why does the bible say we're better than animals?

Your own opinion eh? To me it sounds like the only reason you think what you think is because the Bible said so. If I read a book that says the Earth was flat, that we are in the center of the universe, that he creating light before light producing objects even existed (sun and stars were made on the fourth day), that plants were made on the third day before the sun to drive their photosynthesis, that he was angry because “the earth was filled with violence." So he killed every living thing to make the world less violent, and punishing the serpent (Satan) by forcing him to crawl on his belly forever... then chances are I’m going to question this guy’s judgment because he sounds a little out of it. I have to say though we DO take after his image, especially since a lot of this stuff sounds like something a human would write.

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are you suggesting that it is only my opinion that an animal can never create a computer? are you suggesting that it is my opinion that we have more complicated morals then them, more complicated emotions, larger, more intelligent minds?

you have an interesting habit of drifting in arguments...

I’m not suggesting animals can’t do that stuff (yet at least) I’m just questioning your reasons for it.

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i’m saying that what we can do, and how we perceive everything, is at a much higher level then any animal, and thus, we are better then them. we are better because we do things better, because we are the ultimate top of the food chain. thats not giving us permission to just start the mass killings of animals, but that does give us some sort of dominance over them.

Dominance, yeah, but that’s different from better.

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dominant because we have power, better because of what we can do. not more moral, not exactly less moral, but more complex morally. and, as the most dominant species, we somewhat rule over animals. idk, in my mind, the life of a dog can never equal the life of a human.

I dunno... I see a dog as more valuable than a human mostly because of the distrust I have for the human race. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a part of PETA and I know very well some animals won’t give a shit about you but I can’t see the good things we’ve done outweigh the bad things. Dog’s have done exactly what they are supposed to do in nature, and we’re doing the opposite by destroying it for profit and personal gain.

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ramunematt wrote: I dunno... I see a dog as more valuable than a human mostly because of the distrust I have for the human race. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a part of PETA and I know very well some animals won’t give a shit about you but I can’t see the good things we’ve done outweigh the bad things. Dog’s have done exactly what they are supposed to do in nature, and we’re doing the opposite by destroying it for profit and personal gain.

A dog can be just as invaluable as a human, unless you train it, and train it well. And the fact that you would have to train it makes us better.

What makes you think we aren’t better? Not that it matters much, better is subjective anyway.

Also, how do you know what our place in nature anyway? Ever asked it?

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Well it’s not like a dog can train a human either. There was a wolf boy found in France awhile ago that was taught by the wolves and learned human behavior. Since the wolves trained the boy, does that make them better?

The reason I don’t think we’re better is because we already perceive this question in a biased point of view right from the start. Of course we’re going to think we’re better than everything else. The way I see it, we just try to find excuses to make ourselves look better. I haven’t figure out WHY we do this (I’m suspecting religion as a possibility), but we do. It’s mostly a philosophical question for myself.

One thing that has been bugging me though... there are certain animals that have the intelligence of 4 year old humans. So if we’re basing our “betterness” on complexity and intelligence, are these animals better than human beings that are younger than 4?

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ramunematt wrote: We are the only creatures on Earth who kill other animals (and ourselves) for pleasure,

Not true, it’s been observed in felines.

ramuenmatt wrote: we start wars with eachother,,

Animals fight all the time... while it may be on a smaller scale, it’s more widespread. Just because they can’t use guns and bombs and knives doesn’t mean they wouldn’t if they could.

ramuenmatt wrote: we destroy our environment, and while other animals have a natural equilibrium with their environment,

Bullshit. Any creature that gets too successful for it’s own environment will become a pest. What about rabbits? Cows are responsible for 5% of the methane of the atmosphere.

ramuenmatt wrote: we (much like a virus) instead multiply and move from place to place until all resources are consumed then we move to another area.

Plenty of other species migrate and do the same thing. And I disagree, we tend to stay in the one place and consume the hell out of it until on day there’ll be nothing left and then stay there and starve.

ramuenmatt wrote: Someone remind me again why Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc. think we’re SO much better than animals

Well, not according to Itachi... heheh.

I have to agree Ram & Crimson....!! Yes....why we are ...so special for this planet than other animals....!! we are way too worse than animals for the planet...!! There would be any vanish point for us...??

TheTerminator wrote:

SKITTLES666 wrote: Are you a guy or a girl?

girl right??

hmm...so, i just came out of a conversation with two of the smartest people i know, so you’ll have to excuse any bias...

we basically talked about everything. about what we want to do with our lives, our hopes, our fears, about the difference of imagining and doing, about art, about what art really is, about what art can truly do, about poetry, everything. and, after that...i’m sorry, but i cannot imagine any animal contemplating these things. the idea seems just ridiculous. do you think that your dog has concerns for the future, about if his life is going to have meaning? do you think a cat will look at having kids with fear because she is shaping her young one’s minds, and if she does it wrong, if she fucks up, then she has screwed up something that she cares about, forcing it to live a wretched life? animals can never understand these things, or even come close to grasping them. do you see what i’m saying? as humans, there is so much going on with us. THAT is why we are significance. we’re more then just basic instincts and the here and now. animals have some primative versions of thoughts somewhat like this, i’m sure (such as planning ahead), but this, this is something entirely different.

there. thats been what i’ve been trying to say. if this doesn’t make an impact, then i’d say we have fundamentally different views on life and worth.

Bible says we are better because they can’t write a sentence that makes a fucking sense.

Why don’t you just say what you really want to say. - “please shut up, don’t make me think”. - Gplex

SENSFAN wrote: Bible says we are better because they can’t write a sentence that makes a fucking sense.

Many humans can’t either, like this one.

... they cant write a sentence that makes a fucking sense.

Doesn’t make sense.

Crimson_Blade wrote:

SENSFAN wrote: Bible says we are better because they can’t write a sentence that makes a fucking sense.

Many humans can’t either, like this one.

... they cant write a sentence that makes a fucking sense.

Doesn’t make sense.

Damn dude.. fail

Why don’t you just say what you really want to say. - “please shut up, don’t make me think”. - Gplex

What I meant by that is..
Most of the things that the people have written in the bible never makes sense... because there is always sentences and quotes that they put in the back of the bible that totally backfires at everything they just wrote.

Is that better?

Why don’t you just say what you really want to say. - “please shut up, don’t make me think”. - Gplex

SENSFAN wrote:

Crimson_Blade wrote:

SENSFAN wrote: Bible says we are better because they can’t write a sentence that makes a fucking sense.

Many humans can’t either, like this one.

... they cant write a sentence that makes a fucking sense.

Doesn’t make sense.

Damn dude.. fail

At least I know how to string a sentence together my good man.

Crimson_Blade wrote:

SENSFAN wrote:

Crimson_Blade wrote:

SENSFAN wrote: Bible says we are better because they can’t write a sentence that makes a fucking sense.

Many humans can’t either, like this one.

... they cant write a sentence that makes a fucking sense.

Doesn’t make sense.

Damn dude.. fail

At least I know how to string a sentence together my good man.

...

Why don’t you just say what you really want to say. - “please shut up, don’t make me think”. - Gplex

ramunematt wrote: Well it’s not like a dog can train a human either. There was a wolf boy found in France awhile ago that was taught by the wolves and learned human behavior. Since the wolves trained the boy, does that make them better?

The reason I don’t think we’re better is because we already perceive this question in a biased point of view right from the start. Of course we’re going to think we’re better than everything else. The way I see it, we just try to find excuses to make ourselves look better. I haven’t figure out WHY we do this (I’m suspecting religion as a possibility), but we do. It’s mostly a philosophical question for myself.

One thing that has been bugging me though... there are certain animals that have the intelligence of 4 year old humans. So if we’re basing our “betterness” on complexity and intelligence, are these animals better than human beings that are younger than 4?

Was the boy literally trained, or did he just learn from the wolves through observation? Actually, that in and of itself may be a testament to our ability to adapt, as I don’t usually see wolves becoming human-like. Actually, the way you are talking, it was more like he was raised as a wolf, not trained by wolves. We can train wolves to do our bidding, those wolves just “taught” him to survive the way wolves do.

Any why would you tag religion as a cause for the idea that people are better than animals or, rather, other things, based upon a statement you apparently pulled from the Bible? How about you explain why I have seen non-religious people do the same thing? That just depends upon the person.

No, those animals aren’t better than the 4 year old children because you just said they have the intelligence of those 4 year-old children, so they’re equal...At least in intelligence. And, you didn’t mention whether or not the animals in question were proportionally the same age as a four-year-old human child, because if they weren’t, that would be a moot point.

We are better than animals in the aspect of the mind, which we can use to adapt to situations and change many things. Sure, we tamper with the original state of our locations, but why is that a bad thing? If we can keep them running, who cares? Even if other animals die out, perhaps that’s just natural selection telling them that their inferior minds just don’t stack up.

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The boy was both trained and he learned from observation because when humans are young observation is a natural instinct. And like most feral children, after he spent time with a group/pack of animals from when he was young enough until he reached a certain age, it was already too late for him to learn such skills such as reasoning, cognitive thinking, and other complex forms of the mind because he has not been exposed to in an environment where that kind of “teaching” is not available. After this boy was found, scientists observed his behavior and found that virtually all human behavior that we would consider normal today among human raised children was non-existent, he was even unable to walk upright correctly and was able to frolic in the snow completely nude not bothered by the coldness. In addition, the boy was attempted to be educated to be civilized. Professors tried teaching him how to speak French (this boy was found in France) and how to read. They have thought they made progress at first, but eventually gave up and the boy only ended up knowing a few words. By comparison, gorillas are able to learn sign language far into their lives and chimpanzees also able to learn activities that are considered complex for them (playing pac man, fishing, learning to ride a segway) but a human can’t after spending so long in an uncivilized environment without other humans. The wolf boy was not capable of cognitive thinking or anything else that we would would use to justify the idea that we are really SO much more intelligent than animals. That definitely says a lot about how much more intelligent we are than them don’t it? The way I see it, this is evidence that humans are only as intelligent and the environment around them allows. If a human is born around only animals without human civilization, their intelligence will only be that of animals. In the same way, some animals who grow up in a human environment with no other animals around are capable of self awareness, cognitive thinking, reason, and able to use complex tools. So to me that would mean we would be equal to them, not better.

The reason I would tag religion as a cause is because of what their holy books say. Look at watchman and his attitude of the relationship between humans and animals. He is a very devout Christian, and he did not even realize that animals were capable of self awareness, cognitive thinking, reason, even emotions because to the Bible that stuff is only exclusive to humans, probably because back then they didn’t know where those things came from so they assumed it came from our soul and that humans are the divine image of god so only we have souls. We know better than that today though. We know where all those things come from. Now remember, I am only using religion as a suspicion. I never said it was a sole cause so I am not applying this to non-religious people who think we’re better than animals, although I think it is very possible that non-religious people are not aware of animal cognition, emotion, etc. do not know so because of their previous religion or simply that they have never decided to do some research and therefore automatically assume we are better. Human ego perhaps?

Now on to your third point... proportion. We could use proportion by age in which case an animal can be more intelligent, but we would also have to use proportion on the size of the brain. And not just in a general way. You would have to take into account the brain to age ratio, brain to head size ratio, brain to body size ratio, the fact that different parts of a human brain work very differently from certain animals etc. in which case some animals can definitely have us beat out in some of these aspects.

So why intelligence? Do we really value intelligence THAT much? Or do we have little value for intelligence (“nerd” for example, is considered derogatory) but only value it as long as it makes us seem better than every other organism? As for tampering with our original state of locations... there are two types of organisms in the world that move to an area to multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way to survive is to spread to another area; humans and virus'. It might just be me, but it’s caused some preeeeetty bad things. Extinction of animals which is NOT natural selection if we shot them or killed them by tampering with their natural habitation. There’s also global warming and wmd’s that to me will no doubt cause our own extinction. Just remember, we haven’t even been here that long. We’ve been here for 100,000, maybe 200,000 years and we’ve only begun heavy industry in the last hundred or two hundred years compared to the 4.5 billion years the Earth has been here. There are animals that have been here millions of years before us and are still here. If we don’t go extinct because of natural selection, we’re going extinct because of ourselves. If we do go extinct because of natural selection all the other animals will be here, but the planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas. But personally, I think we are cursed by our own hubris. So much for being the best species in the world.

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