“Nevertheless you have expressed my inward conviction, though far more vividly and clearly than I could have done, that the Universe is not the result of chance. But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man's mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?”
- Charles Darwin
“Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?”
I would trust a lot of monkeys to be capable of accurately assessing the world around them.
But then, my convictions as a Baptist are in part due to seeing what God has done in my life and being convinced it is Him and not me trying.
Yet look at all the spiritually deceived. How can you trust ANY spiritual belief, and KNOW with 100% certainty that you are right? There is a reason it is called “faith” and not “proof”. We can never know God by the power of our own reason, and neither can we know Truth by the power of our own reason - yet Christian apologetics is the use of reason to support faith.
None of this means the mind, if it did evolve for survival, is totally unreliable for ascertaining the world around us and making reasoned guesses about the future. We all do that every day - monkeys included.