Question about Evolution: Are we animals?

Question

It's common practice to make comparisons btwn animal behaviour and human nature (fight or flight, pheromones, infidelity). However, no one can deny that humanity surpasses anything that has been observed in the animal kingdom. No animal has even come close.
Logically, that would indicate we are made of different stuff.

Evolution has attempted to explain our physical development, but what about the rest? What are we, if not animals?

It's a logical conclusion, that we do not fit into any category of animal; BASED ON aptitudes and behaviours that resulted in the following: pyramids, atomic bomb, the United Nations, microchips, automobiles, vessels that can cross the ocean, quantum physics, landing on Mars...
Consider the implication.

How do you all expect to expand my perspective (NHBaritone) by simply repeating basic knowledge about human physiology...and drawing the same old tired conclusions. I didn't ask this question in the science section, but I'm now certain I could have gotten much more enlightened answers, if I had.

Answer 1

well i was reading the snapple fact thing and it said that humans and kawalas (i think thats how you spell it sorry im not a good speller)are only two ANIMALS that have unique finger prints so i guess we r counted as animals

Answer 2

Your leap between "No animal has even come close." and "Logically, that would indicate we are made of different stuff." is not logic, it is wishful thinking.

The difference between the human brain and the brain of other primates is that we have a larger neocortex. This is the last part of the brain to have developed. Reptiles don't have a neocortex. All mammals do, but primates have more neocortex than other mammals, and humans have a lot more neocortex than other primates.

The neocortex is the outermost layer of the brain. It is about the size of a dinner napkin. Only six neuron layers deep, but about 2 square feet in area. Throughout the entire area it has a very consistent structure. A big part of it in humans is the frontal cortex, and that area is where we have our abstract thinking and planning abilities. Other primates have some frontal cortex, but much less.

Everything we know about the neocortex tells us that it may be all that is necessary to account for the difference in intelligence between us and other animals.

Answer 3

Time for a really large perspective:

All larger animals need oxygen, reproduce sexually, feed on other creatures in their environment (plants or animals), fight off disease via an immune system, heal from injuries, need rest, etc. Among the land animals, the largest number are based on a 5-spoke model: one head with two extremities nearer the head and two extremities further from the head. However each creature has certain unique qualities. Some of these even rise to outshine all other creatures in that particular quality.

What is the fastest runner on the planet? A cheetah.

What animal is the best swimmer? Among land mammals, probably the otter. Among all mammals a member of the whale/dolphin family or seals.

What animal is the most social? Bees, arguably the honey bee.

What animal is the strongest? This has several different possibilities, but elephants are in the running.

What animal flies? Bats & birds.

What animal is longest lived? Probably tortoises.

What animal has developed language and can pass along information most effectively? Humans.

All of the superlatives of life do not belong to humans. Each creature is a testimony to its ability to adapt over time to its environment. We are different only insofar that we have developed our unique way of dealing with adversity, but we are more like the animals than we are different.

Answer 4

We are animals in the sense that we are not vegetables or minerals. However we are animals who are created in the likeness of God. We are moral creatures who have the capacity to think logically and to feel complex emotions like love and compassion. Evolution is a mixture of truth and lies. All one has to do is look at the different breeds of dogs to know that evolution within a species happens. But when macro evolution is imposed upon that then it becomes a pure fantasy where a house of cards is built upon one "what if" or "it could be that" after another.

Saying that a frog was turned into a prince by random mutation plus natural selection plus time is ludicrous. I mean, that's what the evolutionists claim isn't it? That millions of years ago some amphibious creature came out of the ocean and over time it turned into a human being, right?

Answer 5

"Humanity surpasses anything that has been observed in the animal kingdom. No animal has even come close."

Can you run as fast as a cheetah? Or dive as fast as a falcon? For that matter, can you fly? Can you breath underwater, or survive a devastating meteor impact like bacteria? Can you go for weeks without food or water? Can you survive prolonged extremes of temperature, both hot and cold?

Perhaps you ought to define "surpasses" a little more carefully...

Answer 6

What is "animals"? it is a word. what matters is what the word means. "animals" is a pluralitive catagorization from the word "animal."

"Animal" is defined in the dictionary as "A multicellular organism of the kingdom Animalia, differing from plants in certain typical characteristics such as capacity for locomotion, nonphotosynthetic metabolism, pronounced response to stimuli, restricted growth, and fixed bodily structure.

The distinction made above between animal and plant is due to the definition of "life form", of which there are only 3 catagorisations: plant, animal and single cell (also known as simple). It would therefore stand to reason that if we are not simple or plant, we must be animal by default. Until such time as we humans change our minds about such definitions, this will remain true and accurate.

Answer 7

Humans are animals, yes.
The flaw in your logic is your claim that humans surpass anything that has been observed in the animal kingdom. That is only true if we ourselves are not a part of the animal kingdom. You assumed your conclusion in order to justify it.

Answer 8

Of course we're animals.

I deny that "no animal comes close" to humanity.

Your logic is silly - how could we be "made of different stuff" from animals? We're made of the same stuff. Everybody knows that.

Evolution explains our intellectual, emotional, and social development as well as our physical development.

Answer 9

Here's how it goes. The start of life.
First earth is made by chunks of particles in space. Then water is formed by particles. Then bacteria comes from the water particles. Then they turn into planktonoids and then fish-like. Then some become mudskipper like things and others become plesiosauras and dunkleostus from the dino ages. The mudskipper like things evolve into many more things. Birds, reptiles, tiny mammals, and amphibians. the tiny mammals evolve into 2 species. The things more like hamsters, dogs, cats, and the things like apes monkeys gorillas. Then the monkeys slowly evolve into humans.
(i know i know i left out ice age and such but i'd be typing forever if i didn't)
Plz excuse the wierd thoughts of mine. They are fairly unaccurate.

But just to answer the question :yes

Answer 10

NO ABSOLUTELY WE ARE NOT ANIMALS ANIMALS DO NOT HAVE HIGHER REASONING POWERS AND A SPIRITUAL NEED AMONG OTHER THINGS IF I HAD THE TIME I COULD LIST THOUSANDS OF THINGS THAT DISPROVE IT FROM EVERY KNOWN SCIENCE BUT THE TIME IS LATE HERE SO I MUST DEPART IN EVERY CONCEIVEABLE WAY EVOLUTION HAS BEEN PROVEN TO BE A FARCE A CRIMINAL JOKE Gorbalizer