Power Line: Planet of the Apes

Powerline Blog reports on an AP story that quotes some scientists to view the studies on apes as leading to insights in human nature, insights that might have utopian implications. John Hindraker demurs: "It's extremely unlikely that anything that could be observed about the bonobo would cause me to believe in the perfectibility of human nature. It's interesting, though, to contemplate the quest for insight into human nature via the apes in the context of news coverage of the selection of Pope Benedict. The conventional view is that religion in general, and Catholicism in particular, represents a backward, primitive way of looking at the world, and especially at human nature, compared to modern, progressive science. But who do you think has a more sophisticated understanding of human nature: Cardinal Ratzinger, the new pope, or the researcher who believes that studying bonobos can enable humans to construct an 'ideal world'?"