What Makes Us Human?
I heard something on CBC Radio over the weekend that not only aroused my curiosity, but got me thinking as well.
The whole point is........... what is it that makes us different from the other animals on this planet?
Some people have said that it's because we have a soul and animals don't. (This is too esoterical and I won't get into that. After all, who's to say there is no Doggie Heaven!)
I have also heard theories about how we make and use tools, but that has been dis-proved. (e.g. Birds use a twig to get insects out of a hole in a tree.)
Then there is the argument that we have emotions and animals don't but anyone who has had a pet knows this is baloney!
There is also the matter of critical thinking but that is not necessarily confined to the human species either!
We could go on and on but the point I will make has to do with a statement I heard on the radio that 99.9 percent of what the average person knows...... he or she got from other people.
Now we are getting somewhere!
The lower animals have a learning system that is always revolving around self-discovery or a one generational lesson.
In other words, what your dog or cat or horse etc. knows, they have either discovered themselves or were taught by their immediate parents or group. It is not a multi-generational process.
We, (Human Beings)on the other hand, are the only animal that builds on the combined knowledge of everyone that came before us, and so increases our awareness of the world around us in an ever expanding way.
So, what makes us different from all the other animals on the planet bunky?
CULTURE! (Or sometimes... lack of it!) Plain and simple!
It is our culture that allows us to expand and build. Different societies at different rates and different ways, but it is culture itself that is the engine of change.
It was always so, and will always be, what drives us forward!
Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com
Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com
The whole point is........... what is it that makes us different from the other animals on this planet?
Some people have said that it's because we have a soul and animals don't. (This is too esoterical and I won't get into that. After all, who's to say there is no Doggie Heaven!)
I have also heard theories about how we make and use tools, but that has been dis-proved. (e.g. Birds use a twig to get insects out of a hole in a tree.)
Then there is the argument that we have emotions and animals don't but anyone who has had a pet knows this is baloney!
There is also the matter of critical thinking but that is not necessarily confined to the human species either!
We could go on and on but the point I will make has to do with a statement I heard on the radio that 99.9 percent of what the average person knows...... he or she got from other people.
Now we are getting somewhere!
The lower animals have a learning system that is always revolving around self-discovery or a one generational lesson.
In other words, what your dog or cat or horse etc. knows, they have either discovered themselves or were taught by their immediate parents or group. It is not a multi-generational process.
We, (Human Beings)on the other hand, are the only animal that builds on the combined knowledge of everyone that came before us, and so increases our awareness of the world around us in an ever expanding way.
So, what makes us different from all the other animals on the planet bunky?
CULTURE! (Or sometimes... lack of it!) Plain and simple!
It is our culture that allows us to expand and build. Different societies at different rates and different ways, but it is culture itself that is the engine of change.
It was always so, and will always be, what drives us forward!
Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com
Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com
Labels: culture, society, what makes us human
posted by Allan W Janssen | 3:28 p.m.
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