What made humans evolve to be so powerful? We have no natural predators, we rule the world, and have virtually no competition in the animal kingdom. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and I was wondering if anyone had any theories. Sometimes it almost seems like human's destiny as a species is to destroy the earth and all other animals. How and why would evolution create a species that was destined to destroy the system on which all life thrives? It seems pretty counterproductive.

Matthew 6:26 ~ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Originally posted by theubermensch
Matthew 6:26 ~ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Thanks, but I'm not religious. I'm hoping for a scientific answer. Also just to clarify: when I say "purpose" I mean evolutionary purpose.

we have a fused chromosome, that's one difference as no other species can make that claim, for no amount of time in evolution will cause this, it was done to you not by chance

We are much more adaptable then majority of creatures. Maybe roaches beat us in that - but then ,there are much more roaches then people. But then ,there are so much more bacteria guys and viruses,do not let me start....
In short:
It is all about adaptability. And there is a bonus - we can change the environment to adapt to us due to that thing above the shoulders. It is my deep believe that that thing is going to get us all replaced by cyborgs with much better thing somewhere inside their bodies always connected in some cloud-like mind , but i am enjoying the ride so far.

because a gorilla really doesnt have a use for a shotgun but as Hollywood showed us even the lowliest hobo does. Had to put a little humor but honestly people will give you alot of different answers i think its because we can be violent without cause honestly what other animal other than humans would kill another of there species for the fun of it or try to kill a bigger more powerful animal for no other reason than a trophy were on the top because were the meanest imo. If you think about it if a monkey or gorrila can figure out to use tools and they can kill a grown man with there bare hands would they do it for a scalp trophy.

Originally posted by theubermensch
Matthew 6:26 ~ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

*SIGH* Cant we keep that mythical book of fairy-tale nonsense out of non-fictional threads?

A book written by man, edited by man, inspired by man, and OF COURSE, peddled by man. And believed by FOOLISH men who dont research its validity and origins...

Originally posted by targeting
We have no natural predators, we rule the world, and have virtually no competition in the animal kingdom.

Honestly, there are many beasts in the wild that man could not win against without a weapon such as a firearm. So while humans have the most advanced brains (er, most people), we would lose against many wild creatures in a fair fight.

So we are not really "king" of the wild without doing some "cheating".

Evolution is about survival of the fittest I feel. There are plants for instance that once growing can quickly overwhelm everything else. We as humans are the same, we have taken a large portion of the world and the only way mother nature can take control is to erase us, unless we start being responsible and cooperate. It is all about balance and we are slowly pushing the scales to once side, not a good idea.

I'd say t's because of our brains. We have parts of the brain that deal with lots of things, like communication, critical thinking, and stuff like that.

Plus we work together instead of alone. One human tens of thousands of years ago might have been killed when he fought a mammoth or some other potential meal with a spear, but 10 or 15 humans working together can do some damage.

we were born to create
destruction comes from poor creation skills .....

nature has its safeguards it will give us the ole heave ho and carry on if we dont watch our step
I believe that much it just doesnt very often operate in the time scale humans pay attention to

This thing called writing. It lets us retain information in a way as a species that no other animal can. Thus information can be spread and successive generations can build upon that information in a way that no other animal could. We created for ourselves a collective knowledge. Writing means you don't start over from scratch with every generation or two in regards to all knowledge learnt. If you can read about things, nobody has to show it to you directly. Nor do you need somebody (with a possibly faulty memory and a limited lifespan) to pass that information down verbally.

I'd go as far to say that other animals have some intelligence and even vocal communication that could be called a rudimentary language, but those traits are still not at the level which we have. It wasn't that long ago in the big scheme that early humans were living in caves or out in the woods too.

We took things from animals that we didn't have in order to survive better in the cold and such, but it still wasn't that great a leap. (Humans were originally restricted to mostly tropical environments at the start, which is why we don't have that much hair. And later on we just didn't need it - simply wear a pelt or make a fire.) Some other animals have basic tool usage too. Our weakness as humans is probably what lead to our greatest strength. We seriously upped the tool usage aspect to leverage ourselves above the other animals. Keeping track of everything to outwit that which we're weaker than is likely what made us that much smarter in the long run too.

Still the big leap didn't happen until writing. You weren't going to get much past living in caves, sod and stone dwellings, or grass huts without it.

Once we got writing figured out, thats when you could have larger societies than 100 or so individuals function sucessfully, and then that whole agriculture and advanced tool use and chemistry and metal working and... Much more free time for figuring out more things... Well, we're here with all this stuff now. I'm sure you get the idea.

my thought on this manner;

most animals are quite passive in their nature... in the sense that they dont desire to change or understand themselves or their surroundings.... they simply live their existence as if they have no choice but to observe this nature and world they were given, placed in......

humans intelligence is many times greater then an animal.... in that over the millennia we kept hardware copies of our knowledge and information, piggybacking ideas and innovation on top of each other, exponentially getting better at creating, and learning more... we have the potential to harness the forces of the universe, the forces of creation,, we can use the ideas and concepts that surround us, that create us,,, to create technologies and tools for our betterment and satisfaction... it is this drive to take part in the creating process the universe performs that heightens the human into a realm of its own on earth... it is striving towards the infinite... the realm of the unknown with hope all may be known..

when i say human intelligence is greater then an animal... think about the conscious entity... the awareness behind your eyes,,, if you were born in the wilderness with no contact to civilization, you would be a semi heightened animal being.... but because you have access to the information, tools, knowledge, and technology of this civilization, because you can learn and create, create original ideas,, music, structures, inventions... you are closer in relationship to a masterful divine being,, then an ant.....

Human's have written language and memory

They can record events - thoughts - philosophies - - - and evolve.

Humanity has only been around 100,000 years or so, and for 70% of that time, we were running around naked, scratching our butts and throwing our feces at each other. We have only been the dominant species for the last 10,000 years or so. Before that, we shared the planet with a few other sentient primates. Neanderthals, mainly, but there were a couple others. We might be big # right now, if you look at it from our human POV, but in the grand scheme of the universe, we are really next to nothing.