Monkey On My Back

Enjoying my morning coffee while vacationing, I read an article in the local newspaper that I found interesting...

In Beijing China, a chimpanzee developed a smoking habit. No—true story… At the Qinling Safari Park in the late 1980’s, Ai Ai, (the chimp) began picking up cigarette butts left by the people who passed by.

Realizing that the chimp was sucking on these cigarette butts, the zookeepers started giving cigarettes to Ai Ai—and even lighting them up for her. She then learned how to light the cigarettes up herself, and developed an addiction for nicotine. She was smoking half a pick a day...

When the zookeepers realized it was beginning to be a problem, they decided to help her kick the habit. Ai Ai would cause a ruckus in her cage, begging for a cigarette, due to her withdrawals. They even used meat dumplings and music to distract the twenty-six year old chimp from her addiction.

I thought that article was fascinating, because it truly tells you how similar we are to these species. Or are we similar to all animals? Do we all possess addictive qualities? We smoke too much, we eat too much, we drink too much—who does anything in moderation these days? We focus in on something we like, and we overdo it. Whether or not smoking is your addiction, it can be something else—like being on the computer for too long. As most of you reading this are ‘bloggers’ yourself, you can see where I’m going with this.

Recently, it’s been told on the news that the school systems are now going to teach the theory of evolution in their classrooms. While this contradicts the concept of God making us the image of Him, and that Adam and Eve weren’t the first ‘humans’, it’s been drawing quite the controversy.

Some people are furious that they still use “God” while saying the pledge of allegiance. God’s been there the whole time---why change it now? There are increasingly more numbers of people disgruntle over the fact that God is included in our everyday lives.

This brings up the topic, should the theory of evolution be taught in our classrooms? If God offends these people who believe in evolution, wouldn’t it be offensive to those who have faith in God? President Bush decided that if they are to teach evolution in the classroom, then this means that people have the option of still keeping “God” in our schools.

My thoughts…

Are we like chimpanzees? We seem to possess similar traits, features, and of course, addictions. This one story really baffled me. I couldn’t believe how intelligent these animals are. They walk like us, they seem to understand a lot more than your average animal, and they possess certain traits that have to make you wonder—are we made from these creatures?

And for those of you who abide to the Old Testament, there is a whole lot of history in there. The history of how we were created---(in my beliefs)…

“’Then God said, 'Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves. They will be masters over all life—the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the livestock, wild animals, and small animals.’
So God created people in his own image;
God patterned them after himself;
male and female he created them. “ ~Genesis 1:26-27

My faith in God is to rely on the words of the New Testament. My faith as being a Christian, is to rely on the sacrifice that Jesus gave to us; therefore making the Old Testament the ‘base’ of our history.