Rational Agnostic
Well-Known Member
I'm always puzzled when highly religious individuals insist that humans are not animals. What is your evidence that humans should not be considered animals, and if we are not animals, then what are we? I can think of a zillion anatomical similarities between humans and other mammals. We're smarter of course, but other than that, our anatomy is 99% the same. We also go through embryonic stages that literally depict our evolutionary history. I have never been able to understand the position that humans are somehow distinct from the rest of the animal kingdom. Even if you do not accept the fact of evolution, you should be able to recognize the anatomical similarities that humans share with the rest of the animal kingdom (especially other mammals), and should at the very least believe that your god designed humans using the same basic blueprint as he used for all of the other animals (or mammals, or even more obviously primates). My questions are: How could you possibly believe that humans are not animals, and furthermore, if humans are not animals, how should we be classified?
To me, the nested structure of life is strong empirical evidence for evolution. The fact that animals can so easily be classified based on anatomical similarities points to common ancestry between different species, with more similar species sharing more recent common ancestors than species that differ more greatly in anatomy (in general). Of course there are mountains of other evidences for evolution, but this is the most empirically obvious in my opinion.
To me, the nested structure of life is strong empirical evidence for evolution. The fact that animals can so easily be classified based on anatomical similarities points to common ancestry between different species, with more similar species sharing more recent common ancestors than species that differ more greatly in anatomy (in general). Of course there are mountains of other evidences for evolution, but this is the most empirically obvious in my opinion.