Am I an Animal?

Museums often go to great pains to emphasize that humans are just another animal, like all the other mammals in the museum.

In some ways, we are like other mammals: we have a backbone, our bodies are covered with hair, we have three middle ear bones, our hearts have four chambers, and our brains are covered by a neocortex. Other animals communicate with each other, as we do (though human communication even in the infant stage is vastly more complex than any animal communication). Some animals use tools, as we do.

In other more important ways, we are not like mammals or other animals at all.

• God created humans in His image (Genesis 1:26–27).
• God specially created humans from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7).
• We have the capability to spend eternity with our Creator (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
• We can read and write.
• We use tools to make other tools.
• Jesus Christ came to die for the sin of humans—not animals.

We’re not just another mammal; we were created in the image of God. We were given the assignment to rule over the rest of creation, under the authority of God and according to His instructions in Scripture.