ROCKY THE TALKING ORANGUTAN

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

Did you hear about Rocky? No, not Rocky Balboa, the movie boxer. The Rocky I’m referring to is Rocky, the eight-year old orangutan and native of the Indianapolis Zoo, who scientists are drooling over because of his supposed ability to speak like a human. Recent international news reports states that Rocky has produced sounds “similar” to words in human “conversational context” (whatever that means) by comparing these sounds to a database of wild and captive orangutans.

But there more to this story than meets the eye (or ear). The project’s chief researcher, Dr. Adriano Lameri, of the University of Durham (UK) admitted to tricking Rocky into mimicking the pitch and tone of the human voice. Seems Lameri, like most evolutionally scientists is looking for that ever-elusive missing link between and the noble ape. Dr. Lameri’s words reveal his motive---“It’s not clear how spoken language evolved from the communication systems of the ancestral great apes.”

One of the unique characteristics that separate humans from animals is the ability to communicate in an intelligent language. Interestingly, the act of communicating in a language of coherent, intelligent words is divided into three categories--private---the language you speak--- colloquial---the language of communication, generally understood within a cultural group (slang, euphemisms, etc); and formal---a strict, precise, scientific, numeric, or symbolic language understood by all. Rocky’s achievement is certainly laudable, but hardly miraculous.

A miracle of creation often overlooked in the sweeping panorama of the story of our origin is Adam’s ability to speak in an audible, coherent language immediately after creation. Theologically, language is important to God. He speaks (Genesis 3:1, 9; Psalm 85:8) and created us with the ability to speak (Genesis 2:19-20). The first recorded words of a human man were not the grunts and groans of an ape-like creature; but rather, they were the words of love and tenderness of a man to his wife (Genesis 2:23). Our Creator speaks (Job 38:1), and likes to hear us speak to Him. Try it sometime. Think about it.