http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=1502
Rats, Boys, and Evolution
| by | Dave Miller, Ph.D. |
An innumerable number of beliefs and ideologies circulate in the world of humanity. Some of these ideas are harmless, in that they have no affect on the behavior of most humans. However, many ideas are extremely destructive—both physically and spiritually. Evolution is one of those belief systems whose tentacles extend into many areas of human existence, resulting in untold damage and unbelievable disruption to people’s lives.
Take, for example, the bizarre declaration of Ingrid Newkirk, the president of the twenty-five-year-old animal rights organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): “There is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They’re all mammals” (“Unbelievable…,” 2005). This statement is nothing short of astonishing, astounding, and monumental in its implications. To suggest that a rat and a boy are equivalent in their value, their worth, and their place in the world would be laughable, were it not for the fact that more and more people embrace just such thinking. Here is the end result of the mindless acceptance of evolution’s notion that humans are nothing more than animals that have developed from precursor life forms. Here is the logical result of the systematic expulsion of God and the Bible from American life. Such thinking has been slowly but surely creeping through society for several decades. The consequences are earthshaking and catastrophic. A rat has rights, and must be treated with respect? But an unborn human baby may be savagely, brutally ripped to shreds. Hinduism assigns a similarly inordinate value to animal life.
The Bible provides the only sane, sensible approach to life on Earth. During the Creation week, after God created the animals, He created the first human beings, setting them apart from the animal kingdom by creating humans in His own image (Genesis 1:27). Humans possess a soul—a spirit—that lives on after the death of the body (Ecclesiastes 12:7; Zechariah 12:1; Luke 16:22-31; Hebrews 12:9; James 2:26). Animals do not share this spiritual dimension in common with humans. A rat is not equal to a boy! While animals possess an animating life force, when they die, they cease to exist. No part of their being continues to exist beyond physical death. Animals are not subject to the laws of God; they are not accountable for their actions as are humans; they cannot commit sin; and they are not subject to God’s plan of salvation.
If there is no God, then animal rights activism is as sensible, legitimate, and noble as any other cause. However, if God exists, and if He has spoken to humans through the Bible, then our view of the created order must be shaped by God Himself. A review of Bible teaching regarding the status of animals reveals that animal rights activism evinces misinformed, misplaced zeal. It “worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). When one abandons the rational assessment of the place of the Earth in spiritual reality, one inevitably becomes futile and foolish in one’s thinking and one’s judgments about the physical realm: “Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22). To insist that a rat and a human boy are equal in their place on Earth is moral, ethical, and spiritual insanity.
REFERENCES
“Unbelievable Quotes” (2005), Changing Worldviews, [On-line], URL: http://www.changingworldviews.com/quotations.htm#Animal%20Rights.