By Patrick Dacey, Johannesburg
I am curious to know why millions of Christians do not accept that we human beings and chimpanzees shared a common ancestor approximately 7 million years ago. Chimps have stayed pretty much the same whereas we humans have mushroomed into quite clever creatures.
The fact of the matter is that God can do anything, any way that he deems fit to do so. Right now, throughout the universe, God may have an array of “happenings” going on, which are totally oblivious to us. Perhaps the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), in the process of being set up in South Africa and Australia, will one day pick up signs of other civilisations that inhabit the universe, or perhaps even in our galaxy.
The reality of Christianity is that it slots in perfectly with the idea of evolution. The author(s) of Genesis had a brilliant insight into the split between chimpanzees and proto humans.
The Garden of Eden was a place for complacent creatures, not inquisitive creatures. The Genesis story depicts God as becoming angry when Eve and Adam “sinned”, but perhaps it was jealousy that motivated God to cast them out of Eden. After all, God was in control and had been for millions of years, and here were two miniscule (compared to giant dinosaurs) creatures manifesting signs of God-like intelligence.
It is evident that God (God can be cruel) could not cut his ties completely with these two-legged, bipedal creatures. After all, God loves all of his creation. He promised them that one day he would send his son to lead them back to their Creator.
The quest had already begun with the Greeks, with their pantheon of gods who had been given human form. A number of their gods, Orpheus for one, displayed characteristics of divinity in human form. But ultimately the mantle of “Son of God” would fall on the shoulders of a “homegrown” boy, as was prophesied in Isaiah 9:6: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called ‘Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’.”
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