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Apes don't speak
Patrick Rolands/ shutterstock
Winthrop Kellogg was a psychologist best known for his study 'The Ape and the Child' published in 1933. In 1931 he and his wife Luella had invited into their family a young female chimpanzee named Gua,
7 1/2 months old, to be with their own child, 10 month old Donald.
The two were raised and treated the same in every respect and their development recorded in great detail. The intention was 'to explore the boundaries between
human and animal development' – and so it did!
'A chimp could learn to use utensils, mime affection or even understand spoken commands, but she could not cross the threshold into human speech or higher order reasoning.... A chimpanzee could be taught to live like a child, but not to think or speak like one. In this way the study offered both a confirmation of nature's power and a reminder of nature's boundaries'. edubox tutor.com
An experiment somewhat later in the 1950s spent six years trying to teach a chimp (Vika) to talk. The end result: a chimp vocabulary of just four words, 'mamma, papa, cup and up', sometimes used incorrectly.
This interest in chimpanzees was of course driven by the popular version of the evolution story. Charles Darwin never mentioned monkeys as human ancestors, but the link was assumed and remains to this day. Apes, they say, are our nearest relatives.
In 1967 Desmond Morris published his highly influential work
'The Naked Ape'. The title speaks for itself; scratch or shave an ape, and you have a human in waiting. 'He gave us a picture of who we really are' wrote Robin Dunbar.
Then along came DNA
With a newfound ability to decode the complete genome, National Geographic announced that human DNA was only about 1.3% different to the monkey's. But science moves on, and DNA is not the simple code we thought it was. As I write, figures of nearer 12% are being discussed, but more important, as we understand the ways that genes can be switched on and off, we now know such figures are simplistic and meaningless – the same DNA can code for very different features.
Meanwhile bands of anthropologists and palaeontologists are beavering away assembling their fragmentary fossils into some kind of evolutionary sequence. Each 'new' find stirs up controversy and changes the story.
Forget the theories – what do we know?
There are many obvious differences between apes and humans today, and evolution has to bridge the enormous gulf between the two. One difference stands out:
The power of speech
It's not a problem for most of us, but speech is demanding.
Here are some of the physical and intellectual features required:
structure of throat and mouth – The ape's throat is much shallower than a human's and this severely restricts the type of sound an ape can make; precise vowel sounds are impossible. The arched roof of the human mouth resonates to refine the sound that emerges.
musculature – there are an estimated 100 muscles involved in controlling the shape of the human vocal cords and vocal tract, and these can be employed instantly and with little effort. Lips and tongue are uniquely agile in shaping many consonant sounds (talk to yourself in a mirror and observe!). Apes have nothing like this degree of control over their voices and diction. They don't need it!
thinkpalm.com
the brain – the human has specialist areas of the brain dedicated to the processing of speech, but the ape does not. This includes an amazing ability to learn and recall words. There are more than one million words in the English language, with a pool of about 100.000 used everyday and, of course, these figures expand rapidly if you speak several languages. An ape has only the simplest of vocal sounds to indicate basic needs, sound warnings etc. If it could speak, what would it have to say? (You may need to forget a range of popular films where apes dominate humans! – note the power of the evolution story). Close observation has confirmed that apes are incapable of abstract thought of any kind (see above).
language – even our inmost thoughts are couched in language. Where did language come from? Despite all the research and wishful thinking, the origin of language defies evolutionary explanation.
speed of processing – the human can speak at a rough average speed of almost two hundred words a minute, or 12,000 words an hour, with all the information retrieval and muscle movements which that requires. How long can he keep going? Good question!...
Americans can speak
The American political system allows for a tactic known as the 'filibuster', in which a piece of legislation may be held up and/or cancelled simply by an opponent talking for long enough to prevent its progress. On March 31 of this year ('25) a 'naked ape' (senator Cory Booker– see photo) stood up and began a speech critiquing the program of the new President. A team of research assistants provided him with fresh material as he pressed on. He eventually sat down a day later to great applause, having spoken for 25 hours and five minutes!
What did Booker have in common with Gua the chimpanzee of the 1931 experiment?
Can you really believe that there is a continuous Darwinian evolutionary pathway between the ancestral chimp and the senator – accidental and hugely improbable, but somehow supplying all the physical gifts, language, intelligence and drive that made his speech possible? The evidence is zero.
SPEECH – a GIFT of GOD
The Genesis account of creation says that God 'spoke' the world into existence:
'And God said, "Let there be..."
is the repeated refrain of Genesis chapter 1.
So the word of God went forth, and the creation took shape.
When God came to form Adam, uniquely He made Adam 'in His image', and gave him His own gift of speech, which distinguished Adam from every other creature that God had made. Where we are like apes, it is because we share the same Designer and Maker. Where we are like God, it is because God chose to make us so.
We talk, we listen, we think, we memorise, we write, we sing, we pray and worship – and we choose, life or death.
'Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honoured his name.
"They will be mine", says the LORD Almighty...' Malachi 3:16
References:
'The Design and Origin of Man' Stuart Burgess Day One Publications
'A Challenge to Theistic Evolution' pages 132–140 S. Perfitt & L. Broughton Dawn Christadelphian Publications
