What differentiates people from animals?

Question

Namely, are we the only species that contemplates our own mortality while we are still otherwise thriving physically? Do animals think they are "alive" or they just "are"? If you think there is a difference, where does the distinction come from?

I have not made the claim that animals cannot contemplate mortality, have I? An honest Q in search of honest opinions because I don't think any of it can be proven, at least not yet.

Answer 1

We were made in God's image... animals were not.

Answer 2

Other great apes appear to be self-aware --- chimps, bonobos, gorillas. Whales do as do dolphins and elephants for sure....... The difference is the complexity of our ORAL language. But experiments have been done. Google some... Apes+ language, gorillas+ language, University of Nevada + Gorilla + language.

One writer even calls us "The Third Chimpanzee" (Jared Diamond)

One I remember reading about was a gorilla that was using sign language, and the researcher asked her, "What would you do if I died? (This is future perfect tense) and the gorillas signed back, "I would be very sad" ) also future perfect tense.This was reported in the National Geographic several decades ago...

For sure this is a critter with self awareness

Answer 3

Animals do know that they are alive and they do instinctively fear death to some degree. But animals are not as naturally curious as humans are. We are, by nature, more concerned about where the whole universe existence etc came from rather than simply survival. We contemplate higher fields of thought like math, science, etc. We consider the purpose of life, we are able to love to a greater extent than animals seem to, and we are structured in a way that allows us to communicate our emotions more clearly.

Answer 4

~~~ randyken,,,, The Distinction lies in the Developement of The Soul. Humans are at The Pinnacle of this Spiral Ladder of Progress and thus have Earned their Human Being-ness. Most likely when a Soul makes the Transition of it's first Incarnation into it's first Human Lifetime it is usually as a Primitive with basic survival demands on it's life,,, or will incarnate into a Human that has a difficult and undeveloped life and dies early on, etc, etc, etc. Through these various experiences The Soul also developes it's Sense of Awareness,,,, and then it's Awareness of that Awareness. Of course the Ultimate in Human Life is to eventually attain this "Awareness of Awareness" as "Enlightenment",,, just as Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, etc,etc, etc, conveyed in their teachings. (This answer is an Oversimplification) ~ Namaste`

Answer 5

Most animals live on instinct. Their consciousness or ability to analyze is latent, while some do not possess this faculty . Humans have consciousness controlling their lives. They have the sense of conscience.

(Based on Buddhist teachings, the distinstion comes from the actions of our numerous past lives.)

Answer 6

They tell us that We lost our tails, Evolving up From little snails. I say it's all Just wind in sails. Are we not men? We're giving up: God made man, But he used the monkey to do it. Apes in the plan For a walking robot. I can walk like an ape, Talk like an ape, I can do what a monkey can do. God made man, But a monkey supplied the glue. Are we not men?

On the genetic level there's very little difference.
All life on earth has found a way to survive that works best for them. Most mammals manage to live not merely survive.
Dr. Samuel C. Conway explained it to me as sentience vs sapience ( feeling or sensation as distinguished from perception and thought)
Animals adapt to their environment (the successful ones do)
People try to change their environment (not always to their long term benefit)
Animals follow their instincts (which works well most of the time)
People follow either their reasoning or that of someone who's gone before. (which works well some of the time).
Animals teach their young by example mostly.
People teach their young by talking about it mostly.

Homo sapiens H. sapiens ("sapiens" means wise or intelligent) has lived from about 250,000 years ago to the present. Between 400,000 years ago and the second interglacial period in the Middle Pleistocene, around 250,000 years ago, the trend in cranial expansion and the elaboration of stone tool technologies developed, providing evidence for a transition from H. erectus to H. sapiens. The direct evidence suggests there was a migration of H. erectus out of Africa, then a further speciation of H. sapiens from H. erectus in Africa (there is little evidence that this speciation occurred elsewhere). Then a subsequent migration within and out of Africa eventually replaced the earlier dispersed H. erectus. This migration and origin theory is usually referred to as the single-origin theory. However, the current evidence does not preclude multiregional speciation, either. This is a hotly debated area in paleoanthropology. Current research establishes that human beings are highly genetically homogenous, meaning that the DNA of individual Homo sapiens is more alike than usual for most species, a result of their relatively recent evolution, or maybe because the Toba catastrophe theory. Distinctive genetic characteristics have arisen, however, primarily as the result of small groups of people moving into new environmental circumstances. Such small groups are initially highly inbred, allowing the relatively rapid transmission of traits favorable to the new environment. These adapted traits are a very small component of the Homo sapiens genome and include such outward "racial" characteristics as skin color and nose form in addition to internal characteristics such as the ability to breathe more efficiently in high altitudes. H. sapiens idaltu , from Ethiopia, lived from about 160,000 years ago (proposed subspecies). It is the oldest known anatomically modern human.

Answer 7

The difference is that humans have individual souls and animals have only group-souls. This means that humans are capable of 'self-consciuosness' , and animals are not. To know the consciousness of an animal you have to be able, as it were, to share that consciousness by literally 'getting into the animal's head'. I have done this. Animals have thoughts and a certain amount of feeling but are not capable of self-criticism.
Hari Muni.

Answer 8

Animals don't have the capacity to love like humans love, nor do they have a soul like us. Take a medical ethics class and you will probably find a lot more answers to this question.

I do believe that higher intelligent animals feel pain on a greater scale than lower intelligent ones. They have more of an ability to thought process the pain, where as an insect or mouse really can't. After all, do you remember crying when you were a baby? Well mice and insects have lower IQs than babies.

Answer 9

Both man and the animals have souls........
The soul of man is distinctive for it has been granted the ability to gain "Wisdom" and understand the nature of both man and the animals and the environment that both dwell in.

Man through "Wisdom' can also come to an understanding
of the relationship between Man and his "Creator".

Answer 10

What separates humans from animals is our unique ability to advance spiritually. All life is ever evolving and our spirits must evolve as well. It's a choice to evolve spiritually or not. We can stay as the animals are or we can ascend.

Answer 11

The one thing that we have that the animals do not is the divine light of freewill and that of the power of making the atonement with God and all living things in the universe.