Is man all that different than animals?

[cheapmeister]

I was watching national geographic the other day, and there was a nature program on. The host said that man and ape have 97% identical DNA. Therefore man and ape only have a 3% difference in DNA.
Would the 97% identical DNA mean that man originated from apes? Are apes our fore-fathers from thousands of years ago? I think that it is possible. According to Darwins theory of evolution, the answer would be yes, but what do RFD'ers think?

[Strategy]

This will turn into a religous thread.

IBTL

[45ED]

If you believe popular theory, we did not evolve from apes. Apes and humans evolved from a common species/thing.

IBTL.

[sweeper]

Man > Beast

[MrDisco]

yeah this will turn out well.

[Ottomaddox]

http://www.thechurning.com/2005/10/31/327/

IBTL.

[Flyer]

"I'd like to share a revelation I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure."
Although being a virus may not be so bad after all...
http://akiraproject.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/megabyte.jpg

[sweeper]

Animals have no potential. No shame. They defecate in public, fornicate in public, thousands of years of observing animals have shown that they have no potential outside of procreating.

Man invents mathematics, writes poems, presses a button and sends Discovery into Space.

Man > Animal

edit:

quoted from Elizabeth Costello

[sweeper]

The power of man is limited by the power of nature. Nature pwns man's a**.

Nature > Man >? Animal.

Quoted: :arrowl:

Kind of hard to control the weather, although Man can definitely affect it.

EDIT: Man's potential is limitless IMO, couple of decades? Who knows? Nature might finally be under man's control? *shrugs*

[45ED]

Animals have no potential. No shame. They defecate in public, fornicate in public, thousands of years of observing animals have shown that they have no potential outside of procreating.

Man invents mathematics, writes poems, presses a button and sends Discovery into Space.

Man > Animal

edit:

quoted from Elizabeth Costello

The power of man is limited by the power of nature. Nature pwns man's a**.

Nature > Man >? Animal.

Quoted from

:arrowl:

[brunes]

Anyone who thinks that humans are any more special than apes or donkeys or rats or worms or insects is deluding themselves. In fact many of those species were around long before we existed, and will also be around long after we all die off.

The only thing that makes humans different is the fact that we evolved intelligence which allows us to adapt to our surroundings better than other animals - but that doesn't make us "special', we are still just sacks of meat on an insignificant rock in an insignificant galaxy in a vast universe that does not care if you live or die, since it will not be noticed by most other people on the planet, let alone anywhere else in this universe.

[Talamasca]

Anyone who thinks that humans are any more special than apes or donkeys or rats or worms or insects is deluding themselves. In fact many of those species were around long before we existed, and will also be around long after we all die off.

The only thing that makes humans different is the fact that we evolved intelligence which allows us to adapt to our surroundings better than other animals - but that doesn't make us "special', we are still just sacks of meat on an insignificant rock in an insignificant galaxy in a vast universe that does not care if you live or die, since it will not be noticed by most other people on the planet, let alone anywhere else in this universe.

+ infinity.

[sweeper]

Anyone who thinks that humans are any more special than apes or donkeys or rats or worms or insects is deluding themselves. In fact many of those species were around long before we existed, and will also be around long after we all die off.

The only thing that makes humans different is the fact that we evolved intelligence which allows us to adapt to our surroundings better than other animals - but that doesn't make us "special', we are still just sacks of meat on an insignificant rock in an insignificant galaxy in a vast universe that does not care if you live or die, since it will not be noticed by most other people on the planet, let alone anywhere else in this universe.

What can a donkey do besides eat / fornicate / procreate and pull a wagon? Can donkeys invent calculus? Can donkeys create architecture? Technology?

[Piro21]

What can a donkey do besides eat / fornicate / procreate and pull a wagon? Can donkeys invent calculus? Can donkeys create architecture? Technology?

Can you do any of those things? There are people all over this planet who do nothing but eat, have sex, and kill each other. Our intelligence may set us apart from the other animals, but we're still animals. A person who gets raised without being exposed to any form of human society would be just as animalistic and just as ready to kill and eat you as any hyena.

[sweeper]

Can you do any of those things? There are people all over this planet who do nothing but eat, have sex, and kill each other. Our intelligence may set us apart from the other animals, but we're still animals. A person who gets raised without being exposed to any form of human society would be just as animalistic and just as ready to kill and eat you as any hyena.

Using that logic KFC is more genocidal than the Nazis.

[sweeper]

Penn and Teller said it best:

"We would kill every ape on earth to save one homeless junkie with AIDS"

[Piro21]

Using that logic KFC is more genocidal than the Nazis.

To people with certain political or religious views, it is. We are simply another animal that evolved to put less of our energy into muscle and more into brain mass. It's why we need less food than a dog or ape our size, it's why a chimp the size of a baby is stronger than I am, and it's why we have so much time and energy to do things besides forage for food.

[raymondly]

If you believe popular theory, we did not evolve from apes. Apes and humans evolved from a common species/thing.

IBTL.

Correct - I believe in On the Origin of Species, Darwin says we evolved from a common ancestor.

[iboyalama]

To people with certain political or religious views, it is. We are simply another animal that evolved to put less of our energy into muscle and more into brain mass. It's why we need less food than a dog or ape our size, it's why a chimp the size of a baby is stronger than I am, and it's why we have so much time and energy to do things besides forage for food.

Are you kidding, I would strangle an ape my size for a Caramilk bar.

[45ED]

Are you kidding, I would strangle an ape my size for a Caramilk bar.

But what would you do for a Klondike Bar?

[Sepiraph]

Humans are bipedal primates.

[king_george]

One thing humans have besides brains (well most people have brains anyways, some I'm not so sure) is the opposable thumb. Without the ability to make tools, the intelligence trait is pretty limited in it's usefulness concerning survival.

No other species on earth has this trait. We are special...:cheesygri

Without an opposable thumb, how could hitchhiking ever get invented?

There would be no baseball umpires without opposable thumbs.

Such a minor little trait and so much usefulness. :cheesygri

[jerrysiz]

To people with certain political or religious views, it is.

Yes, but those people are grade A morons...Don't kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!


No other species on earth has this trait. We are special...:cheesygri

Without an opposable thumb, how could hitchhiking ever get invented?

There would be no baseball umpires without opposable thumbs.


Siskel and Ebert? Just another couple of nameless movie critics.

[king_george]

Siskel and Ebert? Just another couple of nameless movie critics.

:D

You just named them...

:D

[jerrysiz]

:D

You just named them...

:D

Yes, but I could only do that because they have opposable thumbs...see? Without that miracle that sets us apart from the rest of the animals, who knows who we would have looked to for oversimplified reviews of blockbuster movies?

[iboyalama]

But what would you do for a Klondike Bar?

Are you kidding me, I'll kill Achmed for a Klondike Bar.



So, what's going to happen if you kill a zombie?

[NoJustice]

One thing humans have besides brains (well most people have brains anyways, some I'm not so sure) is the opposable thumb. Without the ability to make tools, the intelligence trait is pretty limited in it's usefulness concerning survival.

No other species on earth has this trait. We are special...:cheesygri

Without an opposable thumb, how could hitchhiking ever get invented?

There would be no baseball umpires without opposable thumbs.

Such a minor little trait and so much usefulness. :cheesygri

Other primates have opposable thumbs too, and other animals have pseudo-opposable thumbs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumb#Other_animals_with_opposable_thumbs

But even with religion aside, man is really that different from other animals. The difference in intelligence between man and other animals is just too immense to ignore.

[airworks]

Ibtl

[brunes]

What can a donkey do besides eat / fornicate / procreate and pull a wagon? Can donkeys invent calculus? Can donkeys create architecture? Technology?

Look at it this way - do you care that a ant can cary thousands of times it's own body weight? "Why no, look, I can build cool buildings with my big brain". But why does the ant care about that, that would not help HIS life (ants work as a colony, they don't need big brains to live multiply and be fruitful) what is important to his life is being able to carry things.

The human brain is just one of many tools nature evolved. Different animals have different tools. No one tool is better than another. In fact, if one measures life based on it's success, then most species int he animal kingdom would be ranked at the top by a clear margin.

Humans make themselves self-important thinking that what they do matters to other life on the planet. In reality, no species cares. And thi sis on Earth alone, why would life anywhere else in the galaxy or universe care, since they don't even know you exist.

The human species is basically like a precocious 4 year old who runs around the house all day saying "look at me! look at me!" to it's mother (nature), which is too busy running the household (the universe) to give a damn.


Using that logic KFC is more genocidal than the Nazis.

The very fact that genocide is a war crime but mass animal killings is not shows how humans place themselves above other animals, even though really we're no better or worse than any of them.

[angekfire]

But what would you do for a Klondike Bar?

Anything.


The human brain is just one of many tools nature evolved. Different animals have different tools. No one tool is better than another. In fact, if one measures life based on it's success, then most species int he animal kingdom would be ranked at the top by a clear margin.

I would argue the human brain is a far more powerful tool than many species have at their disposal. Snakes have venom, humans have created anti-venom and are able to deal with it if treated in time. Gorillas are incredibly strong, but humans have created weapons such as guns or tranquilizers o subdue or kill the gorilla despite it's incredible strength.

Other species have tools. Gorillas have strength, birds have wings for flight, snakes have venom, fish have gills. But man has a powerful brain, which is more than a tool. It is a tool that allows us to create other tools. So we aren't as strong as a gorilla. We build a machine that allows us to use far more strength than a gorilla could even fathom. We don't have gills but we have created devices to allow us to breathe under water for a period of time. We do not have wings, but we have created vehicles with which we can fly. We aren't as fast as cheetahs, but we have developed vehicles which can travel faster than one.

Animals have tools. We create them. That is what sets us apart.

[Emancipated]

Man's greatest gift will also be man's greatest downfall. We are the architect of our future which could go either way. Man create a great many things but we also created famine, wars, hate, envy and all that jazz.

Could be AI, could be nuclear holocaust, could be a super bug. the CDC since its inception has probably mutated a fair share of bugs in their 'pursuit of knowledge' and all it takes is one carrier to bring it out and kill us all.

It's more plausible than the AI taking over scenario. We can't even make a computer smart enough to recognize speech-to-text yet but a virulent bug exists some where.

[raymondly]

Also, we must not forget that the most common thing between animals and humans is that we are both made of meat.

Tasty, tasty meat.

[felixdd]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xat1GVnl8-k

[Fanboy]

Man's greatest gift, the one that sets him apart from animals, is his sense of self-importance.

Although cats are pretty close.



Man's greatest gift will also be man's greatest downfall. We are the architect of our future which could go either way. Man create a great many things but we also created famine, wars, hate, envy and all that jazz.

Yeah, I hate jazz too.

[extraleanham]

animals experience pleasure like we do so their lives are equal to ours.

[Si98]

Man's greatest gift, the one that sets him apart from animals, is his sense of self-importance.

Although cats are pretty close.




Yeah, I hate jazz too.

Humans and cats are the only 2 creatures in the animal kingdom that kill for pleasure. :twisted:

[arsalanmustafa1989]

Are you kidding, I would strangle an ape my size for a Caramilk bar.

Thanks for the laugh

[king_george]

Other primates have opposable thumbs too, and other animals have pseudo-opposable thumbs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumb#Other_animals_with_opposable_thumbs

But even with religion aside, man is really that different from other animals. The difference in intelligence between man and other animals is just too immense to ignore.

My bad. I meant to say that the combination of the brain and the thumb makes us special.

One without the other couldn't put at the top of the food chain.

:o

[king_george]

Yes, but I could only do that because they have opposable thumbs...see? Without that miracle that sets us apart from the rest of the animals, who knows who we would have looked to for oversimplified reviews of blockbuster movies?

Well they could have used middle fingers in some cases.:)

But otherwise yep I agree.