Signs for Animals and People
Signs and Animals
Heliotropic plants like sunflowers can turn toward the sun, but they respond to the sun as a stimulus, not to the sun as a sign. Responding to the sun as a sign requires at least some intelligence. Certain migratory fish, birds, and animals respond to the sun as a sign. They alternate between their breeding and feeding areas according to the seasons. The proof that northern-hemisphere birds, for example, do not respond to the sun as a mere stimulus is that in autumn they migrate toward the noontime sun (when it is lower and lower in the sky) and in spring away from the noontime sun (when it is higher and higher in the sky). In the northern hemisphere, the sun is always in the south, but in autumn the birds fly toward it, and in spring away from it. There is nothing about the position of the sun to tell them where to seek comfortable temperatures. They combine the position of the sun in the sky with instinct to determine when to migrate.
Heliotropic plants like sunflowers can turn toward the sun, but they respond to the sun as a stimulus, not to the sun as a sign. Responding to the sun as a sign requires at least some intelligence. Certain migratory fish, birds, and animals respond to the sun as a sign. They alternate between their breeding and feeding areas according to the seasons. The proof that northern-hemisphere birds, for example, do not respond to the sun as a mere stimulus is that in autumn they migrate toward the noontime sun (when it is lower and lower in the sky) and in spring away from the noontime sun (when it is higher and higher in the sky). In the northern hemisphere, the sun is always in the south, but in autumn the birds fly toward it, and in spring away from it. There is nothing about the position of the sun to tell them where to seek comfortable temperatures. They combine the position of the sun in the sky with instinct to determine when to migrate.
Signs and People
We are similar to God in various ways. These similarities distinguish us from the animals. One important way, mentioned prominently in Moses’ narrative, is our ability to understand complex, massive systems of signs.
A child learns to speak before learning to read and write. Speech communicates ideas using a large set of auditory signs. Writing is the graphical expression of ideas by means of another set of signs. The first people, Adam and Eve, could speak as soon as God created them. Once humans appeared, it was inevitable that they would learn to write in a short time, because writing extends and preserves communications.
When a useful invention appears almost simultaneously in more than one place, it means that humanity is ready for it. Between 3000 BCE and 2900 BCE three different complete systems of writing appeared in widely separated areas of the ancient world. The Sumerians of Mesopotamia started a kind of phonetic writing. The people of Elam began using logos to represent syllables a little later. Within 100 years, Egyptian hieroglyphs appeared. The technology of writing and the method of representing ideas were different in each system, but all were capable of communicating any ideas that can be expressed in words.
The appearance of speech cannot have been much earlier. Darwinist stories of human evolution say that certain hominids lived millions of years before the present. Paleontologists have found fossils similar to our bones, and say that human precursors left them. Some of these precursors even made tools, but tool-making is a skill we share with animals. The decisive point is that the precursors left nothing in writing. It may be true that some of the writing materials were perishable. The bones were certainly perishable! Yet we have the bones, but no written materials. It appears that the “human precursors” left no writing because they were not sufficiently intelligent to write. If hominoids a million years ago could talk, why did they wait 995 000 years to invent writing? If they weren’t intelligent enough to talk, then they were far from human, hardly better than any other animal.
The sudden appearance of writing between 5000 and 4900 years ago shows that people began to speak fully developed languages only a few thousand years before. Moses agrees with this idea. He situates the appearance of humans able to comprehend and use great systems of signs a little earlier than the invention of writing. Throughout his entire creation narrative, Moses is always right!
We are similar to God in various ways. These similarities distinguish us from the animals. One important way, mentioned prominently in Moses’ narrative, is our ability to understand complex, massive systems of signs.
A child learns to speak before learning to read and write. Speech communicates ideas using a large set of auditory signs. Writing is the graphical expression of ideas by means of another set of signs. The first people, Adam and Eve, could speak as soon as God created them. Once humans appeared, it was inevitable that they would learn to write in a short time, because writing extends and preserves communications.
When a useful invention appears almost simultaneously in more than one place, it means that humanity is ready for it. Between 3000 BCE and 2900 BCE three different complete systems of writing appeared in widely separated areas of the ancient world. The Sumerians of Mesopotamia started a kind of phonetic writing. The people of Elam began using logos to represent syllables a little later. Within 100 years, Egyptian hieroglyphs appeared. The technology of writing and the method of representing ideas were different in each system, but all were capable of communicating any ideas that can be expressed in words.
The appearance of speech cannot have been much earlier. Darwinist stories of human evolution say that certain hominids lived millions of years before the present. Paleontologists have found fossils similar to our bones, and say that human precursors left them. Some of these precursors even made tools, but tool-making is a skill we share with animals. The decisive point is that the precursors left nothing in writing. It may be true that some of the writing materials were perishable. The bones were certainly perishable! Yet we have the bones, but no written materials. It appears that the “human precursors” left no writing because they were not sufficiently intelligent to write. If hominoids a million years ago could talk, why did they wait 995 000 years to invent writing? If they weren’t intelligent enough to talk, then they were far from human, hardly better than any other animal.
The sudden appearance of writing between 5000 and 4900 years ago shows that people began to speak fully developed languages only a few thousand years before. Moses agrees with this idea. He situates the appearance of humans able to comprehend and use great systems of signs a little earlier than the invention of writing. Throughout his entire creation narrative, Moses is always right!