Posted on 08/20/2015 12:47:23 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Jonathan, you haven't read the Bible? Let me help you. G-d gave man dominion over the earth.
Which includes everything. Animals, resources, plants, etc.
Jonathan, you're not a pussy, are you?
5.56mm
Siberia ?
‘Cause G-d made us this way.
And gave us special responsibilities.
It’s called the Top of the Food Chain, moron.
(Not you Olag)
Sorry, Olog
Of course it’s the brain. Mentally retarded people are not “uber predators”. Instead, they would be prey if it wasn’t for the rest of us looking out for them.
Now, God gave us that brain, but I won’t deny that the brain is the tool He gave us which makes the difference.
That meat will carry us longer than two or three smaller animals, eaten fresh until the carcass rots, as other predators do.
This leaves more smaller animals to reach maturity, increasing the population.
When population levels get low enough we declare that species off limits or limit hunting them so they can recover.
When they overpopulate, we seek to reduce their numbers to sustainable levels by increasing the bag limit.
Relatively rare species are only hunted as a special event, and the fees charged to hunt those species are used to help manage those and other species populations.
No other predator has these attributes.
We have nothing to apologize for because we are the most efficient of the predators.
Mentally-retarded people do not run on instinct either. They have speech ability to varying degrees, and other skills that may or may not be limited by their impairment. According to that way of thinking, infants are no better than animals.
No, it is not the physical brain, otherwise there would be other sapient beings besides humans, whose behavior is not instinctive—there are not.
These “scientists” are also ignoring the fact that predators such as lions and wolves prey on healthy adult animals by using teamwork, too.
Then sharks and bears and tigers and everything else that can easily kill us must be super duper predators.
You seem to be arguing some different point than what I am. I’m not talking at all about “sapience”, I’m simply pointing out that that it is our brain which allows us to be the ultimate predator on the planet. It’s literally the only advantage we have in this area, as we have no physical advantages (and plenty of physical disadvantages) compared to other competitors.
I used the example of the mentally retarded, because they are identical to ordinary humans physically, but do not have our intellect. That one difference makes it impossible for them to be successful predators (unless the rest of us help them). I wouldn’t use infants as an example, because they aren’t physically identical, so it wouldn’t demonstrate anything.
There’s nothing particular about a brain that lends itself to a predisposition to predation, or even advantageousness. Without the spirit in us, we would not have the intelligence. Even handicapped persons have intelligence beyond that of animals, albeit curtailed.
It is the technique and the cooperation which makes these predators effective beyond what a single individual could accomplish.
Wolves have also been known to kill for killing's sake, a practice frowned upon by the hunting community in the human population.
From 'army ants' to piranha, cooperative efforts prevail where individual efforts would not.
Some animals are powerful enough that they can be effective solo. The rest of us have to work for dinner together (or work harder). If you have to work harder, the reward (in terms of calories) has to pay off or you starve. It makes sense to hunt adults at that point to make the payout worth the effort.
“There’s nothing particular about a brain that lends itself to a predisposition to predation, or even advantageousness.”
My example of the mentally retarded person disproves that sentiment. They have everything we have, except with a limited brain, and yet they have no advantages as a predator. Therefore, the one element they are missing, a fully functioning human brain, is the thing that must provide our advantages.
“Without the spirit in us, we would not have the intelligence.”
Sure that goes without saying, but without the intelligence, we would not be “uber predators”. I’m arguing the brain is the proximate cause of our status, and you are trying to argue about remoter causes. Well, we could have those remoter causes, but they would not matter (for purposes of this question), if the proximate cause was absent.
Didn’t need a scientific study to know this; just take a look at human on human predation.
No, that is not disproof when abnormalities are being cited as proof of the norm. An unhealthy brain in a human does not turn said brain into an animal brain operating on instinct. Unhealthy brains in animals lead to early deaths; the instinct of animal parents tell them to reject such offspring, whereas the spirit in a human tells otherwise.
You had better take a closer look then, bears quit often strip off only the skin and tear out the roe, eat that and leave the rest of the fish to rot.
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