What does it mean to be Human?

[Willamena]

:eat:Mmm... money.

 

[lamplighter]

Nothing separates us from animals, we may differentiate from other animals but we exhibit way too many shared characteristics with other animals. As others stated already there really is a low number of individuals who don't seem to really concern themselves with anything else except shelter, food, and sex. There are also a number of species that are also self aware so this doesn't make us human just more intelligent than alot of other species. We are capable of the abstract concept of a higher power. Which brings ups the question why are people talking about us being close to god and what not in a Secularist thread? IF there is a god we would actually be further away from it than MOST of the animal kingdom based upon the fact we are empathetic and fully accountable for our actions and we are highly intelligent (though with much debate), where as other living things return back to the higher power by default as they only did what they were only supposed to do in life as predetermined by the higher power initially. Anyway the one thing that could be said about humans is that they have a wide variety of social structures compared to the other living things on this earth do to our higher intelligence. But take away our cars our houses our grocery stores and, throw a group of average people together in a wilderness and they behave little different than any other group of primates. Though they would complain much more than other groups if this were to happen they're biggest difference would be the use of fire, for chimps have now been observed use long sharped poles a.k.a spears to hunt monkeys in the trees, and also use sex in some regions as social interaction for pleasure with one another. So what does it mean to be human? Not a whole lot, just the ability to burden ourselves with such questions and many more whilst the rest of animal kingdom continues to enjoy life to the full extant of there mental capabilities.

 

[Kungfuzed]

"I am not a number!" Yeah!

But what separates human from animal? Must we fall back on science and genus to differentiate that?

Culture maybe? Language? Cerebral cortex?

 

[atlanticslamon]

To be human is to be lucky. We are one of the few species to be consciously aware of our actions (sapient). We ARE the only species with an imagination, unlike our ice-age cousins homo sapiens neanderthalensis (Hope i got the scientific name right). We have THE most complex brain of any animal species.

 

[zenzero]

Friend willamena,

What does it mean to be human?

Just add a developed MINd to whatever
It means to be a *MONKEY*

Love & rgds

 

[Caladan]

Humans, the social organism that advances, and has come to manage this planet, although has still not realized the responsibility that comes with it.
once we have come to manage this planet, it is something we have to stick with, and the ideal is to become care takers. although we have at our disposal the human mind, we are still part of the chain of life, and 'whatever we do to the web- we do to ourselves'.
A human being can develop and grow into living beyond the cycle of survival, that is, a human being can learn and experience things that will enrich their intellectual world; to indulge themselves in Art, poetry, music, philosophy and Gnosis.

We are members of the family of humanity, even in our days as hunter-gatherers, the different groups have worked to obtain contact with each other, and that is something we can still see in groups of hunter-gatherers today.

For us, Everything begins with the mind.

 

[BucephalusBB]

Simple enough question; we all are one. What does it mean to be human?

I could copy paste wikipedia... but, I think you can find that yourself

 

[Arthemesia]

I whish to be a demon so I can hvae magic spells scare you!!! :cover:

 

[Lilbeth]

Human , means to me, just something we call our particular species on this earth....Desmond Morris calls us the "Naked Ape..." Yes, we do have the ability to land on the moon, but we can also destroy more than any other species around......it seems.....but then we have viruses and things also capable of destroying, too, I suppose......but we do have the ability to wipe it all out in one brush stroke......I am proud of the first , only.

 

[Willamena]

I could copy paste wikipedia... but, I think you can find that yourself

That wouldn't tell me what it means, though. Only you or I can do that through our interpretation of what's written there coupled with our expressions of the experience of "being human" all our lives.

 

[Imagist]

Simple enough question; we all are one. What does it mean to be human?

To be an animal of the genus homo.

To me, the distinction between sentience and non-sentience is much more important than the distinction between human and non-human.

 

[jrbogie]

Simple enough question; we all are one. What does it mean to be human?

means nothing other than for each of us to perpetuate the species. as is the task of every species. yeah, like these easy ones.