Are humans simply intelligent animals?

JH

Since man is very different from animals, then maybe we were made in God's image. But for those who don't believe in God, how are humans any different from animals?

ballistic

Our DNA is about 98% the same as apes apparently.The story goes that anything closer to us... got killed by us, which wouldn't suprise me knowing what animals we really are.

Realist

higher primates such as chimpanzees and bonobos have the mental capacity of two year old children. they have self awareness and are capable of basic logical reasoning.

we are an advanced version but nontheless just intelligent apes.

Robdar

No doubt about it, we are apes. Intelligent? I think we kid ourselves.

Robyn

The question of intelligence is still being weighed. While humans are more complex in their interactions with each other and the enviroment, it is clear to see that the less intelligent of the biological organisms on the planet, are more in harmony with and kinder to it. Humans "consume" with out sufficient thought of the consequences. We have based our economy largely on exhaustable resources that poison our air and water. Not too bright! We prey on our own kind, some even on our offspring! Evil and not too bright. We eat too much, drink too much, some even ingest chemicals on purpose to get "high"! Not too bright.

I sometimes feel when I see examples of human "intellegence" and the outcome of their actions, that the human race was the closest thing to a mistake that God ever made.

You might check out the Darwin Awards web site. It will remove any idea in your head that humans as a race are in any way to be considered "intelligent.

Thunder

tyydyy

The intelligence of humans has taken a quantam leap in the last 200 years. Geologically speaking, it has been a very short period of time since man didn't even have a language. In my opinion we are not far removed from apes. I do feel that all other animals are simply less intelligent but have the desire to survive and live in comfort.

It is a fact that some humans are more intelligent than others. Should we hold the less intelligent to the same level of responsibility. Are the prisons full simply because those people are less evolved, less intelligent, barbaric? Is that nature's way of improving the species? We all know that knowledge is power. For example: The first country able to invent the nuclear bomb had the power. The countries inventing and producing computers have been the most prosperous.

The problem is that so much of our intelligence today is artificial. We have learned so much from schools, television and the internet but deep down our intelligence is the same. We can easily conceal our lack of cognitive powers. Inside we are animals trying to become something different. Only time will tell whether we will succeed.

TimB

Swan

simply intelligent?

Sounds like an oxymoron to me.

Tammy

NeonMadman

I think the real question is, are animals simply stupid humans?

Abaddon

We are animals. There is no proof the the contrary, after all.

tyydyy; It's interesting you should say "The intelligence of humans has taken a quantam leap in the last 200 years." You also say "The problem is that so much of our intelligence today is artificial. We have learned so much from schools, television and the internet but deep down our intelligence is the same."

I wouldn't say our intellegence has increased per se. For a start, 200 years, even if you had pretty heavy natural selection or sexual selection operating, would not be time enough to allow a quantum leap in intelligence. I would say the average educational level of humans, especially in the Western world, has taken a quantum leap. Maybe we're just looking at different semantic usage. Intelligence to me is what the head can be filled with and do with it's filling and education is the filling.

I think perhaps what you're identifying is the 'standing on the shoulders of giants' effect, that saying Newton (I think) is credited with.

If you imagine that, even if someone was bright enough to think of flying machines and television two hundred years ago, they didn't have the power sources they needed to make their inventions. Leonardo Da'Vinchi (sp?) is a good case in point.

Many inventions of the past two hundred years allow the invention of more things, which in turn allow the invention of more things, which in turn open up new opportunities... kind of a technological snowball effect.

So, under this arguement, that education is the key, it would seem that social ills are largely caused by social deprevation rather than thick people.

obiwan

Well, we are all made of the same stuff.