Monkeys as Intelligent as College Students?

Colossians 4:6
“Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”

Evolutionists claim that human intelligence began to develop when early man invented language. Genesis tells us that human language began when Adam named the animals. Names – that is, nouns – are the first requirement for language, but this must be preceded by intelligence. Creationists have always viewed both language and intelligence as gifts from God.

New research disproves the old evolutionary idea. Of course, we use language to test human intelligence using, say, a series of cards. Researchers at Columbia University did something similar with rhesus macaques. They sat the monkeys in front of computers with touch screens. The screens showed seven photographs that were not in sequential order. After learning how to place the photographs in order, the monkeys did just that for a banana pellet. This task involves both memory and logic. The monkeys quickly became good at ordering the photos. As they were shown new pictures, they showed that they could apply what they had learned to new problems. What’s more, they learned the task as quickly as a control group made up of college students!

Since the monkeys in this experiment don’t use language and they clearly possess memory and logic, language cannot be the source of our intelligence. A better explanation is that both language and intelligence are the gifts of God, given us by the Word Who created us.

Prayer:
Father, thank You for the gifts of language and intelligence. Help me to always use these gifts to Your glory. Amen.

Notes:
Discover, 6/03, p. 13, Jocelyn Selim, “The Smart, Speechless Types.” Photo: Courtesy of Einar Fredriksen. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.