The Evolution Of Human Intelligence Error In Scientific American Magazine
Harun YahyaThe mind and brain section of the August 2008 issue of Scientific American magazine carried a report “Animal Intelligence and the Evolution of the Human Mind” by Ursula Dicke and Gerard Roth. The claims made in the report, that ‘human intelligence is a slightly more developed form of the conceptual capacities of non-human primates as a result of evolution’ and that ‘intelligence had to emerge from a 1.5-kilo nervous circuit located inside our skulls’ reveal that the article was written with Darwinist and materialist preconceptions devoid of any scientific evidence.
Consciousness is one of the greatest dilemmas facing the theory of evolution. Since they are unable to bring any explanation to bear on the subject, evolutionists try to reduce consciousness and the soul to matter, of which they are in fact completely independent. To try to reduce the intelligence of human beings who found civilizations, research and invent things is as illogical and nonsensical as to claim that the quarks and electrons that comprise matter have intelligence, can think, decide and make judgments and can feel joy or sorrow. Evolutionists keep raising this issue in order to be able to keep Darwinism on its feet, despite its being a hollow philosophy which has been totally repudiated by the scientific facts. That is what Scientific American has done.
The error that human intelligence came about through evolution:
The article in question sought to adapt human intelligence to the fictitious scenario of evolution by comparing the human brain and that of different animals. Interestingly, however, Darwinists were not slow to personally submit various pieces of scientific evidence that refute their own claims.
The comparisons between human and various animal brains in the article actually refute the evolutionist scenarios attempting to be brought to bear on the evolution of the brain and the origin of human intelligence.
The reason for human intelligence cannot be that humans have the largest brains:
According to evolutionists, the brain should follow a direct course from simple nerve cells to the more complex. According to this imaginary scenario, brains should develop in size from small to large. And according to evolution, the most intelligent entities should have the largest brains. But observation has refuted this hypothesis.
Despite being the only conscious and most intelligent beings in nature, humans do not have the largest brains. There is no need for detailed research to appreciate this. Observations in nature have proved that intelligence has nothing to do with brain size. Some species of whale have brains weighing 8-9 kg and elephants have brains weighing 5 kg on average, both many times greater than the 1.5-kg human brain. This contradiction was also set out in the article.
This correct analysis in the paper in question of course totally contradicts the theory of evolution, which seeks to explain intelligence in terms of the supposed development of the brain from the primitive to the complex. Because if this evolutionist expectation were correct, then whales or elephants should be several times more intelligent than human beings. They should found more advanced civilizations that human beings, possess more highly developed technologies than they do, and be far ahead of them in art and science. Yet for millions of years, whales have always been whales and elephants have always been elephants. They have never demonstrated any development in culture, technology, science of art of the kind made by human beings. This is just one of those fundamental issues on which the lie of Darwinism has no explanation to offer.
In short, intelligence has absolutely nothing to do with brain size.
The reason for intelligence is not the number of nerve cells:
The article says that there is no correlation between intelligence and either special regions inside the brain or the number of brain cells in the outer layer of the brain (cortex). This is true, and the exact opposite of the theory of evolution. Because according to evolutionist expectations, the supposed evolution of the brain should take place from a very limited number of nerve cells toward the more complex, and since human beings are conscious and intelligent entities and the only ones with the ability to speak they should have the largest and most complex brains with the greatest numbers of nerve cells. The fact is, however, that this claim is refuted by the fact that whale and brain cells have a greater total of brain cells (neurons).
The speech center (Broca’s area) in the human brain is not unique to man:
Man is the only entity with the ability to speak. Human language is an extraordinary ability that cannot be explained by the imaginary requirements or mechanisms of the supposed process of evolution. The ability of some life forms such as parrots to repeat a few words goes no further than being mimicry.
Naturally enough, the years of research by Darwinists on apes in particular aimed at confirming the supposed evolution of language have always ended in disappointment. Noam Chomsky, regarded as the most eminent living linguist, criticizes these studies in the following terms:
Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world " 1
The position is very different when it comes to human beings. A child aged 2-3 begins talking without undergoing any training process and, what is more, in conformity with highly complex linguistic rules, in a manner that not even linguists can explain. It is clear that this did not come about through evolution, by chance.
David Premack from the University of Pennsylvania’s comment that “Human language is an embarrassment for evolutionary theory” 2 emphasizes this very well.
Another error in the article is the claim that is that human beings improved their intelligence by speaking and that this ability unique to human beings stems from the speech region of the brain known as Broca’s area. The attempt to reduce speech to a particular area of the brain or special combination of nerve cells is a materialist one, and American Scientist is mistaken. The fact is that:
The speech center in the brain known as Broca’s area is not only found in humans. Scientific research has revealed it is also present in monkeys. But unlike human beings, monkeys are unable to speak in any way. Some of these studies that reveal an area in monkeys similar to Broca’s area in human beings state:
“Brodmann’s area 44 delineates part of Broca’s area within the inferior frontal (front side of the brain) gyrus (curves of the brain) of the human brain and is a critical region for speech production, being larger in the left hemisphere than in the right1–4 — an asymmetry that has been correlated with language dominance. Here we show that there is a similar asymmetry in this area, also with left-hemisphere dominance, in three great ape species (Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus and Gorilla gorilla). (Asymmetric Broca’s area in great apes, Brief Communications Nature 414, 505 (29 November 2001) | doi:10.1038/35107134)
“Communicative Signaling Activates Broca"s Homolog in Chimpanzees.”
http://www.current-biology.com/content/article/abstract?id=PIIS0960982208000961
“Asymmetric Broca’s area in great apes
A region of the ape brain is uncannily similar to one linked with speech in humans.” http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2043144
Scientific research has proved that there is an area in the monkey brain similar to Broca’s area in humans, and even that this area is stimulated by communications signals. But apes are unable to speak. No animal possesses the ability to speak that human beings possess.
There is an enormous difference between this miraculous ability and animals’ communication abilities. That being the case, producing evolutionary tales on the basis of animals’ abilities to communicate is an unscientific and fantastical approach.
It is clear that speech is not a function of any area of the brain. If it were, then monkeys, which have a Broca’s area (speech center) in the same way as humans do, should also be able to speak. But that is impossible for them. This is admitted in Scientific American:
“But even after years of training, none of these creatures develops verbal skills more advanced than those of a three-year-old child.”
It must not be forgotten that a 3-year-old child begins speaking spontaneously, using very complex linguistic rules, without receiving any training at all, and it is clear that the reason for this is not the quarks and electrons in its brain cells. Because the brains and brain cells of all living things are made up of the same quarks and electrons, and there is no difference between them in that respect. However, of all the living things created by Allah (God), only human beings are created as conscious entities capable of speaking, thinking and making judgments.
Roger Penrose is a mathematician and physicist known for his research into the subject of consciousness. This is how Penrose makes it clear that matter cannot possess consciousness or think in his book The Emperor’s New Mind:
“What is it that gives a particular person his individual identity? Is it, to some extent, the very atoms that compose his body? Is his identity dependent upon the particular choice of electrons, protons, and other particles that compose those atoms? There are at least two reasons why this cannot be so. In the first place, there is a continual turnover in the material of any living person"s body. This applies in particular to the cells in a person"s brain, despite the fact that no new actual brain cells are produced after birth. The vast majority of atoms in each living cell (including each brain cell)—and, indeed, virtually the entire material of our bodies—has been replaced many times since birth. The second reason comes from quantum physics…If an electron in a person"s brain were to be exchanged with an electron in a brick, then the state of the system would be exactly the same state as it was before, not merely indistinguishable from it! The same holds for protons and for any other kind of particle, and for whole atoms, molecules, etc. If the entire material content of a person were to be exchanged with corresponding particles in the bricks of his house then, in a strong sense, nothing would have happened whatsoever.” 3
Penrose openly states that if we exchange all a person’s atoms for those in a brick, the features that make that person conscious will remain exactly as they are. Neither will our exchanging the particles of the atoms in the brain for those in a brick make that brick conscious. In other words, the brick will still be a brick. It is evidently not a characteristic of matter that makes human beings human, but some other entity.
There is no doubt that speech is also independent of matter. It is a great miracle demonstrating Allah’s creation. Allah has created human beings with consciousness, intelligence and abilities such as speech. It is special knowledge coming from Allah that makes human speech possible. Our Lord reveals this in a verse from the Qur’an:
“He taught Adam the names of all things.” (Sura al-Baqara, 31)
In another verse, He makes it clear it is He who makes it possible for us to speak:
“Allah gave us speech as He has given speech to everything. He created you in the first place and you will be returned to Him.” (Sura Fussilat, 21)
Animals’ different abilities and characteristics totally undermine the theory of evolution:
Different life forms exhibit different abilities and characteristics. But these abilities, which can never be explained in terms of evolution, totally undermine the theory of evolution. For instance, there are more intelligent creatures than monkeys which should, according to Darwinists, be the most intelligent animals after human beings. Indeed, a study published by Oxford University zoologists in the 9 August, 2002, edition of Science magazine proved that crows are more intelligent than apes. During an experiment conducted by the zoologists, an ordinary crow with no special training spontaneously made a hook for itself by bending a piece of wire and used it to successfully remove food placed in a vertical tube. The study in Science magazine contained these words:
Primates are considered the most versatile and complex tool users, but observations of New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) raise the possibility that these birds may rival nonhuman primates in tool-related cognitive capabilities." 4
Bees are an even more striking example. Looked at from this perspective, bees make calculation that are beyond human beings unless they use advanced technologies. For example, Darwinists have no explanation to offer for how the mechanisms and systems responsible for bees’ flight mechanisms, the blueprints for honey combs based on mathematical calculations and the economic and efficient use of angles, the way that thousands of bees implement these blueprints for production in flawless co-operation and harmony with no confusion or errors ever arising or the communication systems they use to tell each other where food sources are located could have come into being by chance.
One of the unbelievable calculations managed by bees appears in the construction of the combs used to store honey. Comb construction starts at the top and continues downward from 2-3 different points at once. This work is carried out in a highly organized and harmonious way. So much so that it is impossible to tell that the comb actually consists of 2 or 3 different sections joined together. The comb sections commenced from different points are so regular that they form one single whole, despite consisting of hundreds of different and containing many different angles.
This reveals that bees do not work at random, but that they calculate the distances between the start and end points beforehand. In addition, honey bees also inform one another of the location of flowers needed for honey manufacture by dancing. Bees are able to describe the location of a food source by using the Sun alone, even though this changes position by 1 degree every 4 minutes it takes the bee to return to the hive. That means that a bee has to calculate a difference of 1 degree for every 4 minutes it spends on the return journey when giving that information to its fellows. As a result the bee identifies the location perfectly by making adjustments for the angle between the Sun and the hive as the Sun continues moving.
This requires an inconceivable calculation. No human being can do these calculations without the use of modern technological equipment. Yet bees have been performing these most delicate calculations for millions of years.
In the light of these abilities, bees emerge as the most intelligent animals. This is, of course, proof that obliterates all the claims of the theory of evolution and that demonstrates Creation. The picture that emerges from a comparison between the 1 mg, 1 mm3 bee brain and the 9 kg whale brain makes it crystal clear that bees’ abilities do not stem from their tiny brains, but from inspiration by Allah. The Qur’an reveals how bees act according to Allah’s command and manufacture honey by His will:
Your Lord revealed to the bees: ‘Build dwellings in the mountains and the trees, and also in the structures which men erect. Then eat from every kind of fruit and travel the paths of your Lord, which have been made easy for you to follow.’ From inside them comes a drink of varying colors, containing healing for mankind. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who reflect. (Sura an-Nahl, 68-69)
It is of course Allah, our Almighty Lord, Who creates the bee and all other living things, and Who creates their abilities and characteristics. All living things behave according to Allah’s command. All the abilities they exhibit are also inspired by Him.
It is the soul, breathed into us by Allah from His own spirit, that is the source of consciousness and intelligence:
It is the consciousness and intelligence they possess that distinguishes human beings from all other entities, living or non-living. But what is the source of our consciousness and intelligence? Our brains are a mass of matter made up of a combination of atoms, just like those in a chair or a glass. Since the atoms in a chair cannot think, neither can those in our brains. This shows that consciousness has a different source. That source is the soul.
Allah reveals in the Qur’an that He has bestowed the soul on human beings:
When your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am creating a human being out of dried clay formed from fetid black mud. When I have formed him and breathed My Ruh (soul) into him, fall down in prostration in front of him!’ (Sura al-Hijr, 28-29)
The source of human consciousness and intelligence is the soul bestowed on us by Allah. We advise Scientific American to free itself of these outdated Darwinist ideas and to act in the light of this self-evident truth.
1 Language and Mind publ. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1968. - http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/noamchomsk398152.html
2 Swisher III, Roger Lewin, “Java Man”, Abacus, London, 2002, sf. 205
3 Roger Penrose, The Emperor"s New Mind, Penguin Books, 1989, p. 24-2)
4 Shaping of Hooks in New Caledonian Crows- http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;297/5583/981?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=primates+Corvus+moneduloides&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
