The issue at hand is the arrival of thought that brings the animal nature to man to explain away religion, because religion is the only thing that explains what it is to be man. Man has always been man with his flaws, solutions, mistakes, and creativity. Human civilization just like wars are constructed by the victors – however that view is a modern one. Chesterton brings the argument away from the time battle to the issue of ‘Is there really a difference between us in the present and those in the past?’ Chapter 2: Professors and Prehistoric Men

By changing the time-frame, playing the blame game, changing a optimizing decision to a sufficiency decision, the issue is left behind. In argumentation there is a tactic known as a time shift – a ‘red herring’ where the scope of an issue is trumped by the chronology of the issue. The slow development of man is in fact more illogical than a swift development, the time of the process has nothing to do with the process itself. The cave man is a man like us because of his art, it is only the misrepresentation of the man of science that makes the ‘pre-historic’ man an animal. Whereas Orthodoxy detailed Chesterton’s own spiritual journey, in this book he tries to illustrate the spiritual journey of humanity, or at least of Western civilization.

The Everlasting Man is a two-part history of mankind, Christ, and Christianity, by G. Attributed work at: Introduction: The Plan of This Book

The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton