Comments on Secondhand Smoke: Your 24/7 Seminar on Bioethics and the Importance of Being Human: Animal Rights Nonsense: Change Name of Homo Sapien...

Well, now we are in the land of the quibble. But a...

2008-08-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

Well, now we are in the land of the quibble. But animals are not really bending the environment, their "alterations" are part of the environment, part of how they evolved to behave.

Not so with us in the sense that we somehow evolved beyond instinct to consciousness and intentionality with regard to these matters.

Of course, this is just one of the aspects of our exceptionality.

So, other animals can bend the environment, but th...

2008-08-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

So, other animals can bend the environment, but they are not aware they are doing it. We humans are aware of our actions and choose them freely.

Seems to me that it is self-awareness that is separating humans from the other animals, not our influence over our environment.

Joshua: Beavers do not shape their environment lik...

2008-08-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

Joshua: Beavers do not shape their environment like we do. Not even close. They are hard wired to build their dams and are merely acting as nature compels them. Birds building nests, ditto.

We are different, in degree and kind. We have escaped such limitations to the point that in some venues we are urged to seize control of our own evolution! Name one other speceies that cold even contemplate that. Only we can bend nature to our will--sometimes anyway--and not always be subject to the vageries of the natural world upon us.

What do you mean by 'we create our own environment...

2008-08-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

What do you mean by 'we create our own environments'? Are we not only doing the same thing, only to a greater degree, as beavers do when felling forests to dam a pond or as termites do when building a mound in which to house themselves and their aphids?

But Joshua: We're not just part of the animal kind...

2008-08-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

But Joshua: We're not just part of the animal kindgom. We have also transcended the natural world to the point that we create our own environments. And we are the only species that, to our knoweledge, ever has in the universe.

We are not just animals. We are more.

I see your point - we are unique in many respects....

2008-08-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

I see your point - we are unique in many respects. But other animals also have characteristics that are unique.

In the words of science writer Matt Ridley, "We are a unique species, completely unlike any other. [...] But in the animal kingdom, there is nothing exceptional in being unique. Every species is unique."

Joshua: Great name. I know generally the theory of...

2008-08-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Joshua: Great name. I know generally the theory of evolution. But it seems to me that evolution does NOT aim toward humanness. Indeed, what is truly exceptional is that humans are the only species to have somehow develop attributes and capacities that have never before seen in the billions of years of this planet.

However (and if there is a whyever in this regard), that is truly exceptional.

Wesley, what do you think most evolved means?Human...

2008-08-09T02:24:00.000-07:00

Wesley, what do you think most evolved means?

Humans are no more evolved than any other organism. All have evolved in the same amount of time. We all came from a common ancestor, and evolved in different directions. I'm guessing your idea of 'most evolved' refers to the direction that evolution took, and not how much evolution happened.

I think this comes from a misnomer that evolution progresses (or aims) towards human-ness (not helped by that misleading 'march of the hominids' that symbolises evolution). See this picture from Berkeley's Evolution 101 website: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/images/laddervstree.gif

Ummm, Christine... humans ARE primates. Apes, spe...

2008-08-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

Ummm, Christine... humans ARE primates. Apes, specifically.

To distinguish monkeys and apes from humans, we've had to adopt the term "non-human primates," or NHP's. (NHP's can't type or circulate petitions, as far as I know, so your intended point remains valid.)

I figured it's better you hear it from me than from Ingrid Newkirk. AR's dearly love to split hairs. Well, as long as the hair fell off the animal naturally and the animal experienced no stress in the process.

I think that just as soon as a primate comes to my...

2008-08-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

I think that just as soon as a primate comes to my door dressed in his Sunday best and asks me to sign the petition that he typed out himself, I'll be happy to do so.

What? We have to do it for them? I thought we weren't any better than primates!

I don't think that one need be religious to recogn...

2008-08-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

I don't think that one need be religious to recognize that humans are the most evolved species in the history of life on earth--a gap between us and all other life forms that is truly exceptional.

However, I will sign that petition to change the name of Bufo marinus! Injustice to amphibians must be combated.

Complex may describe humans accurately, but it jus...

2008-08-07T00:47:00.000-07:00

Complex may describe humans accurately, but it just as accurately describes every other mammal, reptile or insect on the planet. No sensible biologist will accept the idea that humans are more complex than any other animal - such an idea is far too close to the religious idea that man is the pinnacle of evolution.

Onto more pressing matters, calling the cane toad Bufo marinus falsely presents the animal as a sea-going amphibian. I demand a change!