ou can thank Carl Sagan for the subject of this column. It was prompted by an article promoting his latest book (co-authored with Ann Druyan) called Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. As you might expect, the book is not about great aunt Matilda, but about human evolution. Even in man's denial or ignorance of God, there has usually been a vestigial sense of man's uniqueness, which brings with it the problem of accounting for it.
Attempts to describe human uniqueness are many and varied. We have been described as different because we make and use tools, use fire, and/or reason. We possess language and can record our history. But are these what make us unique?
More recently, there is an abandonment by some of an attempt to describe humans as having any fundamental distinction from other organisms. One of the interesting twists of humanistic evolutionary thought that seems to be emerging in some circles is not just the belief that God is irrelevant, but that man is also. It is meaningless, in this view, to describe certain organisms as more advanced, or more evolved. The human species is just another leaf on the evolutionary tree sharing the same common impersonal forces of origin and potential demise as a hibiscus or baboon. Other species have as much "right" to exist as ours. A beetle's life may in the overall scheme of things be as important as a man's. Does anything make us truly unique?
A biblical view of man is very interesting. Probably the most well-known verses are Genesis 1:26-27. We are described there as being created in the image or likeness of God. There are three things we can readily observe in these verses. First, we are not God, and second, we are creatures. Nothing here makes us unique. The third item does, however, since no other creature is described as being created in God's image. What does it mean then, to be created in the image of God? How does this make us unique? Here are some brief thoughts about the image of God that we bear.
1. Biology. Paul points out as part of an illustration that there are different kinds of flesh (1 Cor. 15:39), and we all recognize differences between organisms. But is is also true that living things often share enormous similarities. The same twenty amino acids that make up proteins in you and me also make up the proteins in a cow. This does not imply that differences are insignificant, especially when trying to explain how they came about. But from a biological perspective, the differences between a man and a coyote are sort of like the differences between an elm tree and a pink flowering almond shrub. There is nothing fundamentally unique about our particular biology. A distinction from the rest of creation is not to be found here.
2. Intelligence. Perhaps this is a little closer. Most of the items listed earlier (language, etc.) could fall under this category. I do not think there is any serious argument that the intelligence of the human species (with possible lapses in election years) is considerably greater than other earthly creatures. Intelligence certainly reflects an attribute of God. In God, the I AM revealed to Moses,
is infinite knowledge and wisdom. Jesus is described as the Logos or Word -- the embodiment of concept or idea. Still, with the creation it is not a case of intelligence versus no intelligence. There is a gradation. Certain amounts of intelligence have been observed in animals. Some are more "intelligent" than others, although pre-programmed intelligence, or instinct, complicates the picture. Many primates have been taught simple language conventions or have demonstrated rudimentary tool-making or use. Problem-solving abilities are well known. It is safe to say some species have some mental capabilities rivaling a normal two-year old child.
3. Moral capacity. The uniqueness of humanity and the image of God are displayed more prominently when considering this. Man is the only organism that could introduce sin in such a way that the entire creation would fall. Death came by man through sin (Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:1). In Genesis 3:22, God states that "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good from evil." Adam was not only a federal head for the rest of humanity, but also over the rest of creation -- introducing death and frustrating the creation, which groans for liberation (Rom. 8:19-22).
Is it possible that animals have a moral capacity? Animals display rage, enjoy and give affection, experience fear, and so on. Primates who have learned sign language have been known to insult other primates they found unpleasant, calling them names such as "dirty," a term which they might also call excrement. But certain moral qualities just appear to be lacking. It is hard to imagine an animal plotting and scheming evil against a neighbor. If sins may be unique to humans, presumably some corresponding positives are as well.
The concept of justice is foreign to animals. In Genesis 9, we are told the shedding of man's blood is to be accounted for by the blood of the guilty man being shed. This requirement is not made when an animal's blood is shed. The reason is that man was made in the image of God. Man uniquely is born with "it's not fair" formed on his lips -- there is an innate sense (even when wrongly applied in light of God's standard) of what should or should not be.
Moral capacity and intelligence are not disconnected in the Bible, but of the two, moral capacity seems more important. Rejection of God and hardness of heart is tied to loss of moral capacity, which results in futility of thinking (Eph. 4:17-19; Rom. 1). Loss of moral capacity makes man like brute beasts, creatures of instinct (2 Pet. 2:12).
It would also appear that in humanity is the possibility of transcending the "flesh" in a moral sense (cf. Eph. 4:20-24). In
regeneration, the old order of control by instincts and desires of the flesh has passed away.
4. Spiritual nature. The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us that like the animals, we return to the dust. The same author tells us man goes to his eternal home. Man is a spiritual being. Something about us is eternal. Our nature is not eternal in a self-sustaining way like God's, but we will either exist in some manner under eternal judgment (Heb. 6:2) in the second death (Rev. 20:14, 21:8) where the worm does not die (Mark 9:48), or be raised in spiritual bodies (1 Cor. 15:44) to life eternal (John 3:16).
We, like other animals, are sophisticated biological machines. We are not just biological machines, though. It is more like biological machines plus. That plus is the important part -- the imago Dei, or image of God.
