisms in the kingdoms of life— that couldn’t happen even in 6 billion years, especially considering the changes that are kept have to be viable, too!” ²

Putting it simply, DNA is crucial to all life organisms. It is information that is immaterial and therefore cannot come from any prebiotic sea or matter. It is information that has to have its origin in a mind. Whose mind could that be? It has to be a mind omnisciently superior to any other. In fact, we believe it is perfectly logical and acceptable philosophically to say that a Creator of all life supernaturally created DNA. This makes sense. The false idea of evolution does not.

While it is obvious that there are some physical resemblances between humans and apes, such similarity does not in any way prove that we descended from the same ancestor. We also notice things like the following:

Why do monkeys never need a haircut?

Why don’t monkeys build cathedrals, do calculus, build spaceships to go to the moon, and write poetry? But they do pick bugs off of each other and eat them.

Chimpanzees have prehensile big toes and can swing from their feet.

What happened to human tails? There are no examples of transitional tails. 

Gorillas have 48 chromosomes, and we have 46. But potatoes have more.

Humans have white around the pupil of the eye, Apes do not.

Apes can never read a book or type meaningful sentences on a computer, etc.

There should be no doubt about it. The Bible is the best source of information to understand the biological foundation of all living organisms. Humans are very special because we are created to have a personal relationship with the Creator through Jesus Christ. What a privilege!