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By Daniel April 17, 2014 In Blog

Language is Innate – Science and religion agree

“And He blew into his nostrils the soul of life; and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:19). This is the Genesis account of how man acquired his divine soul. “Living being” is interpreted as “a speaking spirit.” Thus the biblical position is that humans are uniquely endowed with the power to speak. In other words language is innate (meaning: possessed at birth; possessed as an essential characteristic; or produced by the mind rather than learned through experience).
What about science?
Scientists who study linguistics have been divided on the question of whether language is innate or learned. Linguist Noam Chomsky argues that there are patterns that occur in human languages that cannot be learned by simply listening to what other people say. Humans seem to be born with an innate ability to sift out patterns that aren’t obvious from the speech around them so they can create those patterns. Others disagree with Chomsky about the extent to which language is innate. Some believe that language is largely learned uniquely and differently by different kinds of people.
What does the latest research indicate?
“People instinctively organise a new language according to a logical hierarchy, not simply by learning which words go together, as computer translation programs do. The research may add further support to the notion that humans possess a ‘universal grammar’, or innate capacity for language.” For more on this latest research see http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25334-born-to-chat-humans-may-have-innate-language-instinct.html#.U09o9Ve0Rjs

The Broken Gift, addresses all unique human characteristics, from the biblical and scientific perspective, showing remarkable agreement between scripture and the latest peer reviewed science. In particular, it shows that speech is a uniquely human ability and is innate.

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