If you believe in evolution do you understand yourself as an animal?

Question

Because you evolved from an animal your instincts, reactions, likes, dislikes and behaviour is genetically programmed to a certain extent. You share almost all of the same genetic programme as all mammals so can attribute the foundation to allot of your behaviour to the animal kingdom. We haven't left the animal behind we've just tammed it somewhat.

Answer 1

of course were animals, just watch people in a social situation jocking for power and position. I think what guys like Jesus and Buddha were trying to do is get us to rise above our animals instincts and become something better..And then dumb animals warped their intent and words and created something ugly out of their words.

Answer 2

I don't believe in macroevolution.

Of course, by the evolutionists'/biologists' definition, I'm an animal. It's about time that someone come up with a 7th kingdom.

[edit] Summary
Linnaeus,1735, 2 kingdoms
Haeckel,1866[1],3 kingdoms
Chatton,1937[3],2 empires
Copeland,1956[5], kingdoms
Whittaker,1969[7],5 kingdoms
Woese et al.,1977[8],6 kingdoms


I wonder if the conflict between the West and the Arabs is a fight for the survival of the fittest? Then why blame the Arabs if they have to use certain unorthodox methods in their struggle for survival/dominance?

Or for that matter, why imprison the guy who rapes and murders? After all, he's just expressing his animal instincts.


To "saad b" : Was that sarcasm? If not, man!! this is worse that us Christians with our 'fairy tales'. This sounds like a tall fish tale.

Answer 3

Of course I think that. I am not mineral nor am I vegetable. That leaves only one other option. If I accept that I am an animal, which I do, then I must also acknowledge that all animals have basic instincts for survival..

But, we also have logic, which can at times fight those instincts, sometimes to our benefit and sometimes not.

An example I would use is the mothering instinct to nurture. Our modern views of parenting stress individuality and separation (using strollers, cribs, bottles, playpens, etc.). We fight our instincts to nurture the dependency of a child to its mother because we have come to believe that by removing that dependency, we make the child stronger, more independent. At the same time, it allows mothers to continue on with their previous lives as much as possible.

If we followed our instincts, we might do things a bit differently, more naturally. Baby carriers, breastfeeding, co-sleeping etc. All of which are making a return as parents realize the benefits for their children these provide.

But the most basic instincts cannot be denied. A baby crying in spite of the fact that he is warm, dry and fed. That baby has not lost touch with his most basic instincts yet.

Answer 4

I guess. I mean, we ARE animals. More specifically, we are mammals. But our brains have developed differently then another animals. But yes, there are some inherent traits that we will always share with animals. For example, almost all humans will fell some sort of fear or anxiety when subjugated to extreme heights. That is because the animal kingdom has developed some healthy fears.

Answer 5

Yes, we are animals and have instincts that have developed in our species due to evolution. But, as sentients, we can choose to ignore our instincts and act outside of our genetically programmed behavior. There are some animals who are almost as witty as we are, some even claim dolphins might be sentient. Some birds, like the crow, have a complex societal structure. We behave like we do because of our inherited, ingrained predispositions passed to us from our anscestors. I also believe in a spiritual side to existance and think we have souls. Animals have spirits. The only real difference is that we are sentient, which makes our spirit a soul. Those might just be words to describe the complexity of our cellular lives, as I think the spirit/soul is inextractably tied to our physical bodies.

Answer 6

Well... Who said we're tamed? We just believe we're tamed, but obviously our world is still full of psychotics, crazies, and people who don't understand their feelings and decisions (perhaps because of basic instincts?). We've fooled ourselves by believing this illusion we call civilization. That somehow we're no longer wild creatures but civil gentlemen and ladies.

Come on, what about all the things that happen in life that we don't talk about openly? Adultry, sex, rape, greed, selfishness the list goes on. All of these are basic primal instincts. We're no more civilized than a bear trained to ride a unicycle while wearing a hat. We're very much at the mercy of our bodies. Not only can our bodies dictate our attractions, they also dictate our arousal and even our mood. Happy thoughts can't keep you happy when your body is only producing depression chemicals.

Answer 7

hundreds of millions of years ago.there were fish,these waters then started to get dangerous because of larger preditors,this made the fish move further away ,once they came to a stop they had nowhere else to go but land.so they started to develope legs which they used to move about.every fish animal these days grow legs in the womb and then they turn into fins.the fish which roamed the land now started to eat the food turning them into amphibians.different fish ate different food making different amphibians,soon they became reptiles,they then to loose their small bodies and grew into dinosaurs(giant lizard).
then comes the ape ,apes have 99 percent of a humans qualities,the only difference is that they cant walk like us and they are not as smart as us. after time they may have had to kill animals to eat meat, this has happened ,over the last months there were these apes which were killing animals with own made spears.i would like to make my conclusion by saying yes i was evolved from an animal

Answer 8

Yes, actually it goes much deeper and back much farther than you suspect.

If you look up the molecular structure of chlorophyl you will find a big molecule that converts energy from the sun into usable nutrients. That molecule has magnesium at it's center. If you look up the structure of hemoglobin the molecule will look 95% the same with one difference, the center is iron. So plants and animals at the molecular level aren't really that much different are they?

Best wishes!

Answer 9

Animals do not evolve both, the gene pool enables changes interior of the same species. for instance some animals like dogs have a wide genome and for this reason, have many diverse breeds. besides the indisputable fact that, animals like the cheetah has a small gene pool and performance only 2 sub species. dogs will continuously produces dogs and cats will continuously produce cats.

Answer 10

Our instincts are sometimes more powerful than we realise...have you ever had that gut feeling ,ignored it then down the line regretted your decision?.....what about that feeling of being watched ,you usually are!I have to agree with you ..it is a shame that some humans believe that they are better than there fellow animals as by there very actions prove they are not!