Oller and Umdahl have said, “The rate of vocabulary acquisition is so high at certain stages of life and the precision and delicacy of the concepts acquired so remarkable that it seems necessary to conclude that in some manner the conceptual system with which lexical items are connected is already substantially in place.” Wow. That’s technical language to say there’s something going on in the abstract reasoning capability of a human brain that demands the acquisition of language to satisfy it. And we all begin to see that with the children, don’t we? They begin to speak and they begin to acquire the complexity of communication in language.
Noam Chomski who is a great Jewish linguist has shown that the ability to learn language is a given in being human. He demonstrates that even the higher apes are unable to deal with the number system or with any abstract properties of space or in general with any abstract system of expressions. Chomski speaks elsewhere of initially given structures of mind and deep structures in humans which give rise to universal grammar…listen…invariant among humans. That’s true. You can take any language that exists and translate it into any other language that exists because the structural components of language are identical. They’re literally part of the fabric of the image of God so that we who are relational beings with personhood can connect. All the hard wiring is there.
His research, by the way, this Naham Chomski, on the uniqueness of the human species as regards language is so convincing that he is not welcomed in evolutionists circles. They have labeled him as a creationist which he denies. Unlike apes and other living creatures, human capacity for language is a door into the eternal realm. It’s a door into the presence of God. And it demands the recognition that we have been created on a heavenly pattern for communication with one another and communication with our creator who made us in His image.
Oller and Umdahl write, quote: “Our capacity for language cannot have originated within the narrow confines of any finite duration of experience. If all the eons of the space-time world could be multiplied clear to infinity, the material world would still fail to account for the abstract conceptions that any human being can easily conceive of through the gift of language,” end quote. Amazing. Only a speaking God could have made speaking persons, right? God communicates and so do we. So we are made thusly in His image.
Next week we’ll go to those remaining points. Man being king of the earth, propagator of life and recipient of rich blessing.
Lord, it’s been a wonderful day and a wonderful evening considering all these things. We thank You for the power of the Word, to clear the cobwebs and confusion out of minds so often planted there by unbelieving people. We thank You that Your Word is clear. And we want to be faithful to it in every sense. And we acknowledge You as the creator who created in just the way that is described in Scripture, that You have made us to have a relationship with You. You have made us for Yourself and we’re restless until that relationship is made. Thank You that’s it’s possible to know You as well as to know each other. Thank You that the best of life is found in personal relationships and the best of all is to have a relationship with You, our creator and our Savior. We are so privileged, so blessed and so grateful. Amen.
© 1997 Grace to You
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
