What
is theory of mind? Most people have
probably never heard of what this is but it is based upon what is called “false
belief task” which, according to the Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum
Disorders,
is “the understanding that an individual’s belief or representation about
the world may contrast with reality.” [1]
According to the article, the theory has been frequently tested on children. It goes on to state:
…it
becomes possible to distinguish unambiguously between the child’s (true) belief
and the child’s awareness of someone else’s different (false) belief. First-order false-belief tasks involve attribution
about other’s false belief with regard to real events; whereas, second-order
false-belief tasks are related with what people think about other people’s
thoughts. In second-order false-belief tasks, the child is required to
attribute the false belief of one person based on the thoughts of another. [2]
This
theory was then tested on apes in an experiment conducted at Kyoto University
in Japan. According to Natural News,
the theory suggests that apes can understand each other’s mental states and
that of people [3] citing the Kyoto
study. It would seem at first that, upon reading the Natural News piece
that the theory, as it pertains to apes, suggests that somehow they are able to
predict or presume what another is thinking the way people might do and thereby
anticipate what actions are about to be performed. [4]
Fumihiro Kato, one of the researchers claimed that the study suggests that apes, like people, are able to form their own beliefs and knowledge about the world [5] but as The Atlantic observed, “they couldn’t imagine that others might hold false beliefs,” [6] with science staff writer Ed Yong going on to say, “They can’t conceive of states of the world that are decoupled from their current reality … They can think about the minds of others, but only when those minds have the same contents as theirs.” [7]
In the Kyoto experiment, the apes, divided into two groups were made to watch a video in involving two actors in which one moved a certain object from one location to another. Before the apes watched the video, they were exposed to two kinds of barriers behind which one of the actors hid behind: An opaque barrier through which the actor could not see what was going on and a mesh see-through barrier through which he could actually see what was going on.
It
had been assumed that both groups of apes, after having watched the video with
one segment of the video involving one type of barrier and another segment of
the video involving another, would anticipate the same action, but they did
not. [8-10]
As Kyoto University admitted, the study concluded that the apes could only anticipate an action by way of past experience.
…the
apes were able to make the correct inference. The researchers conclude that
their findings ruled out a purely behavioral explanation, because the two
groups of apes anticipated the agent's behavior based on their own experiences
with the barriers, even when both groups had observed the agent acting in an
identical manner. [11]
And
it just so happened that the two groups of apes were subjected to two different
experiences which caused them to draw different anticipations of the actions of
the actors featured in the video.
Psychologist Alia Martin of Victoria University, while claiming that the experiment caused her to consider the possibility of apes forming belief systems, she still admitted that the study did present any solid evidence that apes were actually capable of this:
there’s
a lot to unpack about what this task is really telling us...One hallmark of our
theory of mind is our ability to hold and compare two competing views of the
world: a false belief, and the reality. There’s still no evidence that apes can
do this. Sure, they might infer that the actor thinks the stone is in the wrong
place, but can they simultaneously remember where the stone actually is? Are
they even thinking about the stone at all? [12]
Even
Fumihiro Kano himself admitted that in spite of what his studies suggested, he
still has not been convinced that apes are able to formulate their own belief
systems by merely relying on their own personal experiences. [13]
What this study shows is that apes may have great memories and may rely on memories of past acts to anticipate a certain act, but they cannot actually anticipate every possible given outcome the way people can. The ability of apes to be able to anticipate an action is only based upon what they remember about that same action taken before; nothing more and nothing less. People, on the other hand, are able to anticipate any possible action or outcome, not merely on past personal experiences but upon information gathered.
Apes, like all other animals, regardless of how intelligent they may be and their problem-solving capabilities which may be immense in comparison to that of other animals, are still guided by blind instinct and not by any formulated philosophy or religion or any sense of right or wrong.
Only people are guided by a particular philosophy or belief system of which there are many.
One
set of principles in one society or culture may not necessarily be the same as
those of another, nor do all cultures and nations necessarily share the same
religion in common and therefore, the course of each society and culture is
directed by the religious and moral beliefs upon which it is founded or adopts
be that for better or for worse.
Unlike animals, every person has instilled in them an understanding of right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsehood and are governed accordingly and not just by blind instinct. To the animals, which are governed only by blind instinct, the concepts of right and wrong, truth and falsehood, good and evil, justice and injustice bear no meaning to them. They have no understanding to them. They neither dwell on the past or look forward into the future. Their concern is only with the here and now and yet studies like the one that came out of Kyoto University are used by godless evolutionists to convince us that rather than being created separately by God, we are descended from apes on the basis that apes are able to possess religious and philosophical belief systems just like people and no more or less significant than any of the animals despite the fact that researchers like Fumihiro Kana have already admitted that the studies they’ve conducted do not necessarily constitute as evidence that apes are able to form belief systems like people have done and still do.
Evolutionists have been unable to explain how man could ever biologically evolve from a creature operating on blind instinct to a creature with beliefs in the supernatural, guided by the concepts of right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice; concepts upon which governing systems are built. They have yet to provide an explanation for how man was ever able to evolve that curiosity about the natural world around him, as well as any unseen forces at work in his life, that other creatures do not have.
They cannot provide an adequate and reasonable explanation as to how man was able to evolve into a being immensely more sophisticated than all other forms of life; how various different cultures, religions, philosophies, political systems, various forms of entertainment, customs, traditions, economies, scientific, medical, technological, and mechanical innovations could have arisen from a being guided only by blind instinct and whose thoughts, reasoning, emotions, and choices could only be the products of some random biological or chemical reactions in our brains.
But if there is a God in Heaven who created the universe and all life therein, then He is the very source of those attributes instilled in us that are not made manifest in any other life-form and not only that, He is the one who is able to provide meaning and purpose to those attributes, but if we are just merely a product of time and chance, then everything we think, say, and do is absolutely meaningless. We possess no greater or less of a purpose than anything else.
Any concept of right or wrong to any degree bears no meaning and might as well not even exist and that being said, there might as well not be any governing authority to dictate to us as to how we are to live or to maintain any kind of order since there would be no such thing as order or disorder because random processes that are unthinking are not capable of producing order of any sort.
Let each person be a law unto themselves and their own sovereign if this is the case and let each person do as he or she will and in accordance to how the instinct of each person guides them for what need is there for laws and regulation? If we are only guided by blind instinct, then how did blind instinct instill in us moral codes from which come laws that are then enforced by established governing authorities?
And though each culture may differ from another in many ways, every nation and culture still share some codes of conduct, morals, and ethics in common: “Don’t murder”, “Don’t steal”, “Do to others as you would have them do to you”, “Do not commit adultery”, “Obey your parents”. If someone is wronged, they will either demand justice or seek vengeance. Whether they realize it or not, everyone is governed according to a right and wrong basis and possess in themselves a knowledge of good and evil from which come forth the concepts of right and wrong, even if they are blind to the very source of these ideals.
Animals do not think in terms of order and disorder, law and lawlessness, right or wrong, or good and evil. They just simply do what comes naturally to them. Man is the only one who thinks in terms of these things, even if he is blind to the source of them, and lives his life accordingly.
But until he comes to understand the defining source of right and wrong, he may only understand right and wrong and good and evil in terms of what his respective government and culture may define what is right or wrong, good or evil and what may seem good and right to one culture or to one person may not be so to another. What then is there to determine who is right or wrong in their thinking? There isn’t any if every belief system is simply a product of biology.
And if one’s particular religious or philosophical beliefs are simply a product of biology, then upon what basis can we determine whether or not one’s perception of reality is factually based? There is none.
That being said, why then should we obey any governing authority if the laws and regulations they dictate do not seem to benefit us? If we are all honest with ourselves, we have all lied, coveted, and have not always respected or obeyed those in authority over us, but if it were not for the governing authorities established, we would have all been guilty of theft, adultery, and even murder. There would not be anyone who will not have committed some perverse act. Everyone would be someone’s victim and in turn a victimizer of someone else.
Granted there might be cooperation amongst men just so long as there is mutual benefit at no cost to anyone involved, but once that cooperation becomes inconvenient to any involved, it collapses with group members turning on one another and leadership positions being challenged and overthrown, even violently so, in the name of survival, self-preservation, and self-gratification; a cycle to which there would be no end because without a basis to define morality or good and evil, there will only be constant chaos and disorder amongst mankind and in light of all the wickedness that we are capable of doing and basest of thoughts and motives within each heart, we, without a guiding basis for morality, would be made out to be no different in nature than any animal; worse than any animal in all honesty. Without a basis for order, no civilization will ever be able to retain stability and the basis required for order to be maintained within society cannot be one given to change, but one that is unchangeable regardless of the passing of each generation, the changing of hands and opinions, customs, traditions, and culture and not something that can come from within mankind, but must come from a source beyond mankind and it is from that very source that defines for us good and evil, right and wrong by which to govern our lives and affairs and the only way that we can possibly know the one who defines for us the concepts of right and wrong, truth and falsehood, good and evil is if that source, from which these concepts originate, interjects itself into the affairs of men.
And indeed there are some fundamental truths and virtues applied by every people, nation, and society throughout the world that do remain unchanged and have remained the same since the creation of the world thus serving as evidence that the basic virtues that all people share in common do come from a common and unchanging sources, whereas the fundamental differences that are also observed and by which we are all divided testifies to the fact that many have gone astray from the laws and precepts given by that one source, even to the point that the His truth becomes lost to them to a certain extent because at some point in the history of many, they refused to retain their Creator in their knowledge (Rom. 1:28) and therefore were given over to their desires and those thing contrary to His Will and yet in His grace, He did not allow truth to disappear from them entirely for they still continued and still do apply His law to themselves to certain degree, even though they may not have a full knowledge of the law. (Rom. 2:14-15)
The God who made Heaven and Earth reaches out to all people constantly, seeking to draw all people to Himself. Though many be blinded to it, God has left an overwhelming amount of undeniable evidence of His existence which can be found in the things that He has created.
He has instilled in each of us a conscience that tells us when we have done something wrong even though it may be largely ignored. He speaks to our hearts though they be hardened. He has even given to us His written law, being found in scriptures He has divinely inspired and authorized though they be given no regard and even treated with disdain. He has also sent out those having received and abided in His truth out as messengers to call those who have yet to embrace their Creator to be reconciled unto Him even though His messengers might not be heeded and in many cases, suffer ill-treatment by those who reject the message they have been given.
Granted that every society has gone astray from the God who made all things (some more so than others), there is always a people, a culture, and society who are more in accordance to the laws and precepts that have come from our Maker than all the rest. In the name of tolerance, it has been commonly said that many paths can lead to our Maker and yet simple reason and logic attest that there can only be one way that our Maker has prescribed for us to be reconciled to Himself but in order to realize why we need that prescription in the first place and in order for us to understand what we need to be reconciled from, we need to understand what it is about us that has separated us and estranged us from our Maker to begin with and in order to understand what it is that separates us from our Maker, we need to understand what things were like between God and man before what caused that separation.
Before the separation, scripture, in the beginning chapters of Genesis, depicts a perfect unity between God and man and perfect harmony between man and nature. But in order to retain that peace and harmony, man was forbidden one thing from him. Scripture says that there were two trees in the midst of a garden wherein man was first placed: The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen.2:9) Man was allowed to eat the fruit of any tree that he saw except one and that one tree whose fruit man was forbidden to eat was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2:16-17, chapter 3) In order to retain that state of peace and harmony between himself, nature, and the God who created him, he could not eat of that fruit.
But on the day that the first man, Adam, and his wife Eve, from whom all of mankind are descended, ate from that forbidden tree at the behest of an evil force (Gen. 3) things changed dramatically and not for the better but for the worse. As a consequence of their disobedience, man was subject to death (Gen. 3, Rom. 6:23) and he would no longer be able to enjoy the fellowship with his Maker that he had once had and it was also in that moment that when Adam had eaten of the forbidden fruit that sin entered into him which resulted in sin being inherited by all mankind which is the reason why all people are subjected to death (Rom. 5:12) and not only that, sin also brought with it a curse upon the entire creation.
Those who would dispute the existence of God and declare that things in the past have been as they are now ironically will demand how a loving all-powerful God could create a world with so much suffering and death, but the answer to that challenge, according to scripture is that He didn’t. Before sin, there was no death and suffering the world, but when sin came and death with it, that entire harmony that once was, was then made to be no more and therefore we, presently live in a world where death reigns and all kinds of pain, grief, sorrow, and suffering abound.
Sin is more than just an act done or a word spoken, but it is the corruption of our very nature which causes us to do things contrary to God’s perfect Will. Sin not only affects our behavior and speech, but it also corrupts the inward person as well by corrupting our motives and thoughts.
That is why it is written that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) which is moral perfection. In the eyes of God, outward behavior is not enough to achieve moral perfection. We must also be morally perfect in our mind and heart as well, but because sin is ever present in us, no amount of good that we try to do will ever gain us entry into the Kingdom of Heaven wherein dwells only righteousness and because only righteousness dwells there, nothing unrighteous can ever dwell in the presence of that which is righteous.
It only takes one careless word, one bad motive, and one evil thought to keep us out of Heaven. That may seem unfair, but the author of fairness demands punishment for every sin committed no matter how small or great, because no amount of sin in the eyes of God is a small matter and the reason why it may seem unfair to us is because we, being born into sin, have never known perfection. We have always been a corrupted being since Adam. If God did not punish sin, then He Himself could no longer be called holy or good, because in order for goodness to be preserved, evil must be punished and because sin taints, corrupts, and distorts everything that it touches, they who die in their sins are kept out of the Kingdom of Heaven for if they be given entry in their sinful state, their sin would defile Heaven just as it has defiled earth.
But because the God who made us is also a God of love and mercy, He has offered us forgiveness of sins to the repentant soul which has been made possible through Christ Jesus our Lord who offered Himself up as a perfect sacrifice (2 Cor. 5:21, Heb. 4:15) for all sins, by His death and resurrection, satisfying the required penalty for all sin and enabling mercy and forgiveness of sins to be given to any who will place their trust in Christ alone for their salvation and in no other name.
But apart from Christ, we have nothing to look forward to but eternal separation from God and a terrifying everlasting punishment for unrepentance because if we reject the offer of salvation that comes only through Jesus Christ (Jn. 14:6) then there is no other remedy except that we forever bear the penalty for our sins by way of eternal torment.
But if we will but surrender ourselves over to Christ, we then will escape what would otherwise be a horrible fate that is worse than even death itself for upon receive Christ Jesus, our souls will be cleansed from sin and with the cleansing of our souls will come reconciliation to the God who made us and with the redemption of our souls will come the eventual redemption of our bodies (1 Cor. 15:51-55, 1 Thess. 4:13-18) for just as we were subjected to death by the actions of one man (Rom. 5:12) so we are raised to eternal life by Christ Jesus by whom death was conquered by His resurrection and it is because of His death on the cross for our sins and His resurrection that we can also be sure that our own bodies will be liberated from death and from the corruption of sin and lastly, all of creation itself, being subject to a curse because of sin, will also itself be delivered from the bondage of corruption to which it was made subject by being made anew wherein will be no sin, no death, and no suffering of any sort. (Rev. 21-22)
That is why I implore every reader who has not yet ask Jesus Christ to come into his or her heart to do so while they still can and to delay no longer for we do not know when the day comes that we depart from this present life or when this present age will end, for as it is written, now is the day of salvation. (2 Cor. 6:2) Because presently, we are all destined to die someday and at any given time. We are never guaranteed tomorrow no matter what stage in life we are and we do not know when the end of this present age will come. If you feel the Holy Spirit urging you to repent of your sins this day, then repent and call upon the name of Christ for salvation. Let nothing hold you back because there is nothing you possess or have in your life; no amount of wealth, no job or career, nor any relationship that is worth spending an eternity of torment for. Far better to stand against the world and save your soul than to gain the world and lose your soul.
If you desire to ask Christ into your heart and are not sure what to pray, here is an example of what to say:
"Lord
Jesus I need you.
I
realize that I am a sinner
who has fallen short of the glory of God
and that my goodness falls short
of His standard of Moral perfection.
Please forgive me of all of my sins.
Come into my heart and into my life
to be the Savior and Lord of my life.
Make me into the servant and follower
that you want me to be.
In your name Lord Jesus, I pray.
7. Ibid.
8. Marino; Natural News
9. Kyoto; Eureka Alert
10. Yong; Atlantic
11. Kyoto; Eureka Alert
12. Yong; Atlantic
13. Ibid.
2. Romans 2:14-15
3. Genesis 2:9
4. Genesis 2:16-17
5. Genesis 3
6. Romans 6:23
7. Romans 5:12
8. Romans 3:23
9. 2 Corinthians 5:12
10. Hebrews 4:15
11. John 14:6
12. 1 Corinthians 15:51-55
13. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
14. Revelation 21-22
15. 2 Corinthians 6:2
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