How or what caused humans to have a superior intellect compared to our great ape cousins?

Question

And do great apes actually have intellect in the same vein as us?

Answer 1

To my mind there were three things that fuelled the development of the human brain into the instrument that has made possible our domination of the planet.

1: Excessive sweating - The ability to sweat as we do in order to cool ourselves freed up the tongue from panting, allowing the development of language. As language took on an ever greater importance to our ancestors, so more processing power was needed and the brain was required to grow. Just how important has language been in our development? The fact that syntax and grammar seem to be hard-wired into our brains so that young children pick up language as readily as walking ought to be a bit of a clue there...

2: Tool use and learning - Basically this can almost be summed up as culture. With the development of sophisticated language came the possibility of easing the passing of knowledge between individuals and generations. All creatures except man learn exclusively by observation. By virtue of explanation rather than observation, the learning process of tool use could be passed on easily, as could concepts, and thus tools could be refined and these refinements evaluated by a peer group. As such, more tools were created/invented/discovered requiring the brain to grow...

3: A high energy diet - The brain uses a massive amount of the body's energy budget, and as our diets improved with better hunting techniques using better tools and better communication, the body's energy budget increased vastly allowing the brain to grow.


Disclaimer - This is not to say that the key to intellect is to have a big brain. Our intellect basically stems from the way that our brains are organised to suit our rather opportunist lifestyle. There are countless creatures on Earth, some with comparatively small and some with comparatively large brains, which survive and thrive in environments and situations that we would find challenging at best and uniformly deadly at worst. I wonder if on some level they muse on the origins of their superior intellect and development.

Answer 2

The simple answer to your question is that humans didn’t evolve from a lower life form, and evolutionists have proven consistently that we didn’t in their efforts to prove we did.

Your question has been asked in different ways to evolutionists many times, and to date, they have never been able to offer a valid explanation as to why it is that in every other case where they claim a species has evolved from a lower life form, the lower life form no longer exists along side the evolved form, except the apes and humans.
Their own rules, and logic itself, makes this situation impossible, since every other species they claim has evolved into a more advanced species has been the entire species, and not a selected group from within that species. Even with regional evolution of a species, the species is still similar. Examples: Asians, Caucasians, Blacks, etc. are all still human. Horses of all size still have hooves and are easily recognizable as a horse, regardless of their size. All birds, flightless or not, still look like birds and have beaks and feathers. And all of these, and every other species, have the relatively same intellect as their cousins. Apes and humans are the only exception to this rule.

Always keep in mind that evolutionists are like politicians. When offered evidence that their theories are wrong, even by their own laws, they simply side step the issue and create the illusion that they have facts to prove they are right, and say that more research is needed to provide the necessary facts to answer the question properly.
Amateurs will try to answer your question, but a legitimate scientist that knows what he’s talking about won’t. The ones in the past that have tried have proven to be an embarrassment to the evolutionist community.

At least a magician will be honest and tell you his tricks are all smoke and mirrors, even if he won’t reveal his secrets.

Evolutionists will try to make you believe in magic.

Answer 3

One of the main factors seems to be language. Although some great apes are capable of learning some language (look up Koko the gorilla), they haven't developed a complex language themselves.

Humans' language ability allows us to do something that no other species can: pass on abstract knowledge from one generation to another. This means each generation can build on the advances of the previous one, which has allowed us to build up our complex cultures and civilisations.

Oh, and Passions Unchained: You're talking nonsense, I'm afraid. Look up "allopatric speciation" for one of the many answers you say evolutionists can't give. Here's a link to get you started: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allopatric_speciation

Answer 4

Opposable thumbs, which allowed use to manipulate tools.

And contrary to what Passion Unchained thinks, there are no animals alive that humans descended from. Humans and Apes share a common ancestor, now extinct. Humans did not evolve from Apes.

Answer 5

I believe the decision to move to the planes from the forests by one set of the great apes started it all ....... gaining the brainpower but losing the physique and the tail.

Even evolution favours the brave and the adventurous provided they can survive!!

Answer 6

Who says we're superior? I don't see any apes running around tearing down the forests, bombing the crap out of their neighbours, thinking up new and exciting drugs to kill their children with, or creating child pornography websites to share with their friends.
Just because we have the intellect to do these things doesn't make us superior.

Answer 7

The frontal lobe of the brain enables us to do the things that other species can't. Notice the sloped foreheads of the apes. Their brain doesn't have the frontal lobe that we do. Nature or God gives us what we need to survive. The human brain was developed because of the need to communicate, build things using tools and to analyze situations for survival.

Answer 8

Do you have evidence about this superior intellect? Have a look around you for God's shake!!!

Answer 9

Cross breeding with aliens! Yep, the vein, arteries and everything except evolution. That came from the Martians!

Answer 10

Unfortunately we don't, an ape would never had voted for Tony Blair