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Are humans animals?

I recently had an interesting albeit frustrating discussion in a class where we were asked to consider what the differences are between humans and animals, and if we are a part of the animal kingdom or not.

I found that the general consensus of the group was that we are not animals, and largely this opinion seemed to derive from a sense of the superiority of humans over animals. The discussion was cut short due to time constraints, and probably with good reason as I was becoming irrationally irritated by what I was hearing. But it left me wondering.. What do you lot think? Are we animals?

Largely I found the reasoning a bit flawed, most people seemed to think that we are not animals, because we possess certain qualities that animals do not, such as creativity, problem-solving, manipulation of resources, compassion, empathy and imagination. This is where I started getting really angry. Because I see animals have many of these traits, often in greater quality and quantity than you see in most humans.

In example:

- Creativity, I was driven to think of bower birds, those clever little avian artists who create 'bowers', little scenes filled with objects which tickle each birds unique fancy, they select objects of shapes and colours which appeal to them personally.

- Problem-solving, well that's laughable that people think animals don't have problem solving capacities.. The New Zealand kea has proved time and time again it can solve complex, multi-step puzzles to reach a reward. Crows do this also. Chimps and other primates have been using tools long before we ever picked up a stick. Seagulls fly way up high and drop shellfish onto rocks to access their gooey innards.

- As for compassion and empathy, whales, dolphins, elephants, even dogs show an incredible capacity for empathy.

When it comes to imagination, how the fuck would we know what goes on inside an animals consciousness?

It might seem irrelevant, but I feel it's not. If we continue to classify ourselves as being "a higher lifeform", separate from the animal kingdom, this further enforces our disconnection from nature. If we see ourselves as being outside the web of life and operating in our own, self-generated paradigm, then we can easily negate our responsibility to interact harmoniously with other lifeforms.

Many indigenous cultures allocate the title of personhood to all creatures, not just humans. A baboon is a person. A praying mantis is a person. A hawk is a person. Each of these branches of people possess unique behaviours and dispositions, which if studied, can be learnt from. Surely this view is more beneficial to overall harmony because with personhood, comes a degree of respect and sovereignty.

I also have issue with the view that humanity is a virus. That we infect a biosphere, reproduce at an alarming rate and utilise all available resources for our own means, without regard for the effect we have on other lifeforms. This view IMHO, while clearly having a high degree of relevance to the behaviour of the human species, also emphasises our difference from all other life forms and negates responsibility on our behalf to behave any differently.

The last pet peeve I have to add, is that the rare time I see direct comparisons being made between humans and animals, so often it is in a purely negative light. For example, comparing politicians to wolves. Wolves have their own, highly sophisticated social structures which allow their packs to function. They live in accordance with the natural ebb and flow. Their actions may appear brutal at times, but there is an implicit higher reasoning, which is concurrent with the laws of nature. Their behaviour is driven towards toughening their own kin towards having the ability to survive. Politicians ain't like this..

Thoughts?

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we are animals. people confuse primates as our ancestors - they are not. they are part of our family tree's evolution.

my ancestors weren't primates , they were warriors.

more to come.

love to all of you lot and stop bickering about extraneous matters and realign yourselves and stop and think =bvefore you talk.

blimey bog, you seem to have a unruly mob of bogettes to control.

x

eth

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Hah, these weren't my bogettes eth, other ones doing like me with their own brand of originality.. But they made my blood boil claiming we are a higher species, without any real back up.

I'm glad to hear you say we are animals.. Of some sort.

What would you say are our ancestors then? Warriors from where? Did they look like we do now?

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Animal

Definition

noun, plural: animals

A living organism belonging to Kingdom Animalia that possess several characteristics that set them apart from other living things, such as:

(1) being eukaryotic (i.e. the cell contains a membrane-bound nucleus) and usually multicellular (unlike bacteria and most protists, an animal is composed of several cells performing specific functions) (

2) being heterotrophic (unlike plants and algae that are autotrophic, an animal depends on another organism for sustenance) and generally digesting food in an internal chamber (such as a digestive tract)

(3) lacking cell wall (unlike plants, algae and some fungi that possess cell walls)

(4) being generally motile, that is being able to move voluntarily

(5) embryos passing through a blastula stage

(6) possessing specialized sensory organs for recognizing and responding to stimuli in the environment

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Dare I...

" In my opinion, the ET's by an artificial mutation they created the intelligence of humans, then the ET's disappeared. And some of our ancestors had again sex with their ancestors, with ape like beings and that was gone into mythology "original sin".

Then they returned again, The gods, they realized what happened, and they decided to destroy the whole race by a great flood and to re start the experiment again with what we call in mythology, Noah.

Thats old texts, thats the way it is."

~ Erich von Daniken ~

Edited by micoz
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It frustrates me to Bog when people think we are a superior species. We do have the ability and are continuing to find the knowledge to become one(maybe not superior but intelligent and caring), yet seem to go the other direction.


I also have issue with the view that humanity is a virus. That we infect a biosphere, reproduce at an alarming rate and utilise all available resources for our own means, without regard for the effect we have on other lifeforms. This view IMHO, while clearly having a high degree of relevance to the behaviour of the human species, also emphasises our difference from all other life forms and negates responsibility on our behalf to behave any differently.

I use too(as in 2 days ago) totally agree with this. The more I learn about the evolution of our planet tho it seems most living species compete to survive with no regards to the other species. Even the awesome symbiotic relationships I have learned about, as beautiful as they are, is about a species surviving. Dinosaurs vs Vegetation, Grasses vs Trees.

In saying that, a difference between plants/animals and humans is we have the ability and knowledge, as you said, " to interact harmoniously with other lifeforms". We can co-exist, preserve and protect other species.

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They might be somewhat self aware, but they don't have much understanding. The kids, that is.

It is obvious we are animals, we are biological and we fit into the family tree of this planet really rather obviously.

Whether we developed our particular intelligence through alien intervention or through evolution is debatable.

But the fact that we are animals is not.

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When I worked at a Tech College I would always answer interdepartmental phone calls by saying

"Hello, primates cage"

The head of the department hated it, but everyone seemed to know they had the right dept.

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The only answer to questions like this is to get up and walk out of the room.

shame on whoever asked you to discuss this in a class! :)

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They might be somewhat self aware, but they don't have much understanding. The kids, that is.

I have to clarify, these were all adults. Teachers.

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teachers saying humans aren't animals?

oh dear, perhaps you could politely suggest they take a biology course

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In the sence of what is animal. We are animal for shore!

Were just a fucked up version of the monkey/ape category.

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i wonder if dogs dreaming is evidence of imagination, or at least a capacity to imagine abstract scenarios?

but perhaps chimpanzees have an active imagination too?

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130207-can-animals-imagine

Your link seemed to be broken for me, this works but looks just the same: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130207-can-animals-imagine

Cool article! Thanks. I liked it a lot, especially the chimp making a nest for baby log.

Dreaming dogs are interesting too. When they are running while lying down. I wonder why it is that their brains not shut off their movement capabilities? I think my cat dreams, I reckon she has nightmares sometimes.

Micoz....you dared :o!

I recently watched a "doco" called 'Monkey Blood - Human Origins' which claimed much the same thing. I don't know what I think yet, and weather I trust their information as reliable, but they mentioned something rather interesting, which is that roughly 85% of the human population carries a gene derived from the Rhesus monkey, this is known as Rh+, and 15% of the population does not possess this gene, and are known as Rh-. There are differences between these two types, and reproductive incompatibility. If a Rh- woman falls pregnant to an Rh+ man, her body will rejects attack and kills the featus. Studies to assess differences found that Rh- people commonly have a higher than average IQ, sensitive vision, a lower than average body temperate, increased sensitivity to heat and sunlight and psychic abilities, as well as commonly reporting a feeling of not belonging to the human race and not coming from earth. They can't receive blood transfusions from Rh+ and some even have an extra vertebrae or an extra rib. Since Rh- blood hasn't followed the usual evolutionary path, it must have been introduced from a foreign source.

...and the designated source in this statement was of course aliens.. Backed up by mention of the arrivals of 'gods from the sky' in ancient texts by the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Chaldeans, Mayans, Azteks, Ayrians, Assyrians and the inhabitants of ancient Indian Tibet.

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teachers saying humans aren't animals?

oh dear, perhaps you could politely suggest they take a biology course

*sigh* yes.. Going to be Steiner teachers. But mostly state trained already.

I think they were thinking metaphorically more than literally.

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It frustrates me to Bog when people think we are a superior species. We do have the ability and are continuing to find the knowledge to become one(maybe not superior but intelligent and caring), yet seem to go the other direction.

I use too(as in 2 days ago) totally agree with this. The more I learn about the evolution of our planet tho it seems most living species compete to survive with no regards to the other species. Even the awesome symbiotic relationships I have learned about, as beautiful as they are, is about a species surviving. Dinosaurs vs Vegetation, Grasses vs Trees.

In saying that, a difference between plants/animals and humans is we have the ability and knowledge, as you said, " to interact harmoniously with other lifeforms". We can co-exist, preserve and protect other species.

It can be noted that nature is characterised by brutal competition, but someone/something (I can't remember what now) once pointed out to me that this competitive battle between life forms is infact what allows everything to live. The example given was the relationship between antelopes and lions. If the lions were not present to keep the antelope population supressed to a certain extent, then the antelopes would breed themselves into extinction, exhausting the available food supply and decimating their own species through unchecked growth. The lions allow the antelope to survive by hunting them.

Perhaps this is the human races problem. We have so few natural predators.

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animal -

when you are

.. the human


limits !

Edited by mysubtleascention

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Nah, humans ain't animals. The truth is that 75 million years ago xenu brought our ancestors to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes, and killed them with hydrogen bombs

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Ofcourse we are animals. Just because we have crap like religion and culture doesn't make us any better than other species

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straight up - animal. your only reason for existence is to pass on your genetic code to the next generation.

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defo animals beyond all shadow of a doubt [regardless of source :innocent_n: ]

..perhaps in a category of power animals that have some immense collective and singular abilities in an extremely diverse manner.

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shame on whoever asked you to discuss this in a class! :)

To be fair to the teachers it is a good philosophical argument to get the students talking.

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dont know if im a animal or a kunt ?? i have been told i was a cross once ..

TOO the people that hate the word k***t sorry :scratchhead::innocent_n:

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