What separates man from the animals.

ShredStylez · Post by **ShredStylez** » 02 Aug 2004 17:50

420FootBager wrote: The ONLY thing that seprates us is our better developed brains and most of all our well developed hands and apendages.

All of a sudden this discussion turned into one person asserting that he is right? calm down and post inquisitivly and bring up new points instead of blocking out every one elses ideas.

dblthnk84 · Post by **dblthnk84** » 02 Aug 2004 20:17

Hats.

The reason is simple, we are not the only type of creature on this planet to use tools. That is widely accepted as fact, and I don't know anyone to dissagree with it. We are also not the only ones to use shelter from the elements or to even build shelters. But we are the only ones that build portable shelters that we take around with us. So hats are what seperates us from the beasts.

Also the fact that we ask questions about what seperates us from the beasts. I'm not currently aware of any species that is sentant (Did I spell that right?) other than humans, and we could also get into an argument about the soul- but after reading some Voltaire reciently I'm not in the mood to open up that can of worms.

By definition though we are part of the Animal kingdom, and thus animals- but I would say that we are different from the beasts, as has already been mentioned. I also believe that we were created by God and are the only ones that he gave free will to, but its too late for me to start an argument about that either.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 02 Aug 2004 20:49

What about shell fish? Infact they are more advanced than us, because they carry their own houses around with them and we can't do that very well.

I think the main thing that seperates us from animals is our arrogance. It's hard to judge how arrogant animals are - but they seem to not behave like the whole world belongs to them and they can use it as they see fit. Neither do they behave like they have some divine right or whatever.

Apart from our arrogance I don't think there is anything that seperates us from other animals. All species of animals are different in a variety of ways. Either all animals are special or none are.

Slippur · Post by **Slippur** » 02 Aug 2004 21:08

Jeremy wrote: I think the main thing that seperates us from animals is our arrogance. It's hard to judge how arrogant animals are - but they seem to not behave like the whole world belongs to them and they can use it as they see fit. Neither do they behave like they have some divine right or whatever.

effing hippies

LinksYs · Post by **LinksYs** » 02 Aug 2004 21:15

hair seperates us and so does our body figure.
don't comment on this i'm stupid

ShredPirate · Post by **ShredPirate** » 02 Aug 2004 22:41

i think what separates us is that we do things that have NOTHING to do with survival. like playing footbag. otherwise we'd be doing the same things.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 02 Aug 2004 23:00

I think that many creatures do things that have nothing to do with survival in the same way that footbag has nothing to do with survival. For example a dog chasing a stick and returning it to the person, or dolphins playing.

However I recently saw a tv show that basically said that playing sport is a survival instinct - in the recent evolutionary past humans that were more physically active would have a better chance of survival - so these days lots of people's brains give them lots of drugs when they are physically active to encourage them to keep going. So people who play sports are just junkies whose brain gives them a hit when they play. So while playing footbag doesn't help our survival at all - the reason we play is linked to our ancestors survival in the past.

ShredPirate · Post by **ShredPirate** » 03 Aug 2004 02:11

well, dolphins are an evolved form of a dog, which is why they have findings of being land mammals in the past, as well as dog-like playfulness. and a dog is called 'mans best friend'. so the new question could be "what separate's man (and man's best friend) from the other animals?"

comastalker · Post by **comastalker** » 03 Aug 2004 02:21

it really ain't much but an advanced brain, an advanced neuronal system, a heavily advanced arrogance (

). Maybe we should discuss the fact, that humans are one of the animals with the least useful anatomy...
btw there are fishes that use stones to break food from cliffs (looks really funny) and humans doing sport is far nearer to survival-behaviour than dogs or dolphins playing