15 The Ape’s Reflection?
The Only Transition That Really Matters
We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble quali-
ties, still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
—Charles Darwin, The Descent of ManThroughout the second half of this book, we have documented example after example
of transitional forms in everything from microfossils to mollusks to mammals. We could con-
tinue to do this for hundreds of pages more, but it wouldn’t really make a difference to the
creationists or to those who are confused and misled by them. The only transition that really
matters is, of course, the evolution of humans. Many creationists readily concede many of
the examples we have just discussed as evolution as just variation within “created kinds,”
although we have documented many examples of macroevolutionary changes that exceed
anyone’s definitions of “kinds.” But to many people, those are just stories about critters.
They only care about humans and whether or not we are specially created in God’s image
or “just another ape.”
The idea that we might be related to apes was shocking when it was first proposed after
On the Origin of the Species was published in 1859. Darwin deliberately avoided the subject
in his already controversial book and finally dealt with it near the end of his life with The
Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). Thomas Henry Huxley, however, was
not afraid of offending the sensibilities of the Victorians and boldly published Zoological
Evidences of Man’s Place in Nature in 1863, with explicit diagrams showing the detailed skel-
etal similarities between humans and the great apes. Nevertheless, because of the strong
religious beliefs of the nineteenth century, most people still refused to accept the idea. They
were horrified to look into the mirror and see an image of themselves as an ape (fig. 15.1).
As the years have passed, however, the gulf between humans and the rest of the apes has
narrowed considerably. Instead of the old “screaming hooting monkey” stereotype, we have
discovered just how similar the apes are to humans. Decades of field research by pioneer-
ing anthropologists like Jane Goodall with the chimpanzees and the late Dian Fossey with
the mountain gorillas have demystified these majestic creatures and surprised us with their
amazing behavioral similarities to humans. Both chimpanzees and gorillas can learn sign
language, communicate in simple sentences, and make and use simple tools. Their societies
are very sophisticated compared with those of any other animal and show us many insights
into the complexities of human societies as well. Over a century of research by hundreds of
anthropologists has documented more and more connections between apes and humans. In
nearly every other westernized country, polls show that a majority of educated people no
longer object to the idea that humans and apes are related or at least have come to terms with
the fact that humans are part of the animal kingdom and a part of nature as well, not above it.