If there is no God or another higher power, then there is no meaning to life because that means it was chance. Life just "is".
-Capt. Havoc
spudugly_at_aol.com wrote:
I wasn't speaking about appplied morality or ethics - those are extremly relative anyway, and examples of it can be observed/implied all around us - I was talking about the ability to reckognize those traits and have the self-awareness to wonder about them.
In so far as we currently have been able to discover, humans are the only creatures who can sit on a street corner and wonder why we have curiosity and what it's meaning is.
Asking "What is the meaning of Life?" and "Is procreation the only purpose in life, or is there something else?" are mighty questions, and require a giant leap of imagination to reach.
'Thinking-outside-the-box' is something that hasn't been (and can't, at our current level) observed in any creatures other then humans.
We can infer, or guess, or imply such things (I'd like to beleive that we're not the only species capable of it) but without a greater understanding of human-to-nonhuman communication, we only have speculation.
As for your comment on religion, I agree totally.
D.O.P.R
-----Original Message-----
From: kitfoxen_at_gmail.com
To: SkunkworksAMA_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 7:08 PM
Subject: Re: [SkunkworksAMA] *OT* Who You Calling An Animal?
At 06:02 PM 2/20/2007, spudugly_at_aol.com wrote:
>I just want to the point out that - while I do concider humans to be
>animals in the same general catagory as apes, cows and llamas - I think
>that the very thing we are all doing right now is pretty solid evidence
>that we have something (what it quanitifies as is a mystery) that other
>animals lack.
>
>I personally concider it a gift from God, based on my religous beleifs.
>
>But in any case, our ability to look beyond the world around us, the
>ability to question things like 'morality' and 'purpose' is what gives us
>an edge... at the moment at least.
By the view of Morality and Ethics posed in this branch of the thread,
specifically "avoiding depriving others (and in fact extended into
preventing the depravation of others') basic and extended needs and
desires", one could also point out that dolphins exhibit this behavior.
A dolphin will leave a shark that it knows about alone for years until that
shark attacks a human, at which point the dolphin will kill the shark to
defend the human. The dolphin gains absolutely nothing towards any of its
own basic needs or extended desires by doing this, and yet it does so anyway.
This is very similar to a person with "morals" preventing a pit bull from
killing a cat. The person gains nothing from it, but does it because it is
morally and ethically a proper thing to do.
As such, by the factors you point out above, the dolphins don't necessarily
lack it this "something special". Perhaps we as humans are too
self-centered or too blind to figure out the proper method of communicating
with dolphins to find this out. Maybe we aren't, and there is nothing to
find out. Maybe dolphins in the wild wonder what the dolphins who are
busily studying us are doing at Sea World today. Maybe the dolphins will
come to a breakthrough eventually and figure out a way to get us to
understand the plain words they are saying. ;)
Religion can seriously muddle things unfortunately. Religion these days is
more often than not "Blind Faith" in something that may or may not even
make sense. Belief that comes from interpolation of what we can see into
something we don't directly sense is much better. Whether it be something
as simple as "That electric stove element is glowing red. I believe it is
hot without having to touch it." or something as complex as "When I pray to
this entity, I feel better. I don't know why, but I believe this entity is
helpful."
The important factor in religion is to be malleable. Once a belief is
proven or disproved properly, work from the new information. And by morals
and ethics, any beliefs that cannot be proven or disproved should not be
used as a way to deprive others of their basic needs or extended
wants. When religious beliefs begin to deprive others,, that is where it
becomes "morally wrong". And more importantly, when religious beliefs
begin to deprive THE BELIEVER of things, that is even worse.
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Received on Tue Feb 20 2007 - 19:15:15 CST