Or is he the most sophisticated animal? And how does one define and measure sophistication.
-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Is war a humane notion? A human notion?
- Thread starter Estro Felino
- Start date
Hannah Arendt in her work "The Banality of Evil" points out that the defining quality of the human being (what makes us different than animals) is to be able to think.
Meaning, that animals eat, sleep and have sex, they all do these things mechanically. Without thinking of what meaning these actions have or are supposed to have.
Thinking enables us to understand the difference between ugly and beautiful, between evil and good.
And above all, it enables us to question authority.
Animals do not question authority since they follow the herd and fight against the enemies of the herd.
Let's say that animals are evolving into more and more intelligent and empathetic species.Would you or Arendt classify Rakus as human?
But my reasoning is philosophical. Not biological.
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
If anyone has read ' The 48 Laws of Power ' by Robert Greene, he basically lays out laws of exploitation, manipulation, and destruction. These laws undermine the builders, and makers in society, and put the emphasis on controlling, and manipulating things to one's advantage. It focuses on exerting power over people, and subordinating people's will to people in powerful positions.
Imo these kinds of powers reap havoc on the public trust, and undermine legitimate power gained by achieving and deserving one's position. To me humanity is a spectrum of human natures. Unfortunately these kinds of powers rise too often in the world, and advantage themselves through insidious domination, and strategic tactics that rot society and ultimately lead to violence and war.
Imo these kinds of powers reap havoc on the public trust, and undermine legitimate power gained by achieving and deserving one's position. To me humanity is a spectrum of human natures. Unfortunately these kinds of powers rise too often in the world, and advantage themselves through insidious domination, and strategic tactics that rot society and ultimately lead to violence and war.
It will stop, sooner or later.
Well...some men are still apes, that's why they worship war.Even our closest relatives, the chimps, go to war.Wish it wasn't so, but it's the reality.
All things present in the animal world. The jungle law, aka law of the fittest.
What is power?
Freud would say that power is the absolutization of sexual potency. The transposition of sexual potency into everyday life.
Unfortunately people don't realize that what they do in the secrecy of their bedroom is transposed into their daily routine.
They do unconsciously.
It has been proven that those people who hate romance and enjoy mechanical and loveless sex are the most likely to become warlike and bossy.
Human nature must be healed before we procreate. Because unhealed people will create more unhealed people-
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
Love born of virtue, and family is important to the survival and well being of humanity. The two are inseparable. Those whom are loveless are incapable of valuing others correctly, and probably focus on utility of people, and nothing more than that. Arrogance breeds war.
I see moral objectivity in the world, but increasingly I also see the moral relativist, and moral subjectivity people undermine the facts about moral truth. The foundations of peace and prosperity erode, and cruel people gain positions, and power. Generation after generation a new fight emerges. The battle for the truth never ends, and propaganda, and false teachers arise in troublesome times. YouTube is full of propaganda, and cruel teachings. To me contrary powers exist in the world, and they always have.
HonestJoe
Well-Known Member
What about the possibility that those theologians are simply wrong? After all, this concept isn't really supported by any evidence and as you're presenting it here is somewhat self-contradictory; On one hand you're saying the defining feature that differentiates humans and animals is a soul yet you're also saying that there are plenty of humans who don't have a soul (for some unspecified reason). And those theologians will also say that humans are perfectly capable of doing "evil" things without suggesting all of those humans don't have a soul. Indeed, it is often suggested that only humans are truly capable of the free will choices to do "good" or "evil".
It feels to me that you're determined to support the fundamental belief position that humans aren't animals and so are cherry picking and spinning isolated elements of theology, philosophy, history and biology to fit your conclusion. All you've really achieve is to tie yourself up in knots of unsupported assertions and contradiction.
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
We humans are part of the ape lineage. You should have seen me when I was in gymnastics-- not the falling parts though.