Researchers studying the behaviour of chimpanzees in the Republic of Guinea have recently made a startling discovery.
They claim that there is evidence for some kind of worship activity. A scarred tree drew the attention of German university student Laura Kehoe, who set up a remote camera to watch what chimpanzees were doing. It isn’t that the chimpanzees were found sitting in rows listening to notices being read out before passing round an offering plate, but they were seen throwing stones at a tree.
Admittedly this is not your usual Sunday morning chapel service (or, if it is, you might want to consider moving church). But the scientists were intrigued. The stones formed a kind of cairn and seemed to serve no purpose. Could it be that the chimps were building a shrine and following some kind of ritual behaviour? ‘Is this proof chimps believe in God?’ asked The Daily Mail.
Humans and animals
Writing in The Guardian, Laura Kehoe commented: ‘With each new discovery the line that we have drawn between humans and animals fades.’ Chimps in particular demonstrate community bonding, humour, mourning and tool use. Coupled to the fact that humans share 95% of their DNA with chimps, does this not all lend weight to Darwin’s claim that the difference between humans and the higher animals was ‘a matter of degree, not kind.’?
Consider the evidence
Scientists need to get headlines and earn sponsors, so we cannot blame them for inflating their claims, but it is worth pausing to consider the evidence this is based upon and whether the conclusions are warranted.
First, this interpretation of chimp behaviour is speculative by any standards. Humans always look for patterns in animal behaviour and tend to humanise their pets. I like to think my dog loves me. I really suspect he loves the fact that I feed him. But perhaps, the scientists are right and this really is religious behaviour. Are humans and chimps so alike?
Second, it is a fact that humans and chimps have much in common. The 95% of shared DNA is interesting. But the 5% difference is not to be sniffed at. It involves 200 million bodily differences between humans and apes. It is also interesting that the figure was nearer to 99% in the 1970s and subsequent research has revised it downwards. It is also worth noting that, by the same standards, cats share 90% and cows share 80% of their DNA with humans. The bits we don’t share count for a lot!
The Bible itself shows no discomfort that we share many features with material creation. Genesis 2.7 tells us that God ‘formed the man from the dust of the ground’ and so we need not be surprised that we share a material form with all carbon based life.
What makes us different by ‘kind’ and not just ‘degree’ is that we were made in the image of God to be stewards of his creation (Genesis 1.27) and this difference is unlikely to be found in our DNA.
But what of the possibility that chimpanzees worship God? It is an enormous extrapolation from the evidence of them building a cairn of stones. I asked a Christian vet for his opinion of the story and he was not perplexed. Wait for a proper study to be completed, was his advice, but also notice that the Bible has already got there. In the Psalms we read, ‘Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths … wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds’ (Psalm 148.7-10). We already know that the whole of creation brings praise and glory to God and worships him. How they do this we do not know, but we do know that even a chimp would consider atheism to be foolish!
