At first glance, this seems like a reasonable objection for a creationist to make. After all, if the Big Bang started everything at the same time, then why didn’t the apes that we see in zoos have the same opportunities to evolve into humans – especially since humans proved it could be done?

Getting the obvious out of the way: humans are apes. We are as much an ape as a gorilla or a chimpanzee, but that’s only a technicality when it comes to the point being discussed. And no scientist believes that humans evolved from a creature such as a gorilla or a chimpanzee. We have a common ancestor with such apes, but that’s as far as it goes.

The real answer to the question is simple: the creatures that the question supposes are lesser-developed than humans, simply evolved from different evolutionary paths to humans aeons ago, and there’s no reason to assume that those paths started at the same time, evolved as rapidly as each other, or didn’t take a different or perhaps longer path. The following diagram shows some of those paths for apes:

There may even have been some set-backs (e.g. adverse mutations or semi-extinctions) down some of the paths, which delayed development. There’s also the point that many animals have evolved to be magnificent survivors in their native environment (especially alpha predators) and therefore there probably isn’t a strong reason for further radical evolution. Are creationists seriously suggesting that there’s going to be some reason for gorillas to one day evolve into something resembling a human being? Why?

For all animals, the driving force in their evolution is to survive (by breeding) changes in their environment and climate; not to somehow try to become more like humans.

The other point to remember is whether some of the animals being considered by creationists are actually inferior to their human counterparts? Sure, our brains may be superior, but you try surviving in a jungle when you are in competition with gorillas. Gorillas are known to be about five times stronger than the average man. That aspect doesn’t sound too inferior.

Which is not to say that evolution isn’t happening to all creatures on Earth. Of course it is. There are species of primitive animals in the ocean today who, in hundreds of millions of years, will evolve into mighty creatures – long after humans have either gone extinct or evolved into something arising from our current form.

So the question is actually a (slightly more sophisticated) strawman argument because humans didn’t evolve from apes (we are apes), and there’s no unfathomable mystery as to why other apes ended up being different to humans – in terms of evolution.