Primates and Primary Differences

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” -Romans 3:22-24

One of my most memorable moments of young children was at the home of a friend where we had gathered for a birthday party. Our friend’s youngest child, at one point, came running out of the house amidst great tears announcing to the world his moral outrage, “It’s not fair! It’s not fair!” The child could not have been much more than 2 years old. So how did this child develop such a keen and dreadful sense of “fairness” at such a young age? Could it be that we are created with a God given conscience that early on raises its head in absolute indignation at perceived wrongs? Is there a universal sense of rightness and wrongness stamped on our image? And where did that come from?

Dr. Frans de Waal, an Emory University primatologist, spoke recently and demonstrated how primates share with us traits of fairness and moral outrage in some very unique experiments. His point was to show how a sense of morality could evolve without religion or God. It was troubling at first to witness this clear and undeniable demonstration. As Christians, we believe man is uniquely different from the animal kingdom especially when it comes to morality. Mankind has generally prided itself on its finely developed moral code embedded in law and government that sets us apart from the laws of the jungle. Dr. de Waal suggested we were just sitting a little higher up the evolutionary ladder from our ancestors and aren’t all that different.

Troubled, I began to reflect on just how different we are from the animals. One can surely see that there are many human emotions that are mimicked in the animal kingdom. Playfulness, anger, loyalty, loneliness, empathy, and even sorrow are to be found among our animal friends. Dr. de Waal has now demonstrated that chimps can exhibit a sense of fairness and moral outrage when suffering unequal treatment.

As much as our very concepts of “right” and “wrong” are still, in themselves, indicators of the existence of a moral universe, especially when they are so universally similar around the world, this is not the key factor that marks us as uniquely different. Everyone knows not to mess with a dog’s dish while he is eating. What truly marks us as unique is our sense of guilt; a lingering remorse over wrongful doing. It is real and it is painful. While we can see examples of empathetic sorrow in the animal kingdom, what we don’t see are examples of animals driven to suicide through their complicity in evil. But we as humans do it all the time; every day, in fact. While we can get some relief from the pain of guilt through the forgiveness of others, there is a very real sense of guilt for the very self-centered nature we share with Adam. That sense of guilt finds no solution on earth. It is an offense against God our creator that cannot be muted, forgotten, or easily erased as much as we might try. Freud says it is a societal construct imposed by others. Marx says it was invented as a means of control by the upper classes. Dawkins would say it is just silly; a waste of time. Just maybe it is real, and it cries out from the ground of our being every bit as much as Abel’s blood cried out from the ground to God.

I had to remove a student from a kindergarten class not too long ago for not cooperating with her teacher. It was a first for me. She sat the rest of the day with a sour and painful expression on her face. After an earnest meeting with her father that night, the young student came to school the next day along with a big shiny apple she insisted on giving to her teacher. Suitable apologies were made and reconciliation was achieved. Following school, she ran down to her mother and with a beaming expression she cried out, “I’m forgiven! I’m forgiven!” No primate will ever know such joy. And such should be ours day after day as we walk in God’s forgiveness. Such is the privilege of being fully human and fully a child of His.

Mercy and Truth, Mr. Moe