Octopuses—Do We Share Our Intelligence with Them?

Well, a recent article highlighting a new study on octopus smarts was titled, “We Share Smarts with Octopuses, and Now We Know Why.” This title suggests there’s some kind of alleged evolutionary reason why humans and cephalopods are both so smart (though, of course, humans are leagues ahead of any octopus when it comes to brains!). Evolutionists believe all life is related—animals, plants, and humans! But what the research showed was that “[octopus] intelligence is due to the dramatic assortment of microRNA types in their brain tissues — an assortment that they seem to share with a wide variety of vertebrates, including our own species.”

So microRNAs, “small molecules that mold to the RNA in an animal’s cells to influence the type and quantity of proteins that those cells produce,” may be a biological reason for “smarts” in the animal world. And the researchers believe vertebrates somehow “acquired” these along the evolutionary path while invertebrates mostly missed out—except, somehow, cephalopods.

It’s just assumed that all of life must be related and therefore it must have happened.

Of course, the researchers never really explain how these microRNA families are just “acquired” through random processes (or what could create these in the first place!). It’s just assumed that all of life must be related and therefore it must have happened.

But as Christians we understand two things about this study.

1. All of life is not related, and organisms haven’t needed to gradually gain anything. God created each kind fully formed at the beginning. But all life does have a common Creator!
2. Humans aren’t just intelligent because of microRNA families in our brains. Yes, there are biological factors involved, but ultimately the intelligence, creativity, and ingenuity that are unique to humans comes from being made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27)! It’s one way (but certainly not the only way) that we reflect his image. So to answer the question, “Do we share our smarts with octopuses?” No, we don’t!

Get More Answers on Answers News

This item was discussed Monday on Answers News with cohosts Jessica Jaworski, Bryan Osborne, and Dr. Jennifer Rivera. Answers News is our weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum and broadcast on my Facebook page and the Answers in Genesis Facebook page. We also covered the following topics:

• A very sad day for Americans.
• What if dinosaurs hadn’t gone extinct?
• Who is descended from the Canaanites?
• And more!

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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

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