Over the past few weeks, I’ve made the case that language and music are proof that human beings are entirely unique as opposed to the rest of creation, that man alone has the capacity for language and that music is something engineered for man especially. Today, we’ll hit my final point: art.
Now, I’ve heard it argued that animals can make art, too. But can they really? Sure, rhinos at the zoo smear paint onto a canvas with their lips, but that’s not art. Art is more than just aesthetic colors on a canvas. That behavior was trained into them, and they do it for treats. A human will not only smear paint, but will learn to smear it so that it resembles an apple or another human, and he’ll do it for the sake of doing it. He doesn’t have to be trained. He’ll also invent the canvas to smear said paint on, and he’ll make the paint out of available ingredients around him. No rhino, if left to his own devices, would do such a thing. Not even a smarter creature like a dog or a dolphin would. The concept of forming any sort of beauty or picture would not occur to them. Dogs don’t draw in the dirt when they’re bored.
G.K. Chesterton, in The Everlasting Man, discusses man’s uniqueness by using the example of birds. What if birds suddenly started building nests in different styles, say Gothic? To expand upon his illustration, what if a bird suddenly decided it wanted a two-story bungalow?
But no, birds’ nests have been just like every other birds’ nest ever since the beginning of time. Man, on the other hand, has swiftly accelerated from caves, to tents, to huts, to houses, to palaces, to apartments fifty stories in the sky or castles insulated with intricate tapestries. What man does requires skill and intention.
Man paints masterpieces and hangs them in a museum for others to admire them. Man teaches other men how to paint like he does. Man writes novels, shapes clay – even develops computer applications to make the art he doesn’t have the tools for.
Animals can do none of that. How, then, if animals are our ancestors, if animals have had the same amount of time to evolve as we did, have animals not become men? Why are we so different, living in organized societies with cities and cultures and histories?
The answer is simple. We are not animals. We never were animals. We are and always have been something special and unique, something set apart and built differently.
Chesterton says in the same book, when telling the story of a boy who discovered cave paintings along with a priest, “After all, it would come back to this: that he had dug very deep and found the place where a man had drawn the picture of a reindeer. But he would dig a good deal deeper before he found a place where a reindeer had drawn a picture of a man”
Evolution can’t really explain language, art, and music. It will try to, by saying that ‘language evolved as a necessary means of social cooperation for survival,’ or ‘artistic expression served to signal desirable qualities in attracting mates.’ But that’s not an explanation of how those things came into being. It says things like ‘we have specific parts of our brain meant for musical processing,’ and calls language, ‘a trait that developed over time through natural selection.’ These are the answers you will get with a search. But they’re not really an explanation of where those things came from – only a theory about their purpose or an observation about the makeup of human physiology.
If man is no different from animals, then there is no value in our use of language, or in our making of music and art. It’s just a quirk, or some weird instinct. So while wolves howl at the moon, humans compose songs that can make us dance or get swept up emotion. And while a magpie jabbers away in a tree, we create beautiful lines that can stop others in their tracks.
Unless we’re different. Unless language, art, and music are specially designed for humans. Unless Mr. Aurobindo was wrong, and you are different from a cat.
As Psalm 139:14 says: I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
Thanks for reading, folks. I hope this series has encouraged you and reminded you of how special you really are.
Have a great week and see you next time.
Cheers!
