Humans at the Top
Chesterton gives the impression that humans are the greatest race of animals that have ever and will ever exist. This is because humans have a great sense of reason, that no other animal appears to have. While it is indeed undeniable that humans have accomplished the most on this planet, other animals cannot simply be discounted. Chesterton does not take into account that many other animals, especially apes, have reasonable and problem solving abilities, that could eventually evolve into smarter beings. Chesterton instead states that the trait of reason seen in humans was given by a divine being.
Evolution
Chesterton is interesting in that he does not completely contest evolution. He states that, for sure, humans have evolved physically over time. Whether or not Chesterton actually believed these claims, of course, is something we will never know. At a time when evolution was spreading like wildfire, Chesterton could have implemented the idea in his book simply to gain attention or support from those that believed in the topic, and otherwise would have simply overlooked his ideas.
Chesterton does say that the idea of evolution cannot be applied to so many other fields like it had been. Religion is one example that he gives. Religion, he says, was not simply just something that would have happened naturally - Christianity was the religion that humans were looking for all along, but just never found.
