Atheists are animals

[Polymath257]

A little tidbit that I have written up and posted before:

1) Are you made of complex cells with internal organelles? If so, you are a eucaryote.

2) Do your cells have membranes made of lipids rather than walls made from glucosides and are they surrounded by an extracellular matrix composed of collagen and glycoproteins? Then you are an Animal.

3) During embryo development, does the blastopore (the first opening) become the anus? Then you are a Deuterostome.

4) Do you have a head, backbone, brain, red blood cells, and kidneys? Then you are a Vertebrate.

5) Are air-breathing, have hair, three ear bones, sweat glands, the ability to regulate internal temperature and specialized teeth? Then you are a Mammal.

6) Do you lack an epi-pubic bone and do females like you have a uterus which produces a placenta during pregnancy? Then you are a placental Mammal.

7) Do you have a collar bone, opposable fingers, a flat nail on fingers and toes, eye sockets made from bone, stereoscopic vision, an enlarged cerebral cortex? Then you are a Primate.

8) Do you have a narrow nose and downward pointed nostrils, broad rib cage, a fused frontal bone, convoluted cerebral hemispheres, a large brain for his size of mammal, color vision, a lack of tail, and a lack of cheek pouches? Then you are an Ape.

So, yes, if you are human, then you *are* an animal and you *are* an ape.

Now, we are a very special *type* of ape. We are an ape with strong abilities to generalize concepts and use language (among other things). But that doens't defeat the simple fact that we are animals.

 

[blü 2]

don't knee jerk
It came up in another thread

seems at least one member here insists that we are animals
all of us
no matter what

animals are our equals.....no matter what
we are not greater than animals .....no matter what

and I posted in return.....
to be no more than animal.....I would need to surrender
my social abilities
my politics
my economics
and my .....God

so......redirecting and redrawing the line at hand

are non-believers.....animals?

It's glaringly obvious that humans are animals ─ the mammalian species H. sap sap.

And the bible agrees:

Ecclesiastes 3:18 I said in my heart with regard to the sons of men that God is testing them to show them that they are but beasts. 19 For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity. 20 All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Ecclesiastes 9:4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward; but the memory of them is lost.​

 

[Daemon Sophic]

but are we the GREATEST in the list you post?

So, @Thief ....what about you? Do you believe that we are the “GREATEST”?
If so, then what does that mean to you? “Greatest” how, exactly?
Your OP suggests that you are looking at it from a spiritual/religious viewpoint, and that you believe that we are in fact the greatest spiritual creature on this planet.

How do you know this? Most religions over the last 100,000+ years that we have evidence of humans showing interest in spirituality have had animal/totem/spirit elements. Even the child late-comers of religions (Judaism/Christianity/Islam - and their many variations) make it clear that a good human can do well by emulating the peaceful ways of many or all of the non-human portions of the animal (and even plant) kingdoms.

 

[Earthling]

don't knee jerk
It came up in another thread

seems at least one member here insists that we are animals
all of us
no matter what

animals are our equals.....no matter what
we are not greater than animals .....no matter what

and I posted in return.....
to be no more than animal.....I would need to surrender
my social abilities
my politics
my economics
and my .....God

so......redirecting and redrawing the line at hand

are non-believers.....animals?

No, but biological terms differ than theological terms. Species, mammal, kind . . .

 

[Earthling]

Biologically, we humans are animals. Theologically, that varies from religion to religion.

BTW, do non-human "animals" have "souls" in Christianity? Even though the Bible doesn't say they do, neither does it say they don't. As for me, I don't have an opinion one way or another on this.

Man . . . 30 verses into it is all you would have to read . . . Genesis 1:30 "And to every wild beast of the earth and to every flying creature of the heavens and to everything moving upon the earth in which there is life as a soul I have given all green vegetation for food.” And it came to be so."

 

[lewisnotmiller]

don't knee jerk
It came up in another thread

seems at least one member here insists that we are animals
all of us
no matter what

animals are our equals.....no matter what
we are not greater than animals .....no matter what

and I posted in return.....
to be no more than animal.....I would need to surrender
my social abilities
my politics
my economics
and my .....God

so......redirecting and redrawing the line at hand

are non-believers.....animals?

Sure. I am.

 

[exchemist]

good start......
but can you offer a pivot point to sharpen that edge?

How the hell can you use a pivot point to sharpen an edge?

Or are you going for the Mixed Metaphor of the Year award?

 

[Bear Wild]

Well, we are a sort of animal

That's a ridiculous claim as obviously we are the only specie that can invent things that do not exist.
That alone makes us a much more sophisticated and adaptive creature.

We are not greater is some senses, but we are in the most important ones

Not true, many species are social animals, some have a much more merciful social behaviors than us

Not true.
Animals that live in social groups have politics similar to many human societies.
The leader of the group is selected by strength, ability to lead, heritage, age etc.

Not true,
Animals have economics, rather they don't use money, they use resources.

No argue here, although i don't know whats going on in animals heads
It seems you skipped the few things you will actually have to surrender:
Your ability to speak (not to confuse with ability to communicate).
Your ability to invent.
Your ability to preserve knowledge regardless without direct observation.

Non believers are the exact same creatures as you are!
So i guess it depends how you see yourself.

How are we the most important animals? We are animals no matter what and not dependent on sophistication. Sophistication does not necessarily mean better. We are maladaptive to our environment. This would go against being appropriately adaptive to our environment unless you think the way we are treating our planet is a purely positive manner.

 

[Valjean]

How are we the most important animals? We are animals no matter what and not dependent on sophistication. Sophistication does not necessarily mean better. We are maladaptive to our environment. This would go against being appropriately adaptive to our environment unless you think the way we are treating our planet is a purely positive manner.

Good points.
But as the most maladaptive animal it could be argued that we're a design failure.
Almost as soon as our species appears on the planet it's crashing the biosphere and now seems to have initiated a mass extinction.
That's hardly "the paragon of animals." That describes a pathogen.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Atheists are animals? Well, of course they are! They're human, and all humans are animals. This is known as a syllogism.

Now, to take this a little further, we have to acknowledge that humans are the most intelligent (I use the word guardedly, as you'll see) animal species on the planet, although they are very often among the most stupid (which, believe me, is not the opposite of the proper definition of intelligent). This is a point made by many very smart philosophers, not least among them the recently deceased and greatly lamented Stephen Hawking.

So in this vein, I conclude that while atheists are human, and therefore animals, they are also among the least stupid among the intelligent species known as humans. They are less likely to get trapped in dogmatic beliefs that contradict reason.

 

[Subduction Zone]

don't knee jerk
It came up in another thread

seems at least one member here insists that we are animals
all of us
no matter what

animals are our equals.....no matter what
we are not greater than animals .....no matter what

and I posted in return.....
to be no more than animal.....I would need to surrender
my social abilities
my politics
my economics
and my .....God

so......redirecting and redrawing the line at hand

are non-believers.....animals?

Your logic as usual needs some work. The fact that we are animals does not mean that other animals are our equals.

 

[Valjean]

Your logic as usual needs some work. The fact that we are animals does not mean that other animals are our equals.

Chimps are clearly our superiors:

 

[Subduction Zone]

Chimps are clearly our superiors:

Different animals tend to beat out other animals in chosen categories. I would not want to enter into a tug of war with a chimp either. We lost some of our strength in exchange for the ability to do fine manipulation with our hands.

 

[Valjean]

Yes. Animals specialize, they become expert in the skills needed to negotiate their particular ecological niches.
Claiming global superiority, though, citing the particular skills your species has evolved to survive, strikes me as arrogant hubris.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Yes. Animals specialize, they become expert in the skills needed to negotiate their particular ecological niches.
Claiming global superiority, though, citing the particular skills your species has evolved to survive, strikes me as arrogant hubris.

And a hubris that may, it very much seems, strike us all a mortal blow.

 

[Thief]

You are not a parasite you just lack the insight to know what you really are.

and after the last breath.....

we become what we REALLY are

and it won't be animal

 

[Thief]

That describes a pathogen.

so...I really am a parasite

 

[Thief]

hubris.....such as.....
energy equals mass times the velocity of light squared

the sixteenth chapel

the pyramids

the book of Psalms

dna manipulation

Hubble telescope

etc....etc....etc....

 

[Bear Wild]

and after the last breath.....

we become what we REALLY are

and it won't be animal

You are so right we will return to the earth. Unless you have some fantasy that you are doing somewhere else.

 

[Bear Wild]

hubris.....such as.....
energy equals mass times the velocity of light squared

the sixteenth chapel

the pyramids

the book of Psalms

dna manipulation

Hubble telescope

etc....etc....etc....

And exactly how have the things you have mentioned actually helped the planet earth. None of them. Well we have learned something I will give humans credit. We have learned we are animals that share common ancestry and are dependent on other life to survive. We are not independent from other life and thus there is an equality in the real world. Yes we have learned something after all. Now it is time to get rid of human arrogance.