What separates us from the animals?

Originally posted by Theophorus
The only thing that seperates us from animals is intellect and will. Thus being spirit. Animals have no spirit. Note; spirit and soul are two different things. A soul animates a life. All living things have a soul.

edit on 10-3-2013 by Theophorus because: (no reason given)

This is ridiculous. Not only is there 0 evidence of any such thing as either, much less a distinction between the two, but there is also 0 anecdotal evidence of animals being soulless or spirit less. You literally pulled this assumption straight out of your bum. "animals don't have spirits". Seriously, where did you hear this? You made it up.

I seriously lol at anyone who says that any animal is even remotely close to the human intellect in terms of comparison. When the day comes that any animal (on Earth) other than human can construct and design a device like what we're using to communicate on ATS right now, PC, smartphone, tablet, etc. then get back at me.

As for the thread, the answer lies within the human brain. For starters, humans have the largest brain mass relative to body mass. Then there's this.

The key differences between human and animal cognition arise in four areas:

The ability to recombine different types of knowledge and information to gain new understanding
The ability to generalise apply a “rule” or solution for a known problem to a new and different situation
The ability to create symbolic representations of sensory input and to easily understand them
The ability to detach raw sensory and perceptual input from modes of thought.

Why humans are Superior

Without these abilities, we'd still be sitting side by side with the chimps and other apes scattered throughout Africa and Asia.

reply to post by vethumanbeing


"That and the ability to invent anything we put our minds to, whether creative, mindfully destructive or outsmarting ourselves of/from the goal intent without knowing any difference (ankst)."

We cant quite invent anything we want just yet, after all we are still on this rock! Human beings deceive themselves by putting to much stock in our technological prowess.

One may also argue the point that animals have free will untill we get our nasty mits on them or eat them first.

I am of the belief that you can not compare any animal to another and that includes the human. What we consider intelligence [i.e speech and ethics and so on] are not needed in nature and are a side effect of having developed spoken thought due to complete helplessness.
Take everything away from a human and stick him in the Jungle, he/she won't survive for very long.

It is therefore that we happened to become good at making tools.

No other animals needs tools to survive. Are they less intelligent?

Well as we only measure against ourselves, then yes they lack human thought but who made us the basis to compare everything else against?
We did.

Animals have other attributes that can be taken as highly intelligent, if taken in their own right.
Whales can communicate over vast distances without using a phone, humans can't. Are we stupid or what?
Dogs can understand human language but we can't understand dog, what are we imbeciles?

And last but not least, I always hear that humans are great because we build houses and invented the computer.

First of all the fat guy on the sofa din't invent squad. He couldn't even build a car. So we are talking about a chosen few, coupled with millenia of trial and error.
Furthermore, termites are doing a smashing job building buildings far, far advanced to what we could ever achieve.

As I said before we talk about intelligence, we'd have to find a common denominator between animals and humans and stop comparing them only to ourselves. As we decide the standard, the animals would automatically lose.
.
I am sure that if I compared a shoe to a handbag, the handbag would be found useless as footwear.
Yet both are equally useful and brilliant in their own ways.

reply to post by watchitburn



Art makes us different from animals. we can experience, transmit and describe emotions, especially good ones, through Beethoven's orchestra or Dali's paintings. Those who can't paint or make music still have the ability to interpret and give value to these arts. Animals don't.

Or maybe even our perception of life could be what makes the difference.

"To be or not to be, that is the question", said Shakespeare.

Some of us can make sacrifices for the sake of others. Animals only act on selfish interest because to them their life is more important than any other. But some humans can override this self-preservation instinct and act for a greater good.

Originally posted by smithjustinb

Originally posted by Theophorus
The only thing that seperates us from animals is intellect and will. Thus being spirit. Animals have no spirit. Note; spirit and soul are two different things. A soul animates a life. All living things have a soul.

edit on 10-3-2013 by Theophorus because: (no reason given)

This is ridiculous. Not only is there 0 evidence of any such thing as either, much less a distinction between the two, but there is also 0 anecdotal evidence of animals being soulless or spirit less. You literally pulled this assumption straight out of your bum. "animals don't have spirits". Seriously, where did you hear this? You made it up.

Its called reasoning. Ever here the term Theology?

reply to post by watchitburn


Actually nothing, we humans still behave like animals and in some instance animals are better, we still create wars and kill each other every day.

We have to make our own clothes....they are totally adapted to their environment...we are not......
We must use inanimate objects to survive....clothes etc....
They are totally natural
We are mostly artificial......................

reply to post by watchitburn


Short answer - A HUMAN SOUL

reply to post by watchitburn


Humans see things differently than animals. Animals all see things differently from each other, depending on which type of animal it is. We are all equal because we are all just spirit living through a body (human or animal) to perceive of things in different ways.

reply to post by POXUSA


A Soul is not Human any more than its male or female. A Human is the vessel, nothing more.

A soul and spirit are two different concepts. Think of a soul as the glue in which the the spiritual world and the material world come together. A soul animates a body. All living things have souls. A spirit on the other hand, resembles a mind. More specifically , intellect and will. Intellect not meaning intelligence but ability to reason, and will, the ability to act on that reason. Animals do not have the ability to REASON let alone ACT on reason.

Theo

Whales are smarter than we think. They probably have some sort of other intelligence than us, considering we are primates. I'd say if we weren't here, and you'd give sea mammals another few million years of evolution, they would reach the moon too.

reply to post by Jauk3

Only phyisical things can evolove. Spirit or mind , being reason and will , cannot. Whales will never go to the moon.

reply to post by watchitburn


I have read most of this thread, and unless I have overlooked another post, one thing I see missing is this:

ART.

We are the only species (to my knowledge) that willing *creates* art for the sole purpose of creating art.

That's not to say that some species don't naturally create some things that *are* art—or artistic, but they don't (to my knowledge), but decide one day to create some for the sake of creating it.

That said, I see a lot of good posts with which i agree, distinguishing us from animals, but going back to your OP i must agree with the capacity to use reason and logic versus emotion and empathy. I think many animals do have emotion.

I would also have to add making decisions that go out side of logic and instinct as distinguishing us from animals.

But then again, we oftentimes are more animal-like than what we consider animals.

reply to post by Jauk3


I think if Octopi had longer lifespans they would probably run this planet.
They are incredibly fast learners, and can identify something that could be useful as a tool if combined with other items. Considering they have had a few million years head start on modern man. If they lived as long as humans, they would have been using us as cheap labor to colonize the landmasses from day one.

Originally posted by andy06shake
reply to post by vethumanbeing

 

"That and the ability to invent anything we put our minds to, whether creative, mindfully destructive or outsmarting ourselves of/from the goal intent without knowing any difference (ankst)."

We cant quite invent anything we want just yet, after all we are still on this rock! Human beings deceive themselves by putting to much stock in our technological prowess.

One may also argue the point that animals have free will untill we get our nasty mits on them or eat them first

Some would say they (animals) already know their fate upon arrival here. Steers, old cows, pigs understand their place as foodstuffs. I would say that requires some intelligence or understanding of purpose, at least not at the bottom of the caste system India as the "untouchables" hoping by their sacriface will make to the 4th caste; that of not having to handle garbage or bug infestation. Maybe the sacrifical Pig becomes a dolphin in its next incarnation. I do not like this rock very much too dense, when everything changes frequency then the fun begins with just pure thought form inventiveness. No more having to buy an IPad, steal it instead just by thinking it into being.

reply to post by watchitburn


I have a simple philosophy i would like to share for consideration or rejection.
Once a "living being" becomes aware of itself outside of a "group mind" or a "herd mentality" that is when i consider the evolution from "animal" has been transcended. This is i why i can perceive an animal (my pets) to me more human than some humans and humans to be more animal then some animals.

Originally posted by andy06shake
reply to post by POXUSA

 

A Soul is not Human any more than its male or female. A Human is the vessel, nothing more.

It can and does choose whether to be male or female if deciding to incarnate (that which/what progresses its soul experience) but apart from that cannot do anything but experience the forgotten game plan in place; no way to remember the precise planning aforehand; beautiful non-forsight, hindsight not even a factor.

Originally posted by Theophorus

Originally posted by smithjustinb

Originally posted by Theophorus
The only thing that seperates us from animals is intellect and will. Thus being spirit. Animals have no spirit. Note; spirit and soul are two different things. A soul animates a life. All living things have a soul.

edit on 10-3-2013 by Theophorus because: (no reason given)

This is ridiculous. Not only is there 0 evidence of any such thing as either, much less a distinction between the two, but there is also 0 anecdotal evidence of animals being soulless or spirit less. You literally pulled this assumption straight out of your bum. "animals don't have spirits". Seriously, where did you hear this? You made it up.

Its called reasoning. Ever here the term Theology?

It's more like interpretation. In this case, due to the lack of evidence, it's also subjective and probably based on nothing more than imagination and/or indoctrination.