Evolutionism and Creationism

When man realises that our spirit is more important, and with this realisation decides to give less value to the physical body, perhaps he will start to admit that man has evolved from inferior animals

In the book Genesis, 4^th chapter, Kardec makes the following positions:

The history of the origin of almost all the ancients is mingled with that of their religion. That is why their first books were religious works; and as all religions are allied to the spirit of things, which is allied to that of humanity, they have founded upon the arrangement and formation of the universe explanations limited by the knowledge of the times, and the founders of their systems. The results are that the first religious books have were first scientific treatises, as they also were the only code of civil laws.

On presenting the Bible as a book of science, man reproduced that which his knowledge was able to give him regarding the laws of Nature.

This is comprehensible and we must not condemn them for this reason. However, to want to keep the Bible as a book in which all the science of the Universe is found is to think as our ancestors thought. We must open our minds to accept this unsophisticated truth.

Kardec carries on:

The Bible contains statements that our reason, which has been developed by science, will not allow us to accept; and also others which seem repugnant and strange to us, because they are connected with customs which are not ours. But, this notwithstanding, it would be wrong not to recognise the grand and beautiful thoughts which the Bible contains. Allegory holds a conspicuous place in it and under its veil conceals sublime truths, which appear, if one seeks for them, in the foundations of ideas contained on them.

To want to hold the advancement of science is a puerile childishness, not to say ignorance. However science advances it will always unveil the laws which govern the phenomena of Nature. Now, as God created Nature and its laws, whatever man discovers about these laws, consequently, are Divine Laws.

A position put forward by Kardec regarding this aspect is interesting:

Only stationary religions dread scientific discoveries. Scientific truths are only destructive to the systems of those who allow themselves to be distanced by progressive ideas by wrapping themselves in the absolutism of old beliefs. These persons have such a narrow idea of divinity that they do not comprehend that to assimilate themselves with the laws of nature revealed by science is to glorify God in his works; but in their blindness they prefer to do homage to the spirit of evil. A religion which would be in no point contradictory to the laws of nature would have nothing to fear from progress, and would be invulnerable.

Without giving up that Adam and Eve were the first
 human couple, the creationists stand before
something which has no explanation

One can realise clearly that in reality the adepts of creationism, warranted by the Bible, in the book of Genesis, are establishing anathema against the Theory of Evolution, because of at least two reasons:

1^st – For they do not want to (or cannot) change their opinion of the Bible, as they believe it to be infallible.

2^nd- For many people are disgusted by the idea that we might be descended from monkeys.

Without giving up Adam and Eve as the first human couple, we stand before something which has no explanation. Now, after killing Abel, Cain moves to another region and there he finds another woman with whom he has a child, and soon after he even founded a city, which he calls after his son. One then asks: Who is this woman? Which people are these? And for a city to be founded by someone we have to presuppose that there were people to inhabit it.

However, if we conceive the idea that Adam and Eva were only symbolic, that they were not the first human couple, things start to fit together without problem for Cain’s wife and for the inhabitants of the city which was founded by him. But in this way the creationist theory would not stand.

Again, going back to Kardec who says:

The law which presides at the formation of minerals leads naturally to the formation of organic bodies.

Chemical analysis shows us that all vegetable and animal substances are composed of the same elements as inorganic bodies. Of these elements those which play the principal role are: oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon; the others are only accessories to them. As in the mineral kingdom, the difference of proportion in the combination of these elements produces all varieties of organic substances and their various properties: such as muscles, bones, blood, nerves, cerebral material & fat in the animals; and sap, wood, leaves, fruits, essences, oils & resins in the plants. Thus no special body enters into the composition of animals and plants which is not also found in the mineral kingdom.

 (...) Since the elements which constitute the organic and inorganic beings are the same ones which have been incessantly, in given circumstances, forming stones, plants and fruits, and from this it can concluded that the bodies of the first live beings were formed, as the first stones, by the union of elementary molecules in virtue of the affinity law, as the vitality conditions of the planet were adequate for this or that species. (Kardec, 1993, page 169-171)

From the corporeal and purely anatomic point of view,
man belongs to the mammal class

Now it is easy, to conclude that from the point of view of the elements that make up ourselves we have the same elements found in mud and in monkeys. However, it is more rational to admit that we have evolved from a live being than from inorganic matter, even with respect to the Divine Laws themselves.

We find in 10^th and 15^th paragraphs, a very interesting phrase which we can present to those who still become disgusted on accepting that we could have come, by evolution, from inferior animal species. We see: “That which God purified, you must not call impure” Similarly we can say that there exists nothing which God has created which we can classify as a repugnant thing, Is that not right?

But we see how man behaves. Many medicines could only be useful to man because they were tested on animals beforehand, such as monkeys and rats. Man should, by coherence, feel disgusted when using such medications.

For a better comprehension of the study, we have to go back to Kardec, specifically, when he says:

At the corporeal and purely anatomical point of view, man belongs to the mammals, from which he differs only slightly in an outward form. Beyond that he is of the same chemical composition as all mammals, has the same organs, functions, modes of nutrition, respiration, secretion and reproduction.  He is born, lives, and dies in the same conditions; and at his death his body decomposes like that of all other beings. There is not on his blood, flesh or bone, an element more or less than in those of the lower animals. Like the latter, in dying he renders to the Earth oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon, which were combined in order to form him, and go towards forming new combinations, new mineral, vegetable, and mineral bodies. The analogy is so perfect that man can study his own organic functions in certain animals when experiments cannot be made on himself.

In the family of mammals man belongs to the bipedal order. Immediately below him come the quadrupeds (animals with four legs).  the monkeys, of which a few, like the orang-utan, chimpanzee, and the ape, have certain ways like men, so much so that for a long time they have been called wild men of the woods. Like him they walk erect, use a stick, and carry food to their mouths with their hands, which are characteristically human traits.

Although one can observe the scale of living beings at the point of view of the organism, it is recognised that from the lichen to the tree, and from the zoophyte to the man, there is a continuous chain elevating itself by degrees, in which all the kinds are joined together. Following step by step the series of beings, one can say that each species is a transformation of the species immediately below. Since the body of man is in condition identical with others bodies chemically and constitutionally, as he is born, lives, and dies in the same manner, he must have been formed in the same way.

Although it is humbling to his pride, man must be resigned to behold in his material body only the last link of animality upon Earth. The inexorable argument of facts compels him thus to regard himself, against which all protestation is in vain.

But the more the body diminishes in value to his eyes, the more the spiritual principle increases in importance. If the first puts him on a level with the brute, the second elevates him to an immeasurable height. We can see the point where the animal stops; but, we cannot see the limit to which human spirit can attain. (Kardec, 1993, page 177-178)

In regards to behaviour, experience shows that the difference between chimpanzees and
human being is small

Kardec’s considerations were recently verified by us, when TV Escola showed, some time ago, a documentary regarding experiences with and observations of chimpanzees. In regards to speech, they are not able to pronounce the sounds of words only because their mouths do not allow it. But this has not stopped them from communicating with each other. An apparatus named the Lexigram¹ has been developed, which has several random drawings and symbols. When any symbol is pressed, the device emits the sound of the word which corresponds to that symbol. So, through this method, even if very rudimentary, a specific level of communication between the chimpanzees and the researchers was established.

In another situation, certain signals were taught which corresponded to a kind of action and the chimpanzees were able to combine these signals to express themselves. One of the experiments which we found very interesting was when a chimpanzee was put in an enclosure in which banana was put hanging high from a high place. The chimpanzee observed what was around him, took a wooden cube and started pushing it until he placed it right below the banana. 

However, he was unable to reach it, as the height was not yet great enough. Soon after realising this, he got hold of another cube, and put it on top of the first one, thus enabling him to get the banana. Afterwards more chimpanzees were placed in that same enclosure, together with another banana. The chimpanzee who had been able to reach the banana previously, even though he noticed the difficulty that the other chimpanzees had in getting the banana, pretended he knew nothing. However, these other chimpanzees used a new method. They got hold of a long stick; they hit the banana, which immediately fell.  It has been proved, in this experiment that chimps can develop a type of planning and can think in a manner to resolve, within their capacities, a problem they are faced with.

In terms of behaviour the difference between chimpanzees and human beings is small. On getting closer one to another, chimpanzees greet each other with hugs and kisses. The mothers run away to another tribe so that the father does not commit incest with the daughter. In sexual relationships, the most traditional position used by humans is also used by them. There are cases of homosexualism in males and females. When walking erect, the similarity with man is very large.

Chimpanzees and Gorillas have a cerebral function
related to speech which was thought to be
exclusive to the human being

Finally, those who have had the opportunity to watch this documentary were not left with any shred of doubt that if we do not descend from them, our origin is at least the same.

But the evidences do not stop here, seeing what the magazine “Isto e”, edition number 1679, published on December 2001, published in the article “21^st Century” (page 91): “Chimpanzees, Bonobos and Gorillas have a cerebral function related to speech which was thought to be exclusive to human beings. This suggests that the evolution of the cerebral structure started before the primates and humans took distinctive paths along the evolutionary line.”

Now, this comes precisely to suggest that the common origin between us and the monkeys is much stronger.

When man realises that which is more important is our spirit, and with this knowledge, decides to value the physical body less, perhaps man will start to admit that he has evolved from inferior animals. But, until this is accepted, many will carry on being irritated when one affirms that we evolved from monkeys. Poor evolved monkeys. 

⁽¹⁾A lexigram is a symbol that represents a word but is not necessarily indicative of the object referenced by the word. Lexigrams were notably used by the Georgia State University Language Research Center to communicate with bonobos and chimpanzees. Researchers and primates were able to communicate using lexigram boards made by up of three panels of a total 384 keys. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexigram). It derives from the Greek. Lexigram – “Lexic” means “belonging to letters” and “Gramma”, representing “the writing or words”. Lexigram literally means “letters-symbols (or) that which form words”. It has been used for decades, mainly in Linguistic and particularly in Zoology, where they are used to evaluate animal behaviour, intelligence and communication studies.

Bibliographical References: 

Kardec, A. Genesis, Araras, SP: IDE, 1993

Magazine IstoÉ, editon number 1679, Sao Paulo: Editora Tres, 5th December 2001.