Man or animal?

Beams with delight ,wags his tail and feels the urge to urinate.Oops off topic, asminasgara is on the prowl.

Quote: mike the wiz:You say all life is equal? Have you ever squatted a fly? have you ever squashed an ant? do you eat meat?I say I respect all life equally, I recognise that no form of life is more divine than another. I also act as all life does. I have swatted a fly, people have been killed by spiders, whats your point?

While MessenJah's making his point a little arrgoantly, I think he does have one, although not in the way he thinks, I think.Humans are basically outcompeting any and all organisms in our niche - a niche that seems to be getting larger all the time. I mean, is there any plant or animal that could give us a run for our money? Not on this planet, I think.I'm not saying we're "better" - that's a pretty stupid kind of comparison to make - but in terms of competition for resources, we're literally number 1. No other organism on this planet could outcompete us, could it?

Quote:If we were on the same level of animals we wouldn't be arguing right now, or making inferences on why we exist.I talk of mans attitude that he is superior. You talk of our obvious superiority because we have no predators.Quote: INTELLIGENCE TO INVENT PLANES MAYBE.Rash words, do u know the design for planes is based on birds (obviously), and that without looking at the shape of a birds wing first man would not be travelling through the air. You neglect the fact that all our knowledge comes from the world around us, from many sources including animals.Im beginning to think your trying to act as an example for my point, that mans ego is larger than the world he lives in.

quote:

---

messenjaH, they will support any nonsense talk,rather than admitt a creationist has a good point to make. You just have to get used to it at the evc.

---

Thak you for that Mike. Wiser words at evc, in my opinion were never spoken.------------------
-chris

Mike the wiz,
Quote:
The word of God has told us we are made in the image of God.The word of god was written by men. Its mans perspective.

quote:

---

Ok Mark, I am inferior to a beetle because I can't fly. Look at what you're writing. Well I can fly actually, because we have INTELLIGENCE TO INVENT PLANES MAYBE.

---

So... before we invented planes, beetles were superior? But now we are? Awfully confusing stuff, this arbitrary superiority.

crashfrog writes:

quote:

---

No other organism on this planet could outcompete us, could it?

---

Well, the bacteria still have an edge on all other life. They make up the largest amount of living organisms. And that's by sheer weight.A question that might help to clear it up would be to find out just how much life is in the oceans compared to on dry land. Humans still have a hard time living underwater.------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

Ok, it was a joke, to try to explain my point.------------------
-chris

quote:

---

Rash words, do u know the design for planes is based on birds (obviously), and that without looking at the shape of a birds wing first man would not be travelling through the air. You neglect the fact that all our knowledge comes from the world around us, from many sources including animals.

---

I know this, this is also how we come to the conclusion we are superior to them, obviously.------------------
-chris

messenjah
In post #11 you state
Other life forms do not have souls, they just die, and when they die that is it.This is an excerpt from the bibleEcc 3:21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?I am confused?
------------------[This message has been edited by sidelined, 10-14-2003]

I do have one other question that needs to be cleared up here. We look upon ourselves as so far above other life forms.Messejah states that we can build airplanes unlike animals but who here can build their own.Are we capable of building our own homes individually without the aid of others? Who among you could survive outside the cocoon of organised society?Should society as a whole fall apart could you even assure yourself of clean drinking water. How about hunting and killing and cleaning your own food? How about sanitation?This is not to say that doom is upon us but to remind us that it is not such a great length of time in which we have been great predators.We are for the most part incapable of facing nature on the same terms as do animals.Try going into the deep woods without anything and see if prayer and brains get you very far.

Advice for life, Chris. If you gotta explain the punchline, there is no joke.

quote:

---

INVENTING ON AN EXTREMELY SIMPLE LEVEL. LOOK WHAT WE CAN DO. YEAAAAAH...

---

You do realize that technology expands capabilities on an exponential curve, right? It is amazing to see just how close to us in intelligence our nearest relatives are.Chimpanzees are typically about one year behind children in most tasks - for example, averaging learning to recognize that one thing can represent another at age 4 instead of three (the typical experiment performed is to hide a miniature toy or piece of food in a model of a room that the subject has never been in before, and then to take them into the room to see if they can figure out where the toy or food is).Another example is the use of tools to solve problems. By age 2, most human children can figure out that, if there is a tube with a piece of candy in it, and they have a stick that fits inside it, they can push the candy out. It typically takes chimpanzees till age 3.Chimpanzees can be taught to read. They can be taught sign language. Most higher primates, when taught how to communicate with us, can have a significant (although not huge) vocabulary, but typically only speak in very simple sentences (2 words or so). They even show traits that we have but are not particularly proud of - they'll even lie or cheat if they think it can get them an advantage.Learning to use simple sticks to prod at termine mounds or gather insects expanded our niche. Sharpening them or attaching pointy rocks to the end drasticly expanded our defense and offense. Refining these tools made us the top predator on the planet. The discovery of agriculture led to a population boom. The advance of metalworking led to an invention and weaponry boom. Each invention led to the exponential advance of society's tech level and capabilities over the previous society. Those with only simple tools have, consequently, been confined to remote regions with less competition.------------------
"Illuminant light,
illuminate me."

quote:

---

I mean, is there any plant or animal that could give us a run for our money?

---

Two answers to this...1) Yes, we may end up eliminating ourselves from the picure through nuclear holocaust, war, etc.2) Yes, if a particularly virulent disease pops up it may decimate our species enough so that it may not recover.