Posted on 02/15/2006 11:37:36 AM PST by truthfinder9
by Kenneth Richard Samples
For many people the distinction between human beings and animals has become increasingly blurred. Exposure to the secular, naturalistic worldview--especially in academia--can leave one wondering whether the differences are simply a matter of degree. In this view, mankind leaped to the top of the evolutionary heap by chance events.
However, philosophers have identified many ways in which human beings differ dramatically from animals. Unique human qualities and traits set man apart from the animals by kind, not just degree. From a Christian worldview perspective, and specifically in light of the imago Dei, one would expect profound differences, including the few that follow.1
Human beings have an inherent spiritual and religious nature. The vast majority of people on Earth pursue some form of spiritual or religious truth. Most human beings have deep-seated religious beliefs and engage in intricate religious ritual. Pursuit of God or the transcendental is a defining characteristic of mankind and is evidenced in such common practices as prayer and worship--so much so that some have designated humans as homo religiosus--"religious man." By contrast, formal atheism is largely inconsistent with the overall history of human nature and practice. Even professed nonbelievers (atheists, skeptics) pursue questions concerning life's ultimate meaning and purpose and are drawn to whatever they consider to be of ultimate importance and value. Philosopher Harold H. Titus has said that even agnostics and atheists "tend to replace a personal god with an impersonal one--the state, race, some process in nature, or devotion to the search for truth or some other ideal."2
Man, of all Earth's creatures, is uniquely cognizant of his imminent death. This recognition brings him personal angst and contemplation of God and the possibility of immortality. The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates (c. 470-399 B.C.) stated, "The unexamined life is not worth living." It is left for man alone to contemplate what philosophers call "the big questions of life." Animals, on the other hand, can be very intelligent but show no sign of spirituality or concern with ultimate issues.
Human beings possess unique intellectual, cultural, and communicative abilities. Humans are thinkers, uniquely capable of abstract reasoning, and able to apply the foundational logical principle of noncontradiction (A cannot equal A and equal non-A). Human minds alone develop propositions, formulate arguments, draw inferences, recognize universal principles, and value logical validity, coherence, and truth. Only human beings wonder why the physical universe corresponds to abstract mathematical theorems.
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Humans communicate their conceptual apprehension of truth using complex symbols (language). This language is complex and flexible (verbal or written). Language serves to network humanity and establishes human culture and societal institutions. Humans have a deep need to communicate with each other and they accomplish it through a sophisticated intellectual process. In contrast, animals also communicate (and possess many other amazing abilities) but they do not work with abstractions or ask philosophical questions.
Human beings are conscious of time, reality, and truth. They study the past, recognize the present, and anticipate the future. People live their entire lives aware of the constraints of time. Yet human beings also desire to transcend time: they think about living forever. Reflective people wonder whether their perception of reality matches with reality itself. Human beings uniquely pursue truth, leading to the founding and development of philosophy, science, mathematics, logic, the arts, and religious worldviews. What is real (metaphysics), what is true (epistemology), and what is rational (logic) are paramount questions, but again, only for man.
Although animals can have a keen intuitive sense of concrete time even surpassing that of man (e.g., some animals are more attuned to the changes of seasons), they lack any capacity for abstractions about time. Likewise, animals do seem aware of concrete reality but do not inquire into metaphysical, epistemological, and logical questions.
These differences between human beings and animals may seem obvious, but people who do not identify with a Christian worldview continue to challenge a biblical view of creation. Much is at stake. The ongoing dispute over the status of the human fetus and the debate on embryonic stem cell research represent just two examples of great divides in worldviews. Good reasoning can help bring clarity to such significant issues.
How does the author know that animals do not have an inherent spiritual and religious nature?
What evidence is there that they do?
When's the last time you saw an animal praying, building altars or holding church service?
None...so how can the author state that he knows?
Well, it would be pretty hard to build anything without thumbs, or speaking a language...but no one knows what goes on in their heads.
Probably by the same manner of reason he can say that animals can't perform brain surgery.
I would think that would be obvious by their physical characteristics, but how does he know what animals do or do not think?
Animals have gifts from God and according to the bible, souls after their own kind. He made a lot of beautiful animals, so He must like them. Just as an animal is capable of enjoying man's kindness and love, and responding in kind in most cases, why should we not supppose that they have an awareness of God's love and can respond in a way that we can know nothing about? Mankind is way too arrogant, even spiritually.
If you don't argue from evidence, you are not thinking , You are daydreaming in fantasyland.
Think so? Where do you suppose the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem is today? Where's his spirit?
Some animals are very adept. Monkeys can do more with their feet than some humans can with their hands. Raccoons are notorious for the ability to use their little hands to get into just about anything. So, the question remains...how do we KNOW they can't do brain surgery? Maybe they are thinking "gee, if someone would just me a chance. And a scalpel. I KNOW I could do brain surgery!"
I bet he didn't consult the Dog Whisperer! :-)
Humans underestimate animals. There have been times, while watching dogs, I swear they were praying. Not cats, of course, they're Satan's spawn.
Then again, no raccoon in history has ever got government grants to give other raccoons lobotomies.
That's my point! How do we KNOW they can't do delicate surgery? Have we given them the chance? No, so we're just reading their little raccoon minds and assuming they can't do it! ;-)
I agree completely, except mankind is way too arrogant, ESPECIALLY spiritually.
I know! You get a democrat, and I'll get a raccoon....
LOL. Would that were true. Maybe then we could get rid of the family of bandits in our attic.
They are mean.
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