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Biologists classify humans as just another primate. Most people, however, consider human beings as completely separate from the animal kingdom.
What Makes Us Human?
It is the kind of intelligence we have acquired. We primarily differ from other primates by having a superior intelligence and advanced verbal skills. Where did they come from? There is currently a great deal of scientific research underway to try to understand, in more detail, the intricate workings of the human brain. Studying genetic variations responsible for all our emotions, psychological needs, and tendencies most likely will lead to better psychiatric and medical treatments. Many individuals and groups oppose this research because it might lead to new information that humans are not supposed to know or that it may be used in ways they do not agree with. However, we can never know what we don’t know until we know it, and having more knowledge about ourselves should be considered a good thing.
For many years even enlightened scientists insisted that all humans were born with a brain that was a blank slate. Scientists that knew better believed that if it was known all individuals are born with different inherited tendencies and abilities, political pressure might be applied to our leaders to eliminate the undesirable ones from the gene pool. They still often refer to the practice of genocide and eugenics by the Nazis in Germany as an example. Surely mankind has advanced enough to know by now that spreading lies and faulty information seldom produces good results even though many would prefer to hear comfortable lies and pretend they are true.
 Humans did not acquire intelligence by a single evolutionary event. Ongoing mutations over millions of years in the brains of millions of different individuals produced a population with members having many variations of brain gene combinations. These gene variations were not especially advantageous to the individuals that had acquired them but remained in the gene pool available to be inherited by others. Over a long period of time one individual inherited a particular combination that produced a startling result: rudimentary cognitive thinking. In time, verbal language was also acquired by the same process. Having these traits was so advantageous that all humans have now acquired them.
Read Settled Science to better understand how the process of evolution over 3.5 billion years, evolution eventually produced a 10 trillion-celled human from one particular small cluster of chemicals that was just floating in the sea.
Last update : 19-08-2008 00:40
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