Are Humans Animals?

originally posted by: luthier
a reply to: schuyler

Agree..

It's society that is the difference. Any species could evolve to understand group learning, like killer whales have. You can judge a species by its society in its psychological evolution sense. Humans don't hold the concept of society it exists like gravity does.

I would maintain that chimpanzees and baboons, as two examples, have a quite complex social structure that has been well-documented. There's a clear hierarchy and division of labor. There's a dominant leader, male, but the lineage is matriarchal, just like in many Indian (India and North America, as it happens) societies. There are soldiers and lookouts, hunters and gatherers. The youngsters are taught advanced skills by the adults. The local tribe is well delineated and has relationships with neighboring tribes (likely more distant relatives.) When you discuss the social structure and "forget" to mention you're talking about apes, the definition isn't much different than tribal societies across the globe. You could be talking about the family structure of Ancient Rome.

Of course it's silly to maintain there is no difference at all. We have huge advantages of intelligence and form, e.g. opposable thumbs, and the ability to manipulate the environment that has allowed us to create this global civilization. We are "the best at" social organization by far, but the issue is are we fundamentally different from animals. I maintain that we are not fundamentally different, and our behavior is often quite similar to animals as well. We pretend to be different, but we act just like them much of the time.

You can dissect humans and animals and come to the conclusion that they are about the same in many respects, but when you start over thinking things and let your naturally occurring narcissistic traits take over, like so often happens, most of us humans believe we are somehow superior to animals.

We are not on the top of the food chain if we are stripped of our technology and set out to fend for ourselves in the wilderness and we never were.

We are animals which communicate and cooperate to achieve certain goals.

Ants and bees do the same thing.

Pop that vacuous balloon head of yours, arrogant humans.

originally posted by: Astrocyte
A simple answer would be yes, inasmuch as like other animals

And that would be the scientific truth!
We are mammalia, schizo-sapiens, animals.
I do not use the biased insane pejorative of 'animals' in a dismissing or degrading way, neither is that the first definition of animal.
Yes, we are animals.
But it is possible to transcend our animal natures, possible to transcend our 'human natures'.

an·i·mal
ˈanəməl/Submit
noun
1.
a living organism that feeds on organic matter, typically having specialized sense organs and nervous system and able to respond rapidly to stimuli.
"animals such as spiders"
adjective
1.
of, relating to, or characteristic of animals.
"a wide range of animal species"

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Astrocyte

If a lion kills a mother wildebeest in the middle of giving birth and consumes the baby first because its more tender, this isn't considered a crime, we call that 'natural'. Conservation of energy for a predator made the lion choose to attack the weakest, sickest, oldest, most vulnerable prey because it was easier.

If a person were to kill a pregnant woman and consume her baby, we'd execute this person for being insane. This is not 'natural' behavior for human beings.

Yeah it is totally natural. The mother wildebeast is a totally different animal from the lion. We kill animals on the regs, pregnant or not -- we hunt them for no #ing reason and it's totally cool.

Now if your Lion killed a pregnant Lioness and then ate the babies, I'm pretty sure it'd be killed by other lions. Your analogy was wrong. I fixed it. Animals also DO behave, they just can't create machines. There is order and intelligence in the animal kingdom, they just don't have the capabilities of building machines physically, so they can't transgress the tribal level of society.

We aren't really better than "animals" because we still can't speak to them -- the only thing we have over Animals is our ability to build machines. That's literally it.

Humans are just another type of animal. Factual, this isn't hypothetical or philosophical. This thread is beyond stupid.

Anybody who doesn't think Animals are sentient isn't sentient himself.

sen·tient
ˈsen(t)SH(ē)ənt/
adjective
able to perceive or feel things.

Animals feel on the regular. They have emotions, and not just domestic animals. Animals also understand self preservation, therefor --they are self aware.

Yes I agree with you we are pure potential which means we could be anything, thus you have " you dirty rat" "he is a snake" "you golem" " you old crow" the list in endless. I wonder if animals go around calling each other names? Look look there goes that human ass. The name game were better off not believing it if were in to pure potential.a reply to: JesusXst

a reply to: SRPrime

Now if your Lion killed a pregnant Lioness and then ate the babies, I'm pretty sure it'd be killed by other lions. Your analogy was wrong. I fixed it.

Male Lions kill any off spring that aren't their own. And are known to kill females that don't submit to sexual advances. They also drive out maturing young males and kill them if they don't leave quickly enough. There, I fixed that for you.

You show me one instance a human killing and eating a pregnant womans fetus, ever.

well written ACyte

but have you considered
that a substantial part of humans, termed Adamite, at a certain point in time, became *imprisoned inside* that "250,000 year old humanoid ape-frame"..?

and that this accounts for many of the themes you adress in OP..?

We are definitely animals and pretty simple one's at that.
We do all the same things, except we have the power to be much more destructive.

If you ever find yourself wondering if we are really animals, go watch some porn, that'll show our animal side in the best light.

originally posted by: intrptr

originally posted by: Slakecontagia
a reply to: Astrocyte

Three rats in a barrel scenario is like three men in a lifeboat. The courts won't find the survivor guilty of anything but staying alive. Cant judge noble behavior by the laws of survival. Two different things. Humans are a higher order, they know the difference between killing and murder.

Well then , you force the simple answer : of course we're animals !
Think of the idiot warfighter in his plumage so much like a prairie-chicken or peacock . All about the eggs , baby ... all about the eggs.
Do you squat to ... ?
Have you never seen a guilty look on the ' face ' of a dog ? Of course you have . If we could recognize it , we would see some indication of ' higher thought ' in other animals as well ...
Yup ; Animals all , I'm afraid .
And , I still get a little nervous when I find myself in a room where all the other rats are of a different color . Animals don't like diversity , you know , andf I can't help but be a bit nervous around ' them ' .

a reply to: Slakecontagia

Do you squat to ... ?
Have you never seen a guilty look on the ' face ' of a dog ? Of course you have . If we could recognize it , we would see some indication of ' higher thought ' in other animals as well ...
Yup ; Animals all , I'm afraid .

Too funny, afraid you're right, i concede.

I think animals have souls too.

a reply to: schuyler

Some of what your saying is true, though I think much comes down to knowledge in the case of apes your mentioning.

Humans had the ability to make computers 20,000 years ago we just lacked the knowledge as to how. The physiological structure plays a part in gaining knowledge.

However, it's been proven we can insert memories into the brain. We could give apes synthetic memories of language and concepts not available to them currently. Their brains are very close to human brains.

As far as human animal behavior all you have to do is threaten someone's child to see the reversion back to nature. We are animals and when put into stressful situations many humans revert to instinct fairly quickly.