Are Ants Your Relatives That You Can Learn From?

by Ken Ham

Can ants give us insights into human society? Well, evolutionary biologist Laurent Keller certainly says “yes.” Now keep in mind that evolutionists believe in one family tree—that all of life is related! Keller has been studying ants for thirty years because he believes “from agriculture to the division of labor, the achievements of ant society have predated those of human society” and “in terms of social organization, man has taken the same route as the ant.” He points to ant police officers, ant farmers, ant social cooperation, and their incredible ability to live almost anywhere and shape their environment to suit their needs as examples of similarities between ant and human societies. Because of these similarities he believes that ants can help us “understand our own behaviors and how we interact with others.” But does an understanding of ant society really help us to understand ourselves?

Are Ants Your Relatives That You Can Learn From?

Well, first let’s strip away all the evolutionary baggage from what Keller says. Keller states in his article that ant society predated human society by 70 million years, but God’s Word makes it clear that both humans and ants were created on Day Six of Creation Week. Incredibly complex ant societies did not evolve over millions of years. Ants were created fully formed and functioning from the very beginning. The complexity of ants and their societies points towards a Designer, not millions of years of blind processes.

But Keller is right in one sense—ants can teach us something about human society. Proverbs 6 encourages us to look towards ants as an example:

Go to the ant, you sluggard!
Consider her ways and be wise,
Which, having no captain,
Overseer or ruler,
Provides her supplies in the summer,
And gathers her food in the harvest.

Evolutionists look at the ants within their evolutionary context—that all life is related and thus humans are related to ants. Biblical creationists look at ants and understand they were created by God and are not related to humans at all! We can learn from ants, but not because we are related to them!

It should come as no surprise to us that scientists can look at ants and find implications for humans—God’s Word points us towards the ant as a practical example of hard work, diligence, and cooperation. God designed the ant! As usual, God’s Word got it right first.

You can learn more about the incredible design of ants by reading our free article from the award-winning Answers magazine.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.

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