Humans and Animals

[Psychoid]

Do you consider one to be superior to the other?
Why?

 

[Brugmansia]

No. And although I rarely eat meat, I'm not a vegetarian. I do feel the pain everytime I consume it. Same goes for fish.

The current attitude of our world towards animals is what I would call barbardic.

 

[Psychoid]

I don't think there is anything wrong with eating meat as long as the meat comes from an animal that had the chance to live a normal, happy life before dying. Therefore, I don't consider hunting in nature in order to feed yourself and you family to be a bad thing. Buying meat at the supermarket is not the same thing, because the meat comes from animals that were born and grew up in concentration camps. By buying this meat, you encourage this industry of torture and mass murder.

I don't think we would be able to eat meat if we weren't supposed to. Also, if eating meat is wrong, that would mean that animals who exclusively eat other animals would be evil. Which I don't think is the case.

Hunting for fun is stupid and barbaric though. Like, you kill the animal and just feel good for being successful, then you leave the corpse there. This is wrong in my opinion.

Brug... you didn't say why?

 

[bliksem]

That's a no for me,

I think every being/creature has it's own characteristics. Experiencing reality in our own unique ways. Our understanding of superiority is bound by our human defenition of it i think. Although i'm not sure if you need a word for it to experience/understand it. Animals might not have a word for it, but in some sence they know superiority. Some kind of respect towards superior qualities they self lack, but can witness/feel? Some say that dolphins are more intelligent than us......... If there only was a way to experience what each and every being was. Maybe first step a psychonautic mindset?

 

[IJesusChrist]

I don't like how you seperated humans and animals...

I am a fleshy ape.

 

[Teonanacapilli]

Yeah man, I'm just a smart ape. Sometimes more ape than smart, though.

I think all (most?) species are equal, except us. Every other species I can think of adds or subtracts something to the earth in a balanced manner. We always seem to do either too much or too little of the two.

 

[Psychoid]

Let me rephrase my question:

Do you consider humans to be superior to other animals?

That's a question to which I can't seem to make myself an opinion on. Physically, I don't see anything we have that could be considered superior to other animals. But it's all about the intelligence. Of all lifeforms on the planet, it seems we are the only ones that have the intelligence to understand our environment and exploit it to the maximum. Is this intelligence a sign of further evolution, or alienation? Are we the dominating species on earth or a kind of virus? Where does this intelligence come from?

Are there animals that consume psychedelics?

 

[BrainEater]

i consider many animals superior to humans and some animals inferior to humans, but in general i think we're all the same anyway. we're equally important and if we say more intelligence=more importance then we are mistaken.

 

[Psychoid]

I'm very interested to hear more Braineater. Please give examples of animals you consider superior, and explain why.

 

[BrainEater]

for example dolphins. they seem to socially interact in a much smoother way like humans which for me would be the sign for superiority

 

[IJesusChrist]

I find some humans inferior to dogs, apes, dolphins, cats.

I find some superior to any other living creature I've met.

Our intelligence is amazing, and I have no way to explain it. Nobody really does.

 

[????????]

the difference between humans and other beings is that we decide to wage war on a single species and set out to exterminate them systematically. when coyotes eat the sheep at a ranch somewhere, the owner of the ranch doesn't just kill the trespasser but assembles his friends and sets out to kill every coyote in the vicinity. you don't see this in any other animal. like, hyenas don't go forming groups to go and hunt down all the lions in the area so they have more food to themselves. (i have read that after a lion kills a gazelle the others gazelles relax and stop running because they know the lions won't attack anymore and they can even be close to each other with no drama.) this also happens with plants; we plant rice, for example, and we take a large territory to do so. we kill off every other animals and plants around to make room for the rice and then kill any animals that may feed on it. this wrecks havoc on the complex interrelated balance of species of the area.

supposedly, animals just know. we, being sapiens sapiens, know that we know, and this allows us to think of the future and the past. i think this is a blessing/curse deal. since we think We Know What's Best and we think we can tell Good from Evil (whatever that means) we believe ourselves to be the most knowledgeable thing ever to sprout from Earth. but here we are, pillaging our resources and doubling our population every few years. like a virus. sometimes it's like we have more in common with bacteria than apes.

i don't have any theory as why this is so and i have absolutely no answer to this problem. i think we are able to be this way because we appointed ourselves a holy status by establishing humans as the god kings of the planet. and so we think we deserve to have anything and everything.

 

[BrainEater]

so do we deserve anything and everything for knowing that we know? or do we deserve a relative equal to what animals deserve who just know?

 

[Teonanacapilli]

I think bonobos have the best/most efficient society: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo
Read about how they use sexual behaviour to settle disputes. What an amazing animal.

@ Psychoid, not sure if this is fact, but my friend's dad grew up on the East coast of Canada in an area with lots of active mushrooms. He said he and his friends saw the cows eating mushrooms and noticed them acting "funny" afterwards.

 

[gammagoblin]

the only difference between humans and animals is appearance

 

[Psychoid]

Uh? Every animal looks different, didn't you notice?

 

[gammagoblin]

Uh? Every animal looks different, didn't you notice?

every human looks different, didn't you notice?

 

[tryptonaut]

Do you consider one to be superior to the other?
Why?

I am superior. Most humans are not.

Just kidding

 

[Psychoid]

Uh? Every animal looks different, didn't you notice?

every human looks different, didn't you notice?

What's your point?

 

[ophiuchus]

clothes. nothing more