>> I must agree with Adam, that this is off topic, that there are a
majority of religions that believe that /other organisms/ have souls,
and that I couldn't let this go without a reponse.
* Off topic, yes, but enriching on the other hand. I don’t know if there
are souls (“What’s a soul? A soul is that which asks if there is a
soul.”). Maybe the soul is simply a human mind construction. But if
animals have souls, and I can’t find a reason why they should be denied
one (think of the dolphin), then the animal soul functions, if ever,
differently from the human soul. Maybe it’s a passive or latent soul, but
anyway it’s different from the presumptive human soul. Like voice chords,
you know. We, from among all mammals, have the most evolved voice chords,
if I don’t get it wrong.
>> Your comment is a telling example of the reason why our species has
done so much damage to the planet and why we continue to committ
atrocities on countless other living things.
* I hope you don’t include hunting among these atrocities. In fact, the
less justifiable atrocity is man against man. Death, destruction
and “atrocities” are part of the web of life. The problem is maybe related
to overpopulation. When rats, for instance, are confined to a small space,
they may start killing one another. Atrocities are no prerogative of the
human being. Don’t let us render human beings worst than they are. Do
animals know compassion by the way?
>> Your comment implies that we are somehow different from "animals".
* But we are. Or rather, we function in different ways. What else is
needed to set us a little apart? Not above…
>> Sorry to break the news to you, but homo sapiens are in the kingdom
Animalia; we are animals just like everything else on Earth that isn't a
plant, or fungus, or a virus.
* This is true from the biological point of view, but seems shaky from the
cultural point of view. Or, if you prefer, from the epistemological point
of view. Don´t take it amiss, but you seem to be keen on diminishing human
beings. Not too much and not too little. We may not be kings, but we must
be better than the devil.
>> The fact that most human beings hold it in their mind that we are so
fundamentally different from all other life on earth is the ideological
underpinning and justification for all of the things that we do to other
organisms and our environment.
* Again, we may not be fundamentally different (we have got to breath,
eat, sleep, reproduce etc like every other species), but we function
otherwise. You may call me a reproachable or pitiable humanist, but for me
it’s enough to look at the human hand or face to recognize there’s some
noticeable difference in us. This is not to say that we haven’t done silly
things on this planet. We have, indeed. But again, we alone have the power
to put it back straight as it was or almost. Indeed, this argument was
given to me by a clever member of this very list, Mr. Wally Day, on
another paleo forum or elsewhere. He alone could elaborate on the idea
that it’s our duty to restore the world, because only we can do it more
quickly than nature herself.
>> As a result of human activity this planet is currently facing the most
drastic changes that have ever occured. Until human beings realize that
we are just another species of animals living on this earth and that our
perceived dominance and fundamental difference from everything else on
the planet is just a concept that we created we will never be able to
realistically look at our place in the ecosystem and come up with
strategies to save our own hides.
* I think this paragraph repeats much of what was said before and is
widely known. My previous responses also contain all that I had to say on
this subject.
>> Ryan Chapin
* Regards, JC
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