Humanity

We have heard of many definitions as to what makes human being different from animals. The oldest definition was that people could think and animals did everything based on their instinct or genetic reactions. This is proven to be a wrong distinction since it is evident that animals go through a thinking process as people do. This does not need any proof or discussion as archives of National Geography or other mediums show this fact clearly. Chimps are closest animals to human in intelligence, followed by dolphins and parrots. There are many documented records as to some animals’ understanding of human language. Another differentiation made is that humans have emotions and can comprehend and evaluate their feelings, but animals’ emotions are again based on their natural instinct. Observing animal kingdom and the way they live in a family or herd, the affection they give each other is very much comparable to human feelings, compassion, and altruism. The famous clip of the wild cat killing the mother monkey and tending to her baby (whom the cat discovered after killing the mother) has been viewed by millions. Other differentiations such as “man is a talking animal” or “humans use tools” have been proven to be false. Checking all the definitions, from religious point of view (human beings are different from animals because of their soul and spirituality), to the way human and beasts cope with each other and with nature (animals’ protection of family members and their use of shelter and tools) we realize that it is difficult to make a clear cut, distinctive, and at the same time comprehensive distinction between man and animal. In another words, it makes it very hard to draw a line that absolutely separates human from animals. Some of the human finger prints or characteristics can be traced in some animals. Some animals have characteristics that are unique to them as well; such as flying, cute vision or sensitive hearing, camouflaging, communicating through waves, and hundreds of other examples that make animals superior to human. As our branched out ancestors and great grand cousins separated from us and left in the wild for thousand of years, animals have the instinct and the intuition necessary for their survival, which we are lacking. According to the “survival of the fittest” theory, animals have to protect themselves in their environment against nature and predators, so they develop such characteristics to help them survive. At the same time, they are missing some of our abilities that we have excelled throughout ages. We are however, always astonished by the similarities. There are animals that behave so similar to us in some respects, that make us amazed. The similarities between chimps and human, the intelligence of marine mammals such as Wales, the affection of household pets, are all stories we have seen and heard over and over. We witness such advanced knowledge, thinking, and intuition in some species that makes us astounded. What Darwin witnessed in Galapagos Islands is the best guide to study evolutionary supremacy of all creatures and their abilities in coping with their environment, recorded in his remarkable work “The Origin of Species”.

We humans can think abstract, and this has not been witnessed in animals yet. There are some drawings on the cave walls belonging to early human times that reflect creative mind of the artist. All our innovations stem from a picture made in the mind, an imagination. This may be the only distinction between human and animal. However, as far as the intelligence is concerned, we may make the distinction between human and animals by the rate of the intelligence and the method our thoughts are progressed. What measures intelligence is the way an individual remembers the past and speculates future. When a tiger moves in a posture that makes him look as if he is attacking (tightening his shoulders muscles and scratching the ground with his paws and snarling at a rival tiger) he is making future plans based on his experience. He foresees that the other tiger is about to attack. In order to prevent the other tiger from attacking, he shapes his body in a posture to appear more powerful than the other beast in order to scare him away. We could say it to be an instinct. If it is an instinct, it is based on many years of experience in an evolutionary process. When we sand bag a riverbank, we are predicting that the river would rise and therefore, we try to prevent the water from destroying the embankment. The vision of future is actually based on the past experience. Therefore, knowledge of history is a precursor to a good vision. More intelligent species are the ones who can learn from the past by reviewing the history, and organizing ideas in order to plan the future. These three steps are essential for advancement. Human is superior to animals because of the millions of years of evolutionary process in acquiring vast amount of knowledge, some of which are recorded and accessible, and applying that knowledge in order to satisfy his/er curiosity of who s/he is. If we perceive that each one of us is as a result of an accident, meaning that in the time of the conception many factors helped us, we will realize how lucky we are to have this gift of life which enables us to experience a world that is phenomenally conceived like us. In every step of growing, many preventing factors (such as diseases) were not present in order for us to grow. On the other hand, in the case of human conception, many billions of sperms are not lucky and they do not make it into life. In the case of human evolution, there may have been many other instances of the evolution of living things (such as us earthlings!) processes that was not conceived, which we may call randomness or lack of luck, among other factors. With this knowledge, we may excel our specie by inventing and creating ways to assist and advance each other (environment and other species as well; at least for the sake of self preservation), instead of destroying one another through wars, the calamity we are expanding all over the world today. How much this attitude of war and hurting others hinders our survival, is a different subject!