Are Humans Animals? Depends on Your Worldview!
Matthew 15:7-9
7 You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you:
8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.
9 ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”
To say that it’s an interesting time in our Nation’s history or that politics doesn’t interest me very much would be a massive understatement. But, sometimes things are so crazy that you’ve just got to speak up. By the way, before we get into to this, let me say that this isn’t political. If anybody’s words are twisted and taken out of context we should be willing to speak out against it.
I’m sure you heard the uproar over President Donald Trump recently calling gang members, “animals.” If not, here are comments he made in a discussion about gang members coming into America on May 16:
“We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — and we’re stopping a lot of them — but we’re taking people out of the country. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals. And we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before. And because of the weak laws, they come in fast, we get them, we release them, we get them again, we bring them out. It’s crazy.[1]
The next day, an outraged House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said:
“We believe some of us who are attracted to the political arena and to government and public service that we’re all God’s children. There’s a spark of divinity in every person on Earth and that we all have to recognize that as we respect the dignity and worth of every person. … And so when the president of the United States says about undocumented immigrants, ‘these aren’t people, these are animals,’ you have to wonder, does he not believe in the spark of divinity? The dignity and worth of every person? ‘These are not people, these are animals,’ the president of the United States. … Calling people ‘animals’ is not a good thing.”[1]
First, please notice her subtle twisting of the context. The fact that she didn’t acknowledge that President Trump was commenting about a very specific group of notoriously brutal illegal immigrants, and applied his comments to ALL illegal immigrants shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Secondly, when I read the Speaker’s comments that, “we’re all God’s children” and that “there’s a spark of divinity in every person on Earth,” the hypocrisy was overwhelming. These statements don’t line up with her stance on other issues, specifically abortion. If you care to check out her voting record on abortion you’ll see very quickly that her support of “all God’s children” stops when said child is in the mother’s womb.
Most recently she voted against a bill that prohibits abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy except in cases of the life of the mother, rape or incest.[2] So much for all of us having a “spark of divinity” and being worthy of not being called a name. If she’s so concerned about dignity why not give the child the dignity of living instead of being slaughtered in just as inhumane manner as the gang members are doing to people?
I did some more looking around and found where many others jumped on the bandwagon of disdain for President Trump’s remarks. On Twitter Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said:
“When all of your great-great-grandparents came to America they weren’t ‘animals,’ and these people aren’t either,”[3]
Rep. Joe Crowley in an interview on TV stated that:
“Calling any human being an animal, regardless of what they’re about, we want to get rid of them, we want them out of the country, they’re still human beings. They’re still human beings.”[4]
By the way, both Senator Chuck Shumer[5] and Rep. Joe Crowley[6] hold the same position as House Minority Leader Pelosi on the abortion issue. Where’s their desire to protect human life there?
When I see political leaders grandstanding like this I’m reminded of what God told us in Luke 20:46-47:
46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, 47 who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”
Let me be the first to admit that we’re all inconsistent in one way or the other, but to claim the moral high ground by supporting a group that murders and rapes for power over others but won’t protect the unborn is absurd. That’s the ultimate in hypocrisy.
I write the following so you can understand the type of people they’re so concerned about being called a bad name are. Last year in Washington, D.C., members of this gang stabbed a man more than 100 times in the park, cut off his head, and then carved out his heart just for good measure. That’s just one example. By the way, this is very similar to what is done to the unborn child when they are killed in the name of “choice”!
And it’s not just politicians who were offended. On Twitter singer John Legend stated:
“Even human beings who commit heinous acts are the same species as us, not ‘animals.’” I’m in the hospital with our new son. Any of these babies here could end up committing terrible crimes in the future. It’s easy, once they’ve done so, to distance ourselves from their humanity”[7]
Writer Julianne Hing in her article entitled, “Gang Members Are Not ‘Animals’” wrote:
“As a member of the media, I will now attempt to do exactly that. The first point is the most basic: Members of MS-13 are people. Even those affiliated with a transnational gang guilty of gruesome violence. Even those who were born in Central America. Even those who don’t speak English. To forget that is to take a step toward dehumanization and the easy rationalization of so much worse.”[8]
So, here’s the problem. I guarantee every one of the above individuals would not only support the teaching of evolution in the public school system, but they would fully endorse and believe it without question themselves.
IF, and I do say IF, evolution is true, then ALL humans are animals. If you don’t believe me, here are just a few quotes.
Annalee Newitz in her article entitled, “Yes, Humans Are Animals – So Just Get Over Yourselves, Homo sapiens” wrote:
“Even though you are reading this on a sophisticated electronic device, you are an animal. That’s the most radical idea to come out of Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking studies of evolution, and even today, it still freaks people out.”[9]
Tom Bartlett on “The Chronicle Of Higher Education” website in an article entitled, “Humans Are Animals: 8-Year-Old vs. Misinformed Teacher” wrote:
My friend’s 8-year-old son had an interesting day at school recently. During science class, the teacher—who it should be noted, was a substitute—asked the third graders to name the habitat of an animal of their choice: the sea for sharks, trees for squirrels, etc. My friend’s son picked a house because, as he explained to the teacher, human beings are animals too. The teacher corrected him. Humans, she said, are not animals. “Yeah, they are,” the boy replied. “No, they’re not,” she told him, as he recalled later in an interview. “I go by the Bible.”
I don’t think the Bible is clear on this classification, but that’s beside the point. The boy did not back down, continuing to insist that humans are, in fact, animals, a fact he learned years ago from his parents, who told him about evolution. Not content with dispensing inaccurate information, the teacher referred to him as “the professor” for the rest of the day. Because there’s nothing like a supposed educator mocking a third grader for being smart.
“It goes without saying that all of us are part of the kingdom Animalia, even grievously misinformed and mildly obnoxious substitute teachers.” [10]
I can hear you, you’re saying, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, I’ve never heard of these guys.” Fair enough. How about Charles Darwin, have you ever heard of him? In “The Descent of Man” he wrote:
“There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties” and that all the differences are “of degree, not of kind”.[11]
And this is nothing. A superficial search will show many articles confirming this point. Here’s just a few:
“Humans are nowhere near as special as we like to think” Melissa Hogenboom
“We’re the Only Animals With Chins, and No One Knows Why” Ed Yong
“Humans Are Animals, Too: A Whirlwind Tour of Cognitive Biology” Alexandra Michel
And just for fun, here’s a couple of examples directed at the younger generation:
7 You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you:
8 ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.
9 ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”
To say that it’s an interesting time in our Nation’s history or that politics doesn’t interest me very much would be a massive understatement. But, sometimes things are so crazy that you’ve just got to speak up. By the way, before we get into to this, let me say that this isn’t political. If anybody’s words are twisted and taken out of context we should be willing to speak out against it.
I’m sure you heard the uproar over President Donald Trump recently calling gang members, “animals.” If not, here are comments he made in a discussion about gang members coming into America on May 16:
“We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — and we’re stopping a lot of them — but we’re taking people out of the country. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals. And we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before. And because of the weak laws, they come in fast, we get them, we release them, we get them again, we bring them out. It’s crazy.[1]
The next day, an outraged House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said:
“We believe some of us who are attracted to the political arena and to government and public service that we’re all God’s children. There’s a spark of divinity in every person on Earth and that we all have to recognize that as we respect the dignity and worth of every person. … And so when the president of the United States says about undocumented immigrants, ‘these aren’t people, these are animals,’ you have to wonder, does he not believe in the spark of divinity? The dignity and worth of every person? ‘These are not people, these are animals,’ the president of the United States. … Calling people ‘animals’ is not a good thing.”[1]
First, please notice her subtle twisting of the context. The fact that she didn’t acknowledge that President Trump was commenting about a very specific group of notoriously brutal illegal immigrants, and applied his comments to ALL illegal immigrants shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Secondly, when I read the Speaker’s comments that, “we’re all God’s children” and that “there’s a spark of divinity in every person on Earth,” the hypocrisy was overwhelming. These statements don’t line up with her stance on other issues, specifically abortion. If you care to check out her voting record on abortion you’ll see very quickly that her support of “all God’s children” stops when said child is in the mother’s womb.
Most recently she voted against a bill that prohibits abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy except in cases of the life of the mother, rape or incest.[2] So much for all of us having a “spark of divinity” and being worthy of not being called a name. If she’s so concerned about dignity why not give the child the dignity of living instead of being slaughtered in just as inhumane manner as the gang members are doing to people?
I did some more looking around and found where many others jumped on the bandwagon of disdain for President Trump’s remarks. On Twitter Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said:
“When all of your great-great-grandparents came to America they weren’t ‘animals,’ and these people aren’t either,”[3]
Rep. Joe Crowley in an interview on TV stated that:
“Calling any human being an animal, regardless of what they’re about, we want to get rid of them, we want them out of the country, they’re still human beings. They’re still human beings.”[4]
By the way, both Senator Chuck Shumer[5] and Rep. Joe Crowley[6] hold the same position as House Minority Leader Pelosi on the abortion issue. Where’s their desire to protect human life there?
When I see political leaders grandstanding like this I’m reminded of what God told us in Luke 20:46-47:
46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, 47 who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”
Let me be the first to admit that we’re all inconsistent in one way or the other, but to claim the moral high ground by supporting a group that murders and rapes for power over others but won’t protect the unborn is absurd. That’s the ultimate in hypocrisy.
I write the following so you can understand the type of people they’re so concerned about being called a bad name are. Last year in Washington, D.C., members of this gang stabbed a man more than 100 times in the park, cut off his head, and then carved out his heart just for good measure. That’s just one example. By the way, this is very similar to what is done to the unborn child when they are killed in the name of “choice”!
And it’s not just politicians who were offended. On Twitter singer John Legend stated:
“Even human beings who commit heinous acts are the same species as us, not ‘animals.’” I’m in the hospital with our new son. Any of these babies here could end up committing terrible crimes in the future. It’s easy, once they’ve done so, to distance ourselves from their humanity”[7]
Writer Julianne Hing in her article entitled, “Gang Members Are Not ‘Animals’” wrote:
“As a member of the media, I will now attempt to do exactly that. The first point is the most basic: Members of MS-13 are people. Even those affiliated with a transnational gang guilty of gruesome violence. Even those who were born in Central America. Even those who don’t speak English. To forget that is to take a step toward dehumanization and the easy rationalization of so much worse.”[8]
So, here’s the problem. I guarantee every one of the above individuals would not only support the teaching of evolution in the public school system, but they would fully endorse and believe it without question themselves.
IF, and I do say IF, evolution is true, then ALL humans are animals. If you don’t believe me, here are just a few quotes.
Annalee Newitz in her article entitled, “Yes, Humans Are Animals – So Just Get Over Yourselves, Homo sapiens” wrote:
“Even though you are reading this on a sophisticated electronic device, you are an animal. That’s the most radical idea to come out of Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking studies of evolution, and even today, it still freaks people out.”[9]
Tom Bartlett on “The Chronicle Of Higher Education” website in an article entitled, “Humans Are Animals: 8-Year-Old vs. Misinformed Teacher” wrote:
My friend’s 8-year-old son had an interesting day at school recently. During science class, the teacher—who it should be noted, was a substitute—asked the third graders to name the habitat of an animal of their choice: the sea for sharks, trees for squirrels, etc. My friend’s son picked a house because, as he explained to the teacher, human beings are animals too. The teacher corrected him. Humans, she said, are not animals. “Yeah, they are,” the boy replied. “No, they’re not,” she told him, as he recalled later in an interview. “I go by the Bible.”
I don’t think the Bible is clear on this classification, but that’s beside the point. The boy did not back down, continuing to insist that humans are, in fact, animals, a fact he learned years ago from his parents, who told him about evolution. Not content with dispensing inaccurate information, the teacher referred to him as “the professor” for the rest of the day. Because there’s nothing like a supposed educator mocking a third grader for being smart.
“It goes without saying that all of us are part of the kingdom Animalia, even grievously misinformed and mildly obnoxious substitute teachers.” [10]
I can hear you, you’re saying, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, I’ve never heard of these guys.” Fair enough. How about Charles Darwin, have you ever heard of him? In “The Descent of Man” he wrote:
“There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties” and that all the differences are “of degree, not of kind”.[11]
And this is nothing. A superficial search will show many articles confirming this point. Here’s just a few:
“Humans are nowhere near as special as we like to think” Melissa Hogenboom
“We’re the Only Animals With Chins, and No One Knows Why” Ed Yong
“Humans Are Animals, Too: A Whirlwind Tour of Cognitive Biology” Alexandra Michel
And just for fun, here’s a couple of examples directed at the younger generation:
Where are all of the offended political leaders, writers and singers when virtually EVERY science class in secular as well as “Christian” educational institutions across the nation teach that humans are animals? I’ll answer that, “NOWHERE to be seen or heard!”
What you believe about where you come from impacts the way that you live your life. Don’t let these hypocrites pretend to have the higher moral ground. They want to “borrow” from the Christian faith, but not embrace it. The only way they can say humans aren’t animals is if they believe that we’re ALL created in the image of God. That’s the Christian worldview though, and those without God have no justification to have our morals without our God.
Yes, the people who are perpetuating these crimes are redeemable; and that’s because no one is beyond the reach of Jesus. He died once, for all, regardless of what we’ve done. But that doesn’t mean that unregenerate man can’t act like an animal. Psalm 49:20 says:
Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, Is like the beasts that perish.
Don’t be without understanding. Apart from God, man can do nothing of value (John 15:5) no matter how good something may look to our physical eyes. But, with God, all things are possible and this includes changing someone with a heart of stone into an unbelievable light for Christ.
Regardless of who says what, we should all be critical thinkers and evaluate not only what people say, but we should also evaluate what others say in response. It doesn’t matter if it’s a politician, a pundit or a preacher. Make sure to make a righteous judgement, love people enough to speak the truth and . . .
Stay Bold!
[1] https://www.factcheck.org/2018/05/trumps-and-pelosis-immigration-spat/
[2] https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/26732/nancy-pelosi/2/abortion#.Ww6eRlMvwUE
[3] http://www.theamericanmirror.com/pelosi-defends-ms-13-gang-animals-from-trump-does-he-not-believe-in-spark-of-divinity/
[4] https://www.gop.com/dems-continue-their-defense-of-ms-13
[5] https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/26976/chuck-schumer/2/abortion
[6] https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/4295/joe-crowley/2/abortion#.Ww6pe1MvwUE
[7] https://twitter.com/johnlegend/status/997277883268673537?lang=en
[8] https://www.thenation.com/article/in-defense-of-gang-members/
[9] https://io9.gizmodo.com/yes-humans-are-animals-so-just-get-over-yourselves-1588990060
[10] https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/tag/terribleteachers
[11] http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150706-humans-are-not-unique-or-special
What you believe about where you come from impacts the way that you live your life. Don’t let these hypocrites pretend to have the higher moral ground. They want to “borrow” from the Christian faith, but not embrace it. The only way they can say humans aren’t animals is if they believe that we’re ALL created in the image of God. That’s the Christian worldview though, and those without God have no justification to have our morals without our God.
Yes, the people who are perpetuating these crimes are redeemable; and that’s because no one is beyond the reach of Jesus. He died once, for all, regardless of what we’ve done. But that doesn’t mean that unregenerate man can’t act like an animal. Psalm 49:20 says:
Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, Is like the beasts that perish.
Don’t be without understanding. Apart from God, man can do nothing of value (John 15:5) no matter how good something may look to our physical eyes. But, with God, all things are possible and this includes changing someone with a heart of stone into an unbelievable light for Christ.
Regardless of who says what, we should all be critical thinkers and evaluate not only what people say, but we should also evaluate what others say in response. It doesn’t matter if it’s a politician, a pundit or a preacher. Make sure to make a righteous judgement, love people enough to speak the truth and . . .
Stay Bold!
[1] https://www.factcheck.org/2018/05/trumps-and-pelosis-immigration-spat/
[2] https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/26732/nancy-pelosi/2/abortion#.Ww6eRlMvwUE
[3] http://www.theamericanmirror.com/pelosi-defends-ms-13-gang-animals-from-trump-does-he-not-believe-in-spark-of-divinity/
[4] https://www.gop.com/dems-continue-their-defense-of-ms-13
[5] https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/26976/chuck-schumer/2/abortion
[6] https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/4295/joe-crowley/2/abortion#.Ww6pe1MvwUE
[7] https://twitter.com/johnlegend/status/997277883268673537?lang=en
[8] https://www.thenation.com/article/in-defense-of-gang-members/
[9] https://io9.gizmodo.com/yes-humans-are-animals-so-just-get-over-yourselves-1588990060
[10] https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/tag/terribleteachers
[11] http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150706-humans-are-not-unique-or-special
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