Written by: Mitch Arbelaez on May 10, 2014

From the obscurity of prehistoric beginnings, humanity arose and spread throughout the world conquering and being conquered. The factors leading up to who would become the conquerors and who would be the conquered ones is the main question that Jared Diamond gives a heroic attempt in answering throughout his book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. With a expansive background in molecular physiology, evolutionary biology, biogeography, and physiology, Diamond attempts a mammoth feat in providing some answers to the complexities of why some societies developed faster than others with regards to technology, weapons, and agricultural proficiencies and became the conquering societies while others lacked such advancements and become the conquered ones.

As a biology and pre-med major in my undergrad studies I enjoyed Diamond’s overall approach and appreciated the amount of work that went into such a manuscript. However, as a creationist I did not agree with his overall time line and evolutionary “leap of faith” that he attempted to establish as factual science. Allow me to jump on my soap box as a want-a-be-scientist for a minute. Starting in chapter one Diamond states as a accepted fact with no documentation or collaboration with other scientist that “a population of African apes broke up into several populations, of which one proceeded to evolve into modern gorillas, a second into the two modern chimps, and a third into humans.”[1] He then continues this line of thought introducing the reader to protohumans as “generally known as Australopithecus africanus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus.”[2] Yet evolutionist and paleoanthropologist Professor Joseph Weiner, although claiming Australopithecus as an ancestor of man, has conceded:

The first impression given by all the skulls from the different population of Australopithecus is of distinctly ape-like creature…The ape-like profile of Australopithecus is so pronounced that its outline can be superimposed on that of a female chimpanzee with a remarkable closeness of fit. In this respect, and also in the lack of chin and in the possession of strong supra-orbital ridges, Australopithecus stands in strong contrast to modern Homo sapiens.”[3]

Yet Diamond brought none of these arguments to bear on his work. It is unfortunate that scholars in all fields of the academy demand documentation and engagements with opposing views, that is all fields except for the field of evolution, where scholars make such astonishing claims with little to no factual evidence to support their statements. Faith has to be the only explanation of such intelligent people believing, (even with factual evidence proving the contrary), in such unsustainable pseudoscience.  Evolutionist and paleontologist David Kitts PhD, who at one time was a professor of the school of Geology and Geophysics of the University of Oklahoma states that “evolution, at least in the sense that Darwin speaks of it, cannot be detected within the lifetime of a single observer.”[4] Ok, enough of my soap box.

Other than the “million years” here and “million years” there, I appreciate the body of work that Diamond had to offer. His statement that, “Much of human history has consisted of unequal conflicts between the haves and the have-notes: between peoples with farm power and those without it, or between those who acquired it at different times”[5] was a helpful explanation regarding the factors between the conquerors and the conquered. This along with domesticated animals, axes of continents, ease of migration, all add up to Diamond’s conclusion that “the striking differences between the long-term histories of peoples of the different continents have been due not to innate differences in the peoples themselves but to differences in their environments.”[6]

So, as to the question regarding which societies evolved into conquerors, has a lot to do with both the proximate causation and those of ultimate causation. Such ultimate causation factors detailed out by Diamond were things such as large domesticated animals and food production which sustained larger sedentary populations which, through the continual contact with animals, helped to develop immunities to the very germs that the animals contributed to the human population. Yet it was these larger domesticated animals that allowed larger societies to flourish with greater food production, which allowed for the development of greater governmental infrastructure and greater development of weaponry. Fascinating read! Truly as Diamond stated, “the title of the book” absolutely serves as “shorthand for those proximate factors, which also enabled modern Europeans to conquer peoples of other continents.”[7] It is unfortunate that religion was never brought up as a powerful factor to the development of societies. I truly believe that Diamond is missing out on both a proximate and ultimate causational factor regarding his topic here. Those of us who are blessed by all such factors understand that we have been blessed to be a blessing. May we also remember that to him who is given much much is required. With this let us go forth and conquer just as our Lord has conquered us follow Him into a world where our savior has already conquered. “Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur.” Translated as “Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow Him.”

About the Author

Mitch Arbelaez

International Mission Mobilizers with Go To Nations Living and traveling the world from Jacksonville Florida

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