Father Heathen
Veteran Member
Biologically, no, not really.
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Are human beings animals?
- Thread starter Anto
- Start date
Biologically, no, not really.
Skwim
Veteran Member
Indeed. Well Skwimmed, sir!
taykair
Active Member
What a piece of work is man, How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, In form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel, In apprehension how like a god, The beauty of the world, The paragon of animals. (Hamlet. Act II. Scene 2.)
I know that the above quotation is out of context, and that Hamlet actually meant the opposite. However, I can't help but see those noble qualities in us.
Yes, taxonomically, man is an animal. But he is also more.
I know that the above quotation is out of context, and that Hamlet actually meant the opposite. However, I can't help but see those noble qualities in us.
Yes, taxonomically, man is an animal. But he is also more.
Since the taxonomic classifications are based on the evolutionary theory, one can get a bit lost in the definitions, but according to the dictionary, an "animal" is "a living organism which feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli." So according to that definition, we are biological animals.....but there is a lot more to us than meets the eye.
Think of the ways in which humans differ from animals......e.g.....in language, we have verbal communication, body language, facial expression, hand gestures and the written form. Animals have their own means of communication but none have the same variety of communication as humans do.
Intelligence in humans is more advanced than in any other "animal". We can build and invent structures that are enormous and imposing, but we need to learn the skills. Animals are programmed by instinct.
We also have the ability to plan based on imagination. Only humans have a concept of past, present and future, so they can use information from the past to plan a future activity based on what an imagined outcome might be. Compared with the instinct that drives animals, humans alone being made in the image of their Creator can reflect his ability to foresee certain eventualities.
Instinct might prompt a squirrel to store food for the winter, but he does not consciously do that. He is programmed to keep himself alive through a harsh winter by doing so.
Birds, whales and butterflies migrate, but they don't know why.....they just know that they must do so by the instinct that drives them. How do they know where to go?
Spiders spin webs using a material secreted from their bodies that acts as a sticky net to catch food.
Science is trying to duplicate the strength of a spider's web in a rope that, if it was of equivalent strength, it could catch and hold a Jumbo Jet in mid flight.
Birds build nests of the same style and shape as their parents, yet no one teaches them how to do it, and none of the babies was alive when their parents built their nests....programming needs a programmer IMO.
What about the Arts.....think of the ways humans can express themselves through art, music, poetry, literature and theater.
Think of the ability to copy a scene on canvas that is transferred from the eye to the brain and then to the hand to replicate the scene with a brush and paint.......or the ability to create music and the multitude of instruments that humans have invented to express their emotions with sound. All of the Arts are a reflection of the Creator and his abilities bestowed on us as his representatives on earth.
These things make me know that we are much more than just animals.
ImmortalFlame
Woke gremlin
So why do you think that any of these traits qualify as something that make us "more" than animals? What does that even mean?Since the taxonomic classifications are based on the evolutionary theory, one can get a bit lost in the definitions, but according to the dictionary, an "animal" is "a living organism which feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli." So according to that definition, we are biological animals.....but there is a lot more to us than meets the eye.
Think of the ways in which humans differ from animals......e.g.....in language, we have verbal communication, body language, facial expression, hand gestures and the written form. Animals have their own means of communication but none have the same variety of communication as humans do.
Intelligence in humans is more advanced than in any other "animal". We can build and invent structures that are enormous and imposing, but we need to learn the skills. Animals are programmed by instinct.
We also have the ability to plan based on imagination. Only humans have a concept of past, present and future, so they can use information from the past to plan a future activity based on what an imagined outcome might be. Compared with the instinct that drives animals, humans alone being made in the image of their Creator can reflect his ability to foresee certain eventualities.
Instinct might prompt a squirrel to store food for the winter, but he does not consciously do that. He is programmed to keep himself alive through a harsh winter by doing so.
Birds, whales and butterflies migrate, but they don't know why.....they just know that they must do so by the instinct that drives them. How do they know where to go?
Spiders spin webs using a material secreted from their bodies that acts as a sticky net to catch food.
Science is trying to duplicate the strength of a spider's web in a rope that, if it was of equivalent strength, it could catch and hold a Jumbo Jet in mid flight.
Birds build nests of the same style and shape as their parents, yet no one teaches them how to do it, and none of the babies was alive when their parents built their nests....programming needs a programmer IMO.
What about the Arts.....think of the ways humans can express themselves through art, music, poetry, literature and theater.
Think of the ability to copy a scene on canvas that is transferred from the eye to the brain and then to the hand to replicate the scene with a brush and paint.......or the ability to create music and the multitude of instruments that humans have invented to express their emotions with sound. All of the Arts are a reflection of the Creator and his abilities bestowed on us as his representatives on earth.
These things make me know that we are much more than just animals.
Well I believe that this is rather self evident.
If you can read my post and respond as you have, I am left to ponder your ability to make an objective evaluation of the evidence.
Do you eat hamburger?
Therefore?
Lions and tigers eat us too. Animals do eat other animals.
So...you eat human flesh?
Buddha Dharma
Dharma Practitioner
I think that humans ARE animals explains why our base instincts often overcome our better angels. There is an animal still there within human beings. It's our base, natural state. I think we can transcend the animal though. These are limitations in the faculties that produce ignorance, and such. If some people have transcended the faculties, or at least their corrupting influences- they effectively ceased being animal by inclination. I've seen Buddhist practice described somewhere as going from being animals (ruled by the appetites, passions, etc) to being true human- because as we break bad habits and impulses through practice, the animal nature is weakened and snuffed out.
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Very few animals eat their own species. Tigers don't eat other tigers. Nor do dogs eat other dogs.
Grandliseur
Well-Known Member
The Bible clearly states that we are animals.
Ecclesiastes 3:18-19 18 I, even I, have said in my heart with regard to the sons of mankind that the [true] God is going to select them, that they may see that they themselves are beasts. 19 For there is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit, so that there is no superiority of the man over the beast, for everything is vanity.
Yet chimpanzees do, a supposedly 'close relative.'
Furthermore, if offspring aren't theirs, they've been known.
So did many human tribes.
There is evidence, both archaeological and genetic, that cannibalism has been practiced for tens of thousands of years.[45] Human bones that have been "de-fleshed" by other humans go back 600,000 years. The oldest Homo sapiensbones (from Ethiopia) show signs of this as well.[45] Some anthropologists, such as Tim White, suggest that ritual cannibalism was common in human societies prior to the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period. This theory is based on the large amount of "butchered human" bones found in Neanderthal and other Lower/Middle Paleolithic sites.[46] Cannibalism in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages.[47] It has been also suggested that removing dead bodies through ritual cannibalism might have been a means of predator control, aiming to eliminate predators' and scavengers' access to hominid (and early human) bodies.[48] Jim Corbettproposed that after major epidemics, when human corpses are easily accessible to predators, there are more cases of man-eating leopards,[49] so removing dead bodies through ritual cannibalism (before the cultural traditions of burying and burning bodies appeared in human history) might have had practical reasons for hominids and early humans to control predation.
In Gough's Cave, England, remains of human bones and skulls, around 14,700 years old, suggest that cannibalism took place amongst the people living in or visiting the cave,[50] and that they may have used human skulls as drinking vessels.[51][52][53]
Researchers have found physical evidence of cannibalism in ancient times. In 2001, archaeologists at the University of Bristol found evidence of Iron Agecannibalism in Gloucestershire.[54] Cannibalism was practiced as recently as 2000 years ago in Great Britain.[55]
Human cannibalism - Wikipedia
However, there were several well-documented cultures that engaged in regular eating of the dead, such as New Zealand's Māori. In an 1809 incident known as the Boyd massacre, about 66 passengers and crew of the Boyd were killed and eaten by Māori on the Whangaroa peninsula, Northland. Cannibalism was already a regular practice in Māori wars.[83] In another instance, on July 11, 1821, warriors from the Ngapuhi tribe killed 2,000 enemies and remained on the battlefield "eating the vanquished until they were driven off by the smell of decaying bodies".[84] Māori warriors fighting the New Zealand government in Titokowaru's War in New Zealand's North Island in 1868–69 revived ancient rites of cannibalism as part of the radical Hauhau movement of the Pai Marirereligion.[85]
Humans, like chimps, are one of the few species of animals that does resort to cannibalism in times of war and food shortage.
There are many species that cannibalize other same-species members, probably even more during colony conflicts!But if we really consider ourselves equal to animals, why does society prohibit eating human meat but allow animal meat?
That's the issue.
But if you think otherwise, then you should have no qualms eating a human. "Animal meat is animal meat', right?
If a building caught on fire, and you could only save one life, your beloved pet dog or a human baby you didn't know...... which one would you save?
Buddha Dharma
Dharma Practitioner
I think the only way we rise above being animals, is when we think there is something higher that we aspire toward. Why argue though that in our base nature we aren't animals? I'd say from a history of social systems and how they each work- it's apparent our base nature is animal.