Concerns over recent Chimp study...

[derrick09]

Hello apologists, I was wanting to see if you all had any good responses to this article....http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 8397.story
This article claims that chimps mourn the loss of relatives much like humans do. I am concerned because a few months back Hugh Ross listed a couple of scientific things that he thought if were proven, would indeed disprove Christian theism. Those two things were if the universe was eternal and the second one (the one I'm concerned about here) is the concept that humans are no different than other animals. Do any of you all here think that this has been demonstrated in a solid manner yet? Also, does this add to the case that we evolved from apelike creatures? Anyways, I thank you all for your time and responses. God bless.

[RickD]

Hello apologists, I was wanting to see if you all had any good responses to this article....http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 8397.story
This article claims that chimps mourn the loss of relatives much like humans do. I am concerned because a few months back Hugh Ross listed a couple of scientific things that he thought if were proven, would indeed disprove Christian theism. Those two things were if the universe was eternal and the second one (the one I'm concerned about here) is the concept that humans are no different than other animals. Do any of you all here think that this has been demonstrated in a solid manner yet? Also, does this add to the case that we evolved from apelike creatures? Anyways, I thank you all for your time and responses. God bless.

Animals don't have a spirit that longs for a relationship with their creator. Humans have the need for a spiritual relationship that animals don't. I do believe that if animals and humans aren't different, then I couldn't believe that man was created in God's image.

[ChrisB]

A number of animals, like elephants, sea lions, and dolphins, all mourn their dead. It's no surprise that chimps would too.

The universe being eternal (continuously creating) was popular with the Steady State Theory of the 1950's, before the discovery of Cosmic Microwave Backround Radiation:

"Although the model had a large number of supporters among cosmologists in the 1950s and 1960s, the number of supporters decreased markedly in the late 1960s with the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and today only a very small number of supporters remain.The key importance of the steady-state model is that as a competitor to the Big Bang, it was an impetus in generating some of the most important research in astrophysics, much of which ultimately ended up supporting the Big Bang theory." ~Wikipedia

For the how we differ from animals, go here.

^Neither of these would or could disprove Christianity. Christianity itself either rises or falls with the Resurrection of Jesus.

To quote myself...

There are a few facts about the Resurrection I'd like to make clear:

- Jesus really was dead. (John 19:34)
- The tomb of Jesus was sealed with a huge stone. (Matthew 27:66)
- There was a guard of soldiers placed there to prevent theft (or a resurrection). Specifically, it was a Roman guard (Matthew 28:14) which consisted of four soldiers. These soldiers would never have been sleeping, since the penalty for sleeping on the job was death.
- The stone itself was sealed with a Roman seal, and to enter the tomb one would have to break the seal, the penalty for which was death.
- The handkerchief formerly over Christ's head was "folded together in a place by itself." (John 20:7) This alone makes the idea of theft impossible.
- When Christ was arrested, His disciples forsook Him. (Mark 14:50)
- His disciples were unaware of the fact that He was to rise again from the dead. (John 20:9)
- The Jewish priests bribed the soldiers into saying that Jesus' disciples stole His body, thereby admitting the tomb was empty. (Matthew 28:12-13)
- Most of the disciples themselves did not believe it when they heard it (Luke 24:11). Out of them all, only John believed, and that was only after he saw the empty tomb for himself. (John 20:8)

To add to this... Jesus was out and about for 40 days after His resurrection. He appeared numerous times to each of His disciples, and at one time even appeared to more than 500 people at once. If He had not really risen, then the Jewish leaders could have simply paraded His body through the streets, effectively crushing Christianity in its infancy. Every naturalistic theory attempting to explain the Resurrection away falls short of credibility.

I hope this helps.

[derrick09]

Thank you all that helped alot. You all are great, I love you guys, God bless.

[zoegirl]

I think there is fundamentally a difference between grieving and experiencing emotions and processing these emotions. Plenty of animals miss people, experience a sort of depression one member of the group dies....dogs will seem to grieve at owners dying and at others dogs being "gone". Elephants go even farther and will pick up the skeletal remains of the deceased elephant in recognition.

Emotions in and of themselves do not place us in with animals.

[Enginseer]

The Creationist Theory requires that such things like Evolution are never seen as fact, which is becoming increasingly difficult.

Yet disproving the a Christian god it cannot.

Many people have known that sympathy and empathy are just advanced emotions. Elephants have mourned the loss of their dead for centuries.

[Gman]

The Creationist Theory requires that such things like Evolution are never seen as fact, which is becoming increasingly difficult.

Not exactly... There is also micro-evolution that can be seen as factual, the leap of faith, however, is macro-evolution. Then there is theistic evolution, so creationists are not entirely repudiating evolution..