Page 41 - Devotion Among Animals Revealing the Work of God

Awareness in Animals

tions that classical evolutionists offer for animal behavior:
What might account for potentially self-destructive behavior?
At least some altruistic acts are reputed to stem from so-called
selfish genes. Parents that work themselves ragged to feed in-
satiable offspring or go without food as long as a predator is
near are probably carrying out genetically programmed behav-
ior—behavior that increases the chances of parental genes
within the offspring being passed on to yet another generation.
These innate, instinctive responses to predators may seem "pur-
poseful" to the human observer, but in fact they are behavioral
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programs triggered by sights, sounds, odors, and other cues.
This quotation says, in effect, that animals' behavior looks as if it
has a purpose, an "ulterior motive"—but that these organisms don't
commit these acts consciously, much less in order to serve any future
end, but simply because they are "programmed to do so." The question
that needs asking is this: What is
the source of this programming?
Yes, genes are encoded data
banks, but they cannot think or
reason. Genes do not possess in-
telligence or judgment; so there-
"He said, 'The Lord of
fore, if a living being's genes con-
the East and the West
tained an order demanding self-
and everything
less devotion, the gene itself
could not be the source of it. between them if you
For example, if you press a used your intellect.'"
computer's ON\OFF button, it (Qur'an, 26: 28)
will shut down—because an in-
telligent, conscious, knowledge-
able programmer designed it to
do so. Notice the distinction: The
computer does not do this by it-

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