What do similarities between human and chimpanzee`s behavior say about our past?

 

Many of us have probably gone to the zoo and seen  chimpanzee’s human behavior;  the way they wonder about their surroundings, the way they interact with each other and many other behaviors which leave us wondering whether we(humans) did really originate from apes . This has been a research subject to many groups of anthropologists who for many years have been searching for answers to why chimps act so much like humans.  Aside from having 98% of their DNA similar to human`s, chimps also have culture in their groups where certain rules and regulations control how they live, mate and reproduce which resembles human societies. In human societies there are rules and regulations as well and punishments that you receive as a result of committing a crime which could vary based on the severity of the crime. Also we have leaders and those who make laws to ensure our society is being controlled and stabilized. We all have to fight to reach the top and become powerful and sometimes we do fail and have to give up and let the winners take the power. Although we do fight over land and territory, which in many cases results in wars and even world wars, we do have compassion towards one another and help those in need. These are characteristics of human race which separate us from other species.  Although there are animals that we share some of these behaviors with, our closest animal relative( chimps) amaze us a lot more by their many  human-like behaviors. Chimps too form societies where they have to fight to become leaders and have different levels of power that they assign to one another based on their physical strength. Chimps are amazingly intelligent, understand their individuality and are able to imitate one another`s behavior.  The following video shows how a chimps solves a problem by imitation.

I remember in one of the lectures my professor explained how in a zoo there was an old chimp who had lost his sight and could not find the door to get out of the cage and needed someone to hold his hand and direct him to the door. So every play time when all chimps went out, one of the zoo keepers would hold the old chimps hand and take him outside. One day no one came to  assist the him and so one of young chimps grabs his hand just like how the zoo keeper did and directed him towards outside. The following video shows a similar behavior of a young chimp helping an old one walk.

After watching this video and also other videos of chimps human-like behavior I kept on asking myself if chimps are able to learn skills like us, have compassion towards one another, understand their individuality and accept different levels of power in their society assigned to certain individuals then how much are they really different from us. I think many people would argue that with all that’s said, there is still a great amount of difference that separate us from chimps. I agree that there are differences between us but just the fact that they are able to adapt to different cultures,  learn so quickly and copy human`s behavior is what keeps me wondering whether one day they could actually become us which takes us back to the first question of whether evolution is what made us who we are today.

Evolution or intellectual creator

I never really thought about the conflict between Darwin’s natural selection theory and the idea of intellectual creator (God). Being raised in an extremely religious family, I was told since I was very little that the aim of this life is to do what God ordered us to do (known as good actions) and to believe in what the holy book says. Many things from the holy book or religion didn’t make sense to me and I often questioned how we could actually trust a book and live our lives based on the things that’s written in there. Although I questioned many things that came from the holy book, I actually never questioned the existence of God. I believed that the idea of intellectual creator was a fact and that God had created this whole world for a reason. Although I never succeeded in finding out what that reason was, I still believed that there was a purpose for why we all ended up here and that we are all being watched by God every moment of our lives.

My belief in God was never shaken by any means and I strongly believe that there is definitely a God out there until I took a Biological anthology class which talked about Darwin and his theories about human origin.
 The idea of humans evolving from apes was amazingly interesting and the evidence presented by anthropologists and scientists was engaging. As I mentioned in my previous post I loved this class patiently and went to class excited to learn more and more as the idea of evolution opened my mind to other possibilities about our origin and the creation of this whole world. For the first time in my entire life I started doubting God and questioned whether there really is an intellectual creator who designed this world for a specific purpose. I had actually been really confused about life and death since they both used to have actual meanings when I believed in God but started to fade away as I went deeper into learning about evidence that supported the idea of evolution of humans. While there were many evidence linked to the existence of non-modern humans in the past and the discoveries of more skeletons belonging to human ancestors added up to my doubts about God and religion, I did not loose my faith. I feel like deep down I still believed in God and that the creation of this world had a purpose. Till this day I still question many things about the creation of this world and our origin. I think that many people have these questions in mind and I believe that being exposed to different ideas and theories about how we became the species that we are today can open our mind and be an encouragement to search for answers. Although taking a biological anthropology class made me doubt my faith and old beliefs, I think that it made me learn even more about my religion by forcing me to go back to the source and search for answers.