Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I've never seen a wild thing sorry for itself."

Humans are capable of bringing about their own mental or physical demise. Animals have no concept of suicide, so appreciate life more readily.

Maybe. I'll ask my cat.

Most intelligent? Woah... back up a second here. How, precisely, are we measuring intelligence? There are many kinds of intelligence, and on some measures, nonhuman animals are vastly outdo us. And, of course, because we demand that they measure up to our own artificially constructed standards of intelligence, any test is going to be biased, most often in our own favor.

Yes it does, because it makes you the person most capable of deciding. If you are most capable, you should fulfil those capabilities.

No. More accurately - being stronger gives you the ability to do as you wish. Intelligence lets to discern what it best to do with your strenth. Humans have both, greatest cognition and greatest power.

We cannot resign our fate to anything but ourselves.

We are self-determined.

Nothing is special of the human race. We are greedy and selfish. We think of only ourselves and no one else. We gained intelligence by luck of the draw, in my opinion anyway. We constantly kill our own species and sometimes we take our own life. We are the only animal that uses sex for pleasure. We depend on material objects like if we don't have them we will die. The only noble thing a human is able to do is gives its life for another without thought. But nobility has nothing to do with the human race being special. What I am basically trying to say is that there is nothing redeaming about us.

What I meant is that an ipod is not a neccessity, nor is the latest game system. When a person can do something that is actually productive. For example, In your entire life would you actually need a pet rock. Yes that was not made by man but decided to put a lable on it making it a "neccissary" possesion. Or an eraser cap. Please tell you would actually use those. And nest for a bird is neccissary because it is its home.
I actually didn't know that other animals used sex for pleasure. I never ment to make it sound like that there was a problem with it but in my opinion it just makes us seem more animal like.

~HOLD ON! Take it back 40 steps sir, did you just say that suicide is intelligent!? That makes absolutely no sense. We are very complex and illogical beings yes, but the fact that we kill ourselves and others in no way makes us intelligent. That would make the US Marines "smart" and then i couldn't use the acronym "Muscles are required, intelligence not essential" to make fun of them. Which by the way, we are not the only species capable of suicide, ever heard of a lemming? They do it all the time. Are they intelligent? HELL NO!



~Just saying that we lack evidence or means is no proper way to settle a debate. The point is to find ways around what we lack and propose ideas to answer these questions.

~Accepting a fallacy just because you assume we have no other choice is rediculous. Just cause you can't prove you are not the most intelligent and able, doesn't mean you can prove you are. I will agree that in our stereotypical thinking we are the most "civilized" using that word very loosly, however in the mind of a hawk we could be mindless, barbaric, and disgusting, compared to its majesticness, and in some aspects, i'd agree with that completely.

The problem is the human mind, and possibly any mind, is that it is way too self-conscious too realize the fallcies that their stereotupical thinking leads too, we reject what we dont understand and hold what we do understand to be greater than that of others.

That's a pretty traditional defence made by some people but it really doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

We are birght enough that we can and do set up experiments to test animal ability, we can also scan the electronic waves in their brains to see how primitive or advanced various sections are. We can also observe them unseen in their natural habitat and by watching their reaction ot dangers and new objects guage the depth of their language and interanimal understanding. The result of these studies tend to show that animals are more advanced than we used to think they were, but that even the most advanced still lack human empathy, reasoning and extrapersonal contemplation.

Indeed, we do not need to speak the same language as foreigners to see that they are brighter than animals. It is clear from their behaviour as a group that the information-bearing capacity of their incomprehensible language is far higher, that their ability to react to danger and new objects is more capable and that their solution of various problems are more advances and effective.

Ok, that makes more sense. I mean not that marines commit suicude i was also referring to the killing of others. And if lemming do not commit suicide they just have massive groups of themselves jump off cliffs to their death...i would like to know what you'd call this ritual, flying lessons?