Face to Face

Sitting on a public bus in Edmonton, around 10:00 PM, passing through Jasper Avenue and across the High Level bridge to finally encroach Whyte Avenue, one  sees many sights. I highly recommend anyone from the country and suburbs to take the journey. I’m not talking about the view of the North Saskatchewan River, or the bright lights of the city skyline at night. Yes, these sights are rather impressive. No, the view I speak of is the people that ride public transportation late at night, or the fellow on the street corner yelling at a sign post in a drunken stupor, or a stupor for which Prozac may provide relief from.

I need to say that I am a true believer that a divine creator brought life to the earth through intelligent design. But this journey exploring Edmonton streets tends to make one believe that perhaps we may have been evolved from some lower life form, and perhaps a few genetic throwbacks may have missed the ‘bus’ so-to-speak. Because the man standing on the street corner with a plumber crack breezing in the wind, or the ‘working-girls’ looking to ‘hook-up’ with the man named ‘John’ tend to shake my faith in ‘intelligent design’.

In this we can agree, that whether science has all the answers or people of faith know the truth, one thing holds true, and that is that the truth shall be revealed through observing nature as laid before us by the Great Architect.

Just last week, again scientific academia engaged in a debate amongst their peers regarding, what Darwin coined as "The Origin of a Species" .

Two scientists in particular, a Jeffery Schwartz and John Grehan, have postulated that humans most likely evolved from orangutans and not chimpanzees as once concluded by the smart folks that write our text books. "Scientists go out on a limb to say we're more like orangutans than chimps." Edmonton Journal Sept. 6, 2009. This revelation may have shook the foundation of the scientific faithful, because as we have all been told, it was the chimp that gave us the characteristics we see in others while riding a city bus.

According to science, DNA shows that humans have more in common with the chimp, then the gorilla followed by the orangutans. But it has been proven that the orangutans are the smartest apes on earth, next to the dude talking to the sign post.

Popular culture was way ahead of Schwartz and Grehan when in the 70’s the scifi movie, "The Planet of Apes" had portrayed the blonde haired orangutans as the scientific leaders in the community and the keepers of the faith.

Schwartz and Grehan argue that DNA is not the only indicator for evolution. They argue that the orangutan share more physical characteristics with humans than do the chimps. They said that, ‘DNA analysis is problematic and conventional chimpanzee theory is not backed up enough by fossil evidence.’

Did you catch that, two respected anthropologists in an effort to push through their scientific position, have admitted that evolution of man from chimps (apes) are not backed up by fossil evidence. This is something that many people who believe in intelligent design have been stating. The truth is that the evidence for the entire "Evolution of Man" charts proudly displayed in our public schools are based on a fossil collection that can barely cover the surface of a pool table. The amount of conjecture by science is as ‘wholly’ (pun intended) as that of Schwartz and Grehan. Sadly it is this ‘science’ that rewrites text books on a continual basis and no scholastic publisher ever prints a retraction, resulting in generations of children carry into adulthood the imaginations of mere men.

So we have scientists today disregarding DNA evidence and side with Hollywood by concluding that the orangutan ‘is our man.’

The reason for this conclusion, that the orangutan is the missing link, is based partly on scientific observation that they are the only members of great apes that build their homes above ground and they finish the job by adding a roof.

Hell, that’s enough evidence for me. Forget trying to find the transitional fossils. Roofs on huts, thats the key! Thanks for that Schwartz and Grehan, I think tonight I’ll find some mud and straw and grunt behind my wife’s back.

In light of these earth shattering observations which include my learned observations from a bus, I find it interesting that humans are so fascinated with the ape in the first place.

Do other animals gravitate to similar species in the same way. Perhaps horses congregating near the stables discuss their origins. Do they look at the mule or donkey while snorting and kicking signals back and forth arguing whether they came from the donkey? I would even suggest that the mere thought of it would be insulting to the ‘thinking horse’.

"I am not evolved from that Ass!" would be the quip from Seabiscuit.

But I should be fair to these two learned fellows. It was not just the above ground dwelling topped with a roof observation that made them think that the orangutan is our close relative. No, they say that they have other very important identical human developments. The nuts on the topping was their observation of the apes mating practices. You see, they concluded that the Orangutan mate longer, and they mate "face to face".

“Face to Face” these fellows really need to get out more. I’ll stick with Intelligent Design.