Language - Origins and Evolution - D. Tassot (article online at CSSHSJQ)

Quotes and comments;

1. 'Partisans of this theory [natural emergence fo language] hold that the difference between human language and the languages" of animals is not one of nature but of degree. 'Do such information methods, useful though they may be. infer the mental operations which make human language not merely a tool for communication but the substratum upon which thought deploys itself?'
- there's a category difference between communication and thought. (e.g. if you are standing in the way of an moving train and don't see it I can communicate the train to you by waving my arms , screaming, etc. without knowing even what language you speak. But I can't ask whether a stranger has a duty to do this without words, without language.)

2. 'The only animals, however, possessing a vocal tract capable of reproducing our words are birds, as for example the parrot and mynah. The question arises, then, how could we be descendants of the apes and inherit the characteristics of the birds'?
- well this is easy to explain; men are descended from apes while women are descended from birds :=)

3. 'Man was created in the image of the Word. He was prepared genetically to receive the word and to transmit it, not like something external that can be acquired or rejected, but like the essence of his own being. the innate difference which distinguishes him from other living creatures. It is the ultimate point of his being by which he communicates with the Supreme being, the specific resemblance with the Creator which enables him to ponder Creation, to know God and to love him.'
- one irony of the creation/evolution debate is that it makes no sense if the evolutionist is correct. Debate can't be accounted for by E. theory. You don't see animals having debates over ideas; and certainly not over origins. But if the Fabian biology of Darwinism is correct where does intellectual debate come from? A basic tenet of Darwinism is that there can be no discontinuities in the chain of being; no radical breaks... that all is a smooth progression of small incremental changes.
- Christians are mocked by e's and humanists for being 'people of the book' but all of us (C. and E. alike) are people of the word. Words are the air we breathe and the water we swim in. Evolutionary theory can't (in my opinion) give us any believable account of man's reliance on the word and the total 'rejection' of the word among animals. I see in this an unbridgable gap. Darwin stands at a chasm and knows he can never jump it. He called men apes, but apes haven't the slightest interest in words or in books. ''I can imagine an ape being able to jump the gap,'' he tells us, but his sad, dark eyes tell us otherwise; he knows better... he knows the gap can't be crossed... he knows his story is a lie.
- apes don't ponder the subject of origins. If by some miracle they could comprehend the idea they wouldn't care. Only because we are people of the word do we care about origins.... and we are only people of the word because we were created in the image of god.

4. 'Language has not, then, emerged progressively from a voiceless stage of creation. It was not invented to fulfill some material need of the first humans.'
- Adam at the beginning lived in a garden in Eden. He was a perfect being in a perfect world. All his needs were readily at hand. If the Gen. account is true we see that language has no evolutionary explanation. i.e. it was not 'invented' to help man be a better hunter or whatever. Language was given to man by god for the purpose of communication; not primarily communication with his fellow man, but for communication (or communion if you will) with God.
This answer to the origin of language also gives us the additional benefit of giving an account for the great depth of language, for it's complexity. As the example of the animals shows us, human language (the only form of communication that deserves to be called language) isn't necessary to physical survival. (It isn't any more necessary than mathematical abilities, logic ability, musical ability, art ability.) In my opinion e. theory cannot give a believable account of why man has such incredible intellectual abilities; these have nothing to do with the requirements for physical survival. (Some refer to this as over design. And yes, if man were just an animal that somehow had managed (with a gov. grant no doubt) to have evolved this would be over design. But man hasn't evolved, he was created; created for fellowship with the Creator God. It is only the 'requirements' of this relationship that can account for man's intellectual superiority. (Man isn't only superior to the animals, he belongs in a seperate class.)
- Arthur Custance believed that man's great capacities (intellectual, moral, spiritual) could best be accounted for by the fact - known to God from before the creation - one person of the Trinity would one day be incarnated as the god-man Jesus Christ. i.e. man had to be a suitable 'home' for God. The eternal Word had to be able to feel at home as it were in the body of a man. Whether he's right or not I don't know, but I find his idea worthy of consideration.

5. 'It [language] was there from the beginning. "In the beginning was the Word." The Word, the singularity that explains the origin of all things. It provided the means of relating with God. It was a prayer which was the first form and still remains the most perfect form of the human language.'
* - I don't think it's going too far to say language exists so that man can pray; so that he can sing praises to god; so he can tell his children about the creator; so he can instruct them in the law of god; so he can tell them how to live and how to conduct themselves; to warn them about hell and to encourage them with stories about heaven.
- an evolutionist doesn't need language, but a Christian most certainly does. If man is just an animal, all an E. needs to do is to be able to grunt and rub his belly. A Christian on the other hand needs to be able to read God's word and to sing psalms and hymns.

Notes;
1. The Custance book I referenced is 'Seed of the Woman'. (It's available free online.)