Implied superiority like the "cooler than you title?"
Haha, oh stop you're making me blush.
I make no claim to be an academic, scientist or other expert. I am a normal person with a particular philosophy that I defend. They are my beliefs. I do not speak for anyone else. I am here to debate, not have a ******* match.
Not claiming it doesn't make it disappear. Your OP asked a question which I answered. Your response to that answer included a quote from a book that YOU wrote. And you even presented it as though it was just a book you read to try and lend some illusory second opinion to your argument, when in fact it was just your own words. It wasn't until I suggested you contact the author to participate in the debate that you owned up to it as some sort of "Gotcha!" to prove me wrong on SOMETHING since the argument you make had fallen short.
Personally, I firmly believe that we are different than the rest of the natural world in our ability in a way that is often against the natural system. Uniquely, we can do unnatural things that do not exist in the natural world. Yes I agree that there will always be life on the planet, we are the only ones that can kill most of it.
Interesting. A moment ago we could:
permanently destroy the environment,
Now we can only:
What an interesting turn of events.
I have had many pets and have seen documentaries too. I have not seen anything that is even remotely close to what we can do, as shown by the way we have modified our world through history.
Now that sounds hauntingly like:
Two, we have oral and written language capacity. That means that we are not limited by the physical memories of our lifetime. We learn from our dead ancestors. No other species has developed this capacity to my knowledge. This allows us to learn from memories we don't even have
Which is something I said. What another surprising turn of events.
I refuse to accept we are under the same natural constraints as other species. We aren't. We can change genetics for example. How is this natural?
Howdy, straw man! I never said we were identical to animals, did I? Did I say we are constrained by the same things? No, I didn't. In fact, I pointed out the key differences between us and other animals. I specifically outlined them. How would that in any way translate to us being under the same natural constraints as other species? The similarity is that we are bound by evolution just as other animals are. We don't get to choose out. We have only slowed it down and changed its direction by modifying our environment to suit us instead of the other way around. Hosts of other animals do this as well. It is a product of intelligence. Ours is just better, more evolved if you will.
As for genetic changes... what do you think natural selection is all about? Keeping things the same?
If I commit a crime, am I not a criminal?
If a lion kills a man, do we not punish it? If a dog steals food from my table, do I not punish it? Just because calling them a criminal means nothing to them, does not mean animals don't commit wrongs that would be criminal otherwise. Observe your pets objectively and you might find more humanity there than you expected.
If I commit an unnatural act, am I not unnatural?
There is no such thing as unnatural. We are not apart from nature we are a part of it. All the things we do are natural. This is the nature of humanity.
These are my opinions and I do not claim to represent other people.
Well, that's fine you are welcome to your opinion. But you asked for mine and attempted to discredit it. So far your opinion seems to be that I am wrong without ever having to qualify that position. That's fine, too. I will simply reiterate my original post which you have in no way, shape, or form been able to respond to beyond flights of fancy. I will continue to believe that god regards us very much in the same vein that he regards the slugs in my garden. They thrive. So do we. This pleases god in equal measure because we are all part of the same evolutionary chain.
I neither said nor implied that chimps go mad in cages. You implied that humans do. Although, if apes are so imaginative and physically versatile, why is there such a huge gap between what we do and what they do?
No, what you implied is that chimps are inferior because caged chimps scream at each other and throw feces. I offered prison populations as a parallel to this behavior, and you ASKED me if Mandella went crazy in prison. I responded with the fact that chimps don't go crazy either. Do you see how each response is tailored to discredit your response? This is the nature of debate. You make a point. I counter it. Then you try a different point. I counter that as well. Now you are attempting strawman arguments because you can't discredit my arguments, so you must discredit me instead. Sad, really. Its poor debating and really ineffective. Especially on a snarky little jerk like me.