Gorillas, Endangerment, and Evolutionary Morality | The Institute for Creation Research

Gorillas, Endangerment, and Evolutionary Morality

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) revealed their latest Red List of Threatened Species at their World Conservation Congress in Hawaii on September 4, 2016. There, thousands of scientists and celebrities discussed recently extinct plants and others nearing extinction, but the primate declines grabbed the headlines.1 Two of the three great-ape kinds are rapidly shrinking. Illegal hunting continues to diminish the now "critically endangered" gorillas and orangutans, while chimpanzees are listed as merely "endangered." Why should these losses sadden those concerned?

IUCN Director General Inger Andersen told IUCN News, "To see the Eastern gorilla—one of our closest cousins—slide towards extinction is truly distressing."

"Closest cousins" refers to the supposed evolutionary relationship humans and gorillas share by having descended from the same primate ancestor somewhere in the last ten million years. Therefore, in Director Anderson's view, humans were not made by God in the image of God. Instead, mankind represents a less-hairy hominid that evolved from an unknown ape-like creature.

If we are all products of evolution, then what basis do humans have for real morality? Does Inger Anderson's lament go beyond mere sentiment? On what evolutionary mooring would she base her great distress about great-ape extinction?

The Bible says God made humans in His image, and this includes our shared knowledge of good and evil—an intrinsic knowledge called conscience placed into humans from the beginning. But good and evil have no place in evolutionary thinking, which strictly embraces survival and sees death as a means for the best life forms to survive.

If evolution made humans as mere advanced animals, then morality is an illusion that brains create to somehow aid their species' survival. In other words, why do those who say that the physical universe consists merely of matter and energy react to threatened species as though moral laws that protect those species also exist?

Metaphysical realities like the intrinsic value of human life, love, truthfulness, good, evil, and even math and logic, have no root in our culture's materialistic view of reality.2 So on what moral basis does Ms. Andersen find extinction "truly distressing?"

Extinction should cause concern. But that concern comes from a Christian view of the world in which God ordained mankind to care for His creation. Did the actual image of God, including the knowledge of right and wrong and deep-seated emotions like concern or distress, come out of Inger Anderson's mouth in the same breath as her implicit denial of that very image?

Evolutionarily, if an animal can't cut it—if it can't adapt fast enough to survive—then in a sense it doesn't deserve to survive. But in reality, each plant and animal holds inherent value as God's creation. Every extinct animal therefore represents a lost opportunity to study those attributes of the Creator that He instilled into that creature.

Why should illegally hunting endangered animals distress those who believe that the physical universe is all that there is? That mindset offers no answer beyond personal preference. In contrast, those who attribute lasting value to God's creations have a real basis for concern.

References

  1. Four out of six great apes one step away from extinction. IUCN Red List. Posted on iucn.org September 4, 2016, accessed September 7, 2016. 
  2. Plantinga, A. 2004. Evolution, Epiphenomenalism, Reductionism. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. LXVIII (3): 602-619.

*Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on September 26, 2016.

The Latest
CREATION PODCAST
Homo Naledi: The Lies Behind Evolution's Rising Star | The Creation...
Homo naledi, once evolution's 'rising star,' was considered to be a prime example of human evolution. But is it really proof? Or...

NEWS
A Subsurface Ocean on Mimas?
Scientists have analyzed data obtained from the Cassini spacecraft and concluded that irregularities in the orbit of Saturn’s moon Mimas indicate...

NEWS
In Theaters March 20 & 21: The Ark and the Darkness
Is Genesis true? What about Noah’s Flood? How did Noah fit the animals on the ark? Wasn’t it a local flood? Have you asked these questions? Though...

NEWS
Enigmatic Fossil Plants
The pre-Flood world thousands of years ago was unlike the world of today.1 Unfamiliar animals and plants were common, and there were a lot...

NEWS
Surprisingly Colorful Fossil Snail Shells
Finding organic compounds such as flexible dinosaur collagen and complete bone cells1,2 is becoming common, much to the shock and consternation...

NEWS
March 2024 ICR Wallpaper
"He is not here; for He is risen, as He said." (Matthew 28:6 NKJV) ICR March 2024 wallpaper is now available for mobile, tablet,...

CREATION PODCAST
Homo Erectus: The Shocking Truth About the "Ape Man"...
Homo erectus, or "Upright Man," has been upheld as a piece of mankind's "evolutionary history" since its discovery in 1891....

NEWS
Mystery of Moths' Warning Sound
Insects of all types continue to amaze entomologists with their design and physiology. Cleveland Hickman, Jr., et al. stated, “insect ears are...

NEWS
Geneticist Fired for Affirming Humans Once Lived 900 Years?
Geneticist Alexander Kudryavtsev, the head of the Russian Academy of Science’s Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, has been fired, reportedly...

ACTS & FACTS
Creation Kids: Solar Eclipses
Designed by Susan Windsor* You're never too young to be a creation scientist and explore our Creator's world. Kids, discover fun facts...