What Makes Us Different Than Animals?

[Totallyatpeace]

According to the bible the animals do have a soul/spirit and the same "breath" from god.

 

Ecclesiates 3

 

18 I also thought, "As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath ; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal [c] goes down into the earth?" 

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Thankful.....

 

You always make me think. I'll get back to you on this one.

[Pariah]

If I learned of absolute proof of something other than what I believe........I would change my beliefs.

 

So you need absolute proof to disbelieve, but do you need absolute proof to believe?

[Totallyatpeace]

So you need absolute proof to disbelieve, but do you need absolute proof to believe?

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Pariah,

 

I don't believe in everything. Probably the reason I'm not Muslim or Mormon.

 

But I do believe in what is real to me. God is real to me but my proof of him lies in the relationship.........something that could never be explained. Unless that relationship ends................I will continue to believe.

 

I'm afraid this is off topic and I apologize.

[Guest Dragonblade]

....they don't plot out kills for weeks or months like some murderers do.

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While animals may not plot kills that far in advance, many species plot and plan kills in advance, such as those which travel and hunt in packs, e.g. lionesses, jackels, wolves. There's a leader, and those who chase the prey into an ambush, even those who kind of hang back just in case the prey escapes the others. It's like each member has a role to play.

[Guest Dragonblade]

If you've ever been with somebody when they died, there is a definite "leaving" that happens. They almost appear to be an empty shell. Whether that's simply life exiting the body or a soul leaving.......it's very noticable. At least that's my experience.

 

Tap

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I've had the same experience with some animals I've had the misfortunate to be with when they died. I could feel and see the change come over them as their life left the body. It was a weird and also sad feeling. Some seemed content with their fate, others were very upset with what was happening.

[Pariah]

Pariah,

 

I don't believe in everything. Probably the reason I'm not Muslim or Mormon.

 

But I do believe in what is real to me. God is real to me but my proof of him lies in the relationship.........something that could never be explained. Unless that relationship ends................I will continue to believe.

 

I'm afraid this is off topic and I apologize.

 

Okay. I don't really want to hijack this thread so I guess I'll just drop this line of discussion.

[NimbusBirdMgp]

But I do believe in what is real to me. God is real to me but my proof of him lies in the relationship.........something that could never be explained.  Unless that relationship ends................I will continue to believe.

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What is a relationship? Since I've never had one. So nothing has proven to me that sexy gals exist. I guess they only seem to exist in this world to me, when I dream and fantasise about the sexiness they can be for a relationship.

 

I've wondered if insects have souls (?) And that we are not much different from them either. What I see is that life is representing itself in many forms and that diversity is the whole scope of making a bioshpere on this planet in this solar system.

 

If there is spiritual souls (?) I wish we had better evidence for it. Cause I kind of like the idea of it. But Christianity is making this ugly to me for such answers to that religion. I'd rather assume a Panthesit Deity if it can prove to be really concerned about us (?)

[Amethyst]

I don't think they've proven the existence of a soul, whether it's people or animals. And if there is a soul, then all living things have one, not just a chosen, select few.

 

Well, let's see...

 

Humans pollute, and animals don't. Or at least, not intentionally.

[TruthWarrior]

I'm trying to find the article about the "killer lion" in Africa some years ago. There's a specific incident I remeber but can't find it. But I heard stories about these "demon" lions from some missionaries once. It very well could be explained with some kind of feeling of threat anyway, since we invade more and more of their territories, and we're not giving them enough room to roam, or food to find.

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I remember the Ghost In The Darkness movie was about at that sort of thing:

 

From Wikipedia:

 

In March of 1898, the British East Africa Company led by engineer Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson began building a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in Uganda. During the construction period, many railway workers were killed by two maneless male lions who dragged men from their tents at night.

 

The workers built bomas (thorn fences) around the camp to keep the lions out; however, the lions were able to crawl through. Patterson set traps and tried several times to ambush the lions at night from a tree. He finally killed the first lion on December 9, 1898, and the second three weeks later. The lions had killed nearly 140 workers.

 

After 26 years as Patterson's floor rugs, the lions' skins were given to the Chicago Field Museum for a sum of $5,000 US.

 

Patterson's accounts were published in his book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and later dramatized in the movies Bwana Devil and The Ghost and the Darkness.

 

From The Chicago Field Museum Exhibit:

 

We will never know why the Tsavo lions became man-eaters, but two factors may have contributed to their unusual diet. In the 1890s, an outbreak of rinderpest disease killed millions of zebras, gazelles and other African wildlife. Lions had to look elsewhere for food, and attacks on humans increased across the continent.

 

Poor burial practices may have also contributed to the Tsavo tragedy. Railroad workers who died of injury or disease were often poorly buried, or not buried at all. A scavenging lion coming across this easy meal might start going after live humans.

[Islington]

"The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures, the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot."

- Mark Twain

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I love that one. Because I wanted to say something about it but then I realised that I must think about it first...

 

I think that we are different in that every living beeing knows his part of wisdom that can be found on earth. That means, that we can learn from any animal or plant or even from a stone. There is no difference in what we do with it. If we do something wrong despite better knowledge live gets harder for us. No difference if cat, horse, human or anything else.

 

And they can reason. And imitate. How could they elseway learn to hunt or what to eat or if iI do this I get some food from that human, if not I won't?

[Amethyst]

I don't think we are that different from animals. We are just a little more along the evolutionary chain than they are. If something came along and wiped us out (like a nuclear war), whatever species that survived would probably end up evolving into intelligent life, eventually.