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what are we?


My friend keithnoback has always advised me to leave the faitheads alone. I promised to not bother with them, but you all can indulge me this one time and many more to come.

Katherine asks

Can anyone believe that the differences between humans and chimpanzees are simply biochemical? I have a few questions:

  • Why don’t drugs fix problems such as depression, schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder? Maybe all the causes are not known. 
  • Why do humans insist on going beyond the need for nutrition and prefer food with flavor, color and artful presentation? Custom
  • Why do humans need relationships beyond a partner for sexual intercourse and some association for personal safety? There are birds and a few other animals that keep their partners. Should we promote them to human beings
  • Why do humans have aspirations that transcend their need for food, clothing and shelter? In other words, why are humans never satisfied with the way things are? Because the mind can conceive of anything once it has the raw material for it.
  • Why do humans change the space around them in so many ways when other animals hardly leave footprints? Maybe because we are wasteful
  • Why don’t all homo sapiens make identical sounds for purposes of gathering crowds, finding sex partners or warning of predators? In fact, why do humans have so many ways to express language, laws, government, art, philosophy and religion? Why does no other creature even bother with these things? (Please refrain from the temptation to tell me that an elephant or a cat has produced real art.) Different birds have different sounds for danger, for catcalls and so on. Your comparisons are such that a fish would die thinking itself stupid for not riding a bicycle.
  • Why does every human culture include a religious element? Even the most atheistic, secularized humans on earth worship something—themselves. Because most human societies have generally been ignorant.

We may want to be more than just animals, it is understandable. A little reflection should however dissuade the intelligent from such illusions. Our behaviour is mainly a matter of custom. The things we know or claim to know are so by custom and not by any special effort on our part.

About makagutu

As Onyango Makagutu I am Kenyan, as far as I am a man, I am a citizen of the world

38 thoughts on “what are we?”

  1. tildeb says:
    November 23, 2015 at 17:56

    Exceptionalism presented as if ‘evidence’ for divine purpose almost never includes all the ‘exceptional’ harm caused by people. Funny, that.

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  2. Mordanicus says:
    November 23, 2015 at 17:57

    >>My friend keithnoback has always advised me to leave the faitheads alone

    In general, this is a sound advise and has been my policy for years. Those who won’t change their minds, no matter what evidence presented, are simply not worth my time.

    Liked by 1 person

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  3. Tish Farrell says:
    November 23, 2015 at 18:11

    Have just looked at the further arguments that go with these questions, and simply give up. Also I take issue with the notion that just because you don’t believe in a deity, and religious dogma, you also don’t have any sense of spirit or higher feelings. Frankly, my spirit/heart/soul/intuition/inner energy/higher consciousness/ethical and aesthetic sensibility feels a whole lot better when it’s not being afflicted by false assertions that make the world seem a far lesser, more controllable place than it actually is.

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  4. john zande says:
    November 23, 2015 at 18:12

    Katherine wants to believe she’s very, very, very special.

    Liked by 2 people

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  5. Scottie says:
    November 23, 2015 at 18:14

    I love it, you used reason to answer the questions and you did it with out the rancor the questioner used. Hugs

    Liked by 2 people

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  6. inspiredbythedivine1 says:
    November 23, 2015 at 19:02

    “Even the most atheistic, secularized humans on earth worship something—themselves.” So. secular humanists and atheists worship themselves and greedy, conservative, money-grubbing christians don’t? Right. I tellz ya, this gal is very, very ignorant of reality.

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  7. ladysighs says:
    November 23, 2015 at 20:41

    I am so glad you/and others keep asking and questioning their ideas. May not get through to many of them……but maybe one. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  8. clubschadenfreude says:
    November 24, 2015 at 03:58

    This really irks me. Katherine is either stupid or an intentional liar,, and it seems likely both.

    “Why don’t drugs fix problems such as depression, schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder?” The drugs do largely fix these problems.

    Such people like Katherine are malicious twats. They always should be stood against.

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  9. Ron says:
    November 24, 2015 at 17:25

    The Bible explains the phenomenon in many different ways, but there is one verse that sums up the real difference between humans and mere animals: “The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis 2:7 ESV). Human beings are the result of a specific act of creation by God in which God breathed his own breath into them.

    Yet a mere 12 verses further we read: “Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. (Genesis 2:19, ESV)

    animal (n.)

    early 14c. (but rare before c. 1600, and not in KJV, 1611), “any living creature” (including humans), from Latin animale “living being, being which breathes,” neuter of animalis “animate, living; of the air,” from anima “breath, soul; a current of air”

    Q: If the Bible contains all the answers, why do apologists remain so bloody ignorant?

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  10. Peter says:
    November 24, 2015 at 17:55

    For Katherine to contemplate

    Liked by 2 people

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  11. koppieop says:
    November 24, 2015 at 22:19

    What is in a name? An eyewitness reported aboutadam, standing before for all the animals, choosing names for them:
    – Your name will be LION; yours, SHARK; you over there, will be called DONKEY; you, next to him, BUTTERFLY; you… – Excuse me, master, what was my name? – DONKEY! Oh yes, thank you – you, climbing that tree, I’ll call you SQUIRREL; your neighbor will be a TURTLE, you… – So sorry Sir, I forgot the name you gave me. .. ASS, asshole!

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  12. russellbustles says:
    November 25, 2015 at 16:13

    Oh, that’s easy. We’re the beloved children of God of course! Of all the dust in the cosmos, we are the most special ones – formed from.. well.. special dust maybe?

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