>> 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