[RobbyS]

What is at issue is not biological kinship but the uniqueness of the human being, with his relationship with God. The medieval theologians accepted the old Greek idea of the chain of being. Many people reject the sovereignty of man, because they are so into a denial of a natural hierarchy, not because of the empirical data. The fishing around for evidence that shows an intellectual capacity among certain animals that is commensurate with that of man gets a lot more ink than it deserves. It is a modern equivalent to alchemy and astronomy.

[RSteyn]

>>What is at issue is not biological kinship but the uniqueness of the human being, with his relationship with God.

Studies of animals increasingly are showing that many behaviors and abilities previously thought uniquely human are not. It doesn't bother me being on the far end of a not-unique continuum, but some people must have their mythology.