Is it wrong for an ignorant bumbling Idiot who shits in his own house to think he is special? Is the destructive self-important parasite that he is indeed more precious to the Cosmos than any other form of life on Earth? Good questions, Bri, *very* good questions. ------------------ I am; therefore I think.
Boris: Some of those bumbling ignorant idiots, who relieve themselves in their own houses, have flown men to the moon, created computers, televisions, telephones, airplanes, discovered cures, vacinations, medicines, and sent robots to Mars. But along the way someone convinced them, they were no more than an animal, no less than a tree.
Bri: Technological achievement states nothing about our worth. As a civilization, we are a mess. Even if there are a few bright shining outstanding individuals every here and there, the aggregate stench of the rest by far compensates for the worth of the few. What's more -- to this day we are driven by the blustering premise that we are Kings of the World. The amounts of misery and destruction caused by that attitude are mind-boggling. The truth of it is: we are nothing. We are only an evolved form of monkeys, that just yesterday learned how to make some primitive tools. To any civilization that is a billion years older, we are still fetuses unborn. We have this gushing audacity to take pride in our 'accomplishments' -- pride, I'm sorry to say, comparable to the pride of a 3-year-old admiring the pile he/she made in the toilet. Every now and then, the 'advanced' individuals among us get a little hint of what we term inspiration and create something that rises slightly above our crude usual constructs. And then we collectively admire these creations, hailing them as something for the universe to marvel at. I claim that to a truly advanced lifeform, even the creations of our brightest geniuses are primitive and boring in the extreme! A truly wise individual will never declare the fact. Will never proclaim his/her glory. Will never consider him/herself something special. And we are not wise -- by _far_ not so. In geological time, we just opened our eyes on the world. Our knowledge is young, fledgling, primitive, woefully incomplete. Our individual minds are narrow, inflexible, puny, primitive in comparison to what could ultimately be. Our accomplishments are laughable. Our goals are questionable indeed. Our motivations are ridiculous. We have no idea who we are, why we are, or where we are. No, I will not sing praises for humanity, not ever in my lifetime. In the large scale of things, we are still balls of slime swimming in a primordial soop. ------------------ I am; therefore I think.
Boris: You wrote, "technological achievement states nothing about our worth" Gosh.... Man has given great worth to creatures who are born with their admired achievments to fly, jump, run, swim, live for hundreds of years, or because they are simply beautiful. Man was able to achieve these things through technology. Technilogical achievments which are nothing less than miracles. He's pride doesn't stem from these awesome achievments, but rather from his status in the world, his wealth, his pocessions, his blood line, his strength, or his temporary beauty. Yes, Men are capable of incredible things. My honest opinion he'll never achieve such things as caring for one another, living in peace, feeding the world, ending poverty, until he first realizes he is truly special, superior above all living things. I'm sure he will then be very humbled.
The universe contains only two things, the spiritual and the material, nothing else. From the spiritual comes the humane and the inhumane. From the humane is man, from the inhumane is the animal. The physical is of the material and is neither man nor animal. Before the spiritual there was only material and from the material came the physical, (as an apostle points out, first there was the physical and then the spiritual, meaning the material was first) and the first of the physical there came the brain, and within the brain an entity formed in the humane and the inhumane. The humane and the inhumane are the only two sets of characteristics that make person. And "person" is dependent upon ones basic mentality fromed in preference toward the humane or the inhumane. Humane and inhumane is a matter of the spiritual not the physical. The humane and the inhumane sets ones relationship with others in accordance of the preference. There is only two possible beings that can exist in the universe, man or animal, and each person is made by nature with all the same characteristics of the humane and inhumane as all others no matter what the physical shape or whether there is swimming or flying or on two legs or four, the spiritual of all is the same. Dog, cat, or bird, only specifies body type, but the being "person" within is the very same as you or I.
Holy Quacamole: You got me beat on the vocabulary, that's for sure !!! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I guess it's a matter of man accepting he's estate, he is a great being, a special and incredible creation, uncomparable to any other living creature in existance. He has within his hands the ability to take on the great task of caring and providing for all living things on this planet. In conclusion, if men would love themselves first, all things would align themselves in order. The trivial, unimportant priorities which consumes mankind today, will become humorous childhood memories. Don't speak so low of man, you know he believes what he's told, build him up, expect nothing less than great things from him, let him rejoice at his accomplishments, let others praise him, and try marveling out loud at so many miracles he has created. They are miracles you know, even if you understand how he did it. Wise men listen, they are not the sole keepers of all knowledge, foolish men, however, think they know it all. Thank you kindly for the feedback Boris. I think, therefore you are "special". Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! (sorry couldn't resist). [This message has been edited by Bri (edited June 26, 1999).]
From my opinion, every single human being is a heck of a lot more worth than any animal or plant or anything on this planet. I do realize that our civilization is in a crisis at the moment and it has always been "a mess" but there's good in every man and only the fact that there's love and goodness among us, even if only very little, makes our species the most important on Earth. Even though we achieve new and wonderful(?) things in science more often, we mustn't forget what makes us important; our superior ability to think and feel.
What a pile of shit. Man is a killer, always has been, always will be. Life is non-existant when it comes to the value of man's greed and lust for money. Homo Necans is the race of garbage.
Why does it matter , the dinosaurs were here for 150 million years or so and they were only temporary , they are gone . We have been here thousands of years and are close to ending the life support systems of the planet , maybe that is special , we are one of the very few living creatures on the planet that kills for pleasure , that is special . In the time involved in the life cycle of the earth its self we are just a fleeting moment , it is hard to justify calling that special . I wonder if the other animals think that they are special . To sum up the whole thing , when we die we rot , just like a squashed bug .
Bri, Your questions are very profound. You ask: 1. Is it wrong for Man to think himself special? 2. Is a Man more precious than an animal or plant? A quick answer to number 1 would be, in my opinion, that it is self-evident that man is very special and far superior to all other beings below his rank (mineral, vegetable, animal). My quick answer to number 2 is the same; man is, indeed, much more precious than the animal and plant. I note that some of the posters here have opted for a negative view, concentrating only on those aspects of human existence which are secondary to the true worth of "man". The true worth of any person on this wonderful planet is determined by the breadth of his "learning" and by the degree to which he has accepted to humble himself before the realization of his utter ignorance which true learning brings about. For, you see, with learning must come either arrogance or the eventual and inevitable realization that he is ignorant (and this is a very special type of realization, mind you). The knowledge a person acquires is limited, circumscribed, relative, and is never infinite nor absolute; the knowledge we possess today is proven false by subsequent generations. Thus, an individual who prides himself in his knowledge, who adheres to it and waves his head in haughtiness and arrogance is truly below the animal level for it is such arrogance that causes harm, not the knowledge itself! The pride of man rests in his humility. Although in many respects we are far superior to the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms (because we have awareness, intelligence, and a sort of 6th sense whereby we can synthesize items derived from our intellectual processes), yet humility would provide the awareness that, despite our superior station, yet we are dependant on the lower ranks for our very lives. Thus, our physical lives depend on the food that grows from the ground. Without it we would perish. Would it be right for us to despise a wheat field by claiming we are superior and the wheat inferior, worthless, something to be scorned? Nay!!! Our daily bread depends on that golden wheat field. It is necessary to see that everyone of the four ranks have special purposes but that out of all these four ranks man stands supreme in that he has an understanding which the rock, the wheat, the eagle are deprived. The kingdoms of the mineral, vegetable, animal and human are all very special. Each and all are interdependent and need each other. Man is special only in that he has the faculty of reason and can understand something of creation and of his Creator which the lower ranks cannot. If man thinks himself special in a harmful sort of way, downsizing others for example by bringing himself up to the level of superlative arrogance and self conceit, he is only proving, by such thought and conduct as are detrimental to others, that he is lower than the animal, for true knowledge, true understanding, leads a wise man to humility. There is nothing wrong in realizing that we are intelligent creatures and superior to all other ranks below us. But humility is needed to understand that in truth all things are interlinked and dependent on each other. An awareness of the unity of all things frees us from ourselves! ------------------ dumaurier
Bri, Of all the ignorant things that people do, this has to be the most ignorant one. Man is no different than animals or plants. Just because we evolved to the state we are today does not make us no different. Your views relate so much back to the times of the "Earth-Centered Universe" Theory. The general nature of all living things is to learn, adapt, and evolve. Without those 3 things, life would not exist; not as it does today. -Dan
