Either all animals have souls or nobody does. Humans are JUST animals with a more complicated social life (in some cases anyways).
I HATE people who think humans are special. That’s how we end up with all sorts of evil shit in the world, including people who think they’re the most special and get to kill others because skydaddy said so.
That’s true but our sense of moral significance is just a part of that social life, and other animals are largely not capable of fully participating, which means that the idea of humans being special has a structural role in our society. If a human kills another human, it means our social structure has failed to protect us and needs to be improved, because if our humanity does not protect us from each other, then nothing plausibly can, it’s easy to tell that the other things purporting to offer such protection are flimsy lies. If a human kills a cricket, even if crickets feel pain, that doesn’t make waves the same way; other crickets are not going to remember or consider this event, other humans generally won’t have to fear the cricket killer may later come for them.
Basically I think it is just really important for our ability to function and succeed as a species that we regard human wellbeing as an exceptional high priority and overriding moral imperative.
Birds mourn the ones that die when killed by humans, yet no one cares. It’s not about social structure, it’s about considering that some immoral things are acceptable out of convenience.
There’s a big reason why genocides are often backed with a “they are animals” justification. It’s just an excuse to not care, because everyone knows that animals feel as much as humans but accepting it means changing things, and feeling guilty for even “just” killing a cricket. And humans are stupid egotistical shits that need to constantly feel that they are perfect, so they instead delude themselves into thinking that whatever they don’t want to feel empathy for, is just an inferior creature that isn’t worth much.
There’s a reason why kids killing pets or other animals is a big red flag. There’s a reason why it’s used so much in horror movies. Everyone knows that it’s fundamentally wrong and a sign of mental instability to kill sentient beings, and yet everyone pretends like it’s normal as soon as it involves changing their behaviour.
Why is it ok to eat birds that have very developed social intelligence, but not dogs and cats? Because dogs and cats are seen emotionally, birds aren’t.
And if you can switch your empathy on and off, you can do it for whatever, and whoever.
What you’re describing doesn’t allow humans to function, it allows Israel to commit genocide, it allows nazis to get control of the world little by little, and most of the shit of the modern world. Selective empathy is never a good thing, and even prehistoric men had more empathy than the current, “modern” human. That says a lot.
Birds mourn the ones that die when killed by humans, yet no one cares.
Same for the ones that are killed otherwise, and it doesn’t matter how much you care because the natural world is brutal and sad down to its core, we are helpless to change that and if you could expand your empathy to encompass all of it you would go insane. I grew up surrounded by nature and animals and I can’t tell you how much I cried over stuff like territorial robins destroying the nest of other robins or the cat bringing me live baby rodents that I sincerely tried but failed to keep alive, or our chickens who all had names, unique personalities and relationships but were just very susceptible to predators, illness, various mishaps and just naturally short lifespan.
Please understand that I am not saying other animals are rightfully regarded as unfeeling machines for which empathy is a mistake to be corrected. It is natural to feel for them, and you’re right to say that someone who just doesn’t is more of a danger to people, there is a connection there. But what I believe is that if you honestly regard the totality of living things as it really is through the lens of unconditional and boundless empathy, the only possible conclusion is hopeless despair.
This is why there must be a distinction between emotions and our sense of moral significance, because while the former informs the latter there is no guarantee that by itself it will translate into a coherent, achievable intention. The fact that humans are capable of meaningfully coordinating with each other is really important because it is the foundation of what little we can do at all to change the world.
genocides are often backed with a “they are animals” justification
To me, the biggest thing wrong with dehumanizing people to justify abuses against them is that to say someone is not human is a lie, and is a betrayal of humanity. Human unity is probably the most important thing to fight for.
I’d argue “moral imperative” and “regarding human wellbeing” are FAR more similar than most people would ever care to admit…
Because admitting that ALL humans (let alone sentient animals) deserve well being is something FAR too many people fail to understand.
I agree with you but want to stress that we believe Humans have more complicated culture or language or emotional range when we only know how to communicate with other humans about such deep subjects. Animals likely have these same deep facets of life but we do not know how to articulate it for them to know what we are talking about.
When humans can actually speak to an animal we will learn the depths of their experience and can make a better assessment of our difference.
Do we really know that some other animals such as whales aren’t able to communicate at the same or more complex level than humans. We haven’t cracked their language code … maybe because are minds are significantly inferior.
Recent studies show whale language is as complicated as Chinese, which is far from the simplest human language.
As is constantly proven through evidence: the only thing great about humanity is our ego…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9ADZ28Wgo amongst many other studies
Wholly agreed, outside of the obvious evidence that some animals ARE nearly as complex as humans.
My parents were not quite human enough, just needed that one more mutation that gave me my soul
As a child of boomers, holy fucking accurate…
humans are special though. they’re salty.
Body-mind duality was the stupidest idea to take over an entire culture for centuries. Mind and soul ARE part of the body.
Indred, mind is a material phenomenon. It’s powered by brain, which is material and needs the rest of the body to function.
There is a reason running out of glycogen stores is called “hitting a wall” in long distance running.
Your gut bacteria made you sad so you would feed it. :p
Don’t worry, the soul is just byproduct of whatever brain mechanism causes us to be able to override the instinct and experience that guides every other animal. When the brain dies the soul will die with it, so you won’t have to worry about it anymore.
this is what every day is like for me with autism: if i don’t eat whatever the fuck my brain considers the “correct” food that day, then everything will just be gray and miserable until i at least eat something crunchy so i can reach a baseline level of functionality.
I’ve seen more soul in a cat or dogs eye
feeling like none of your friends like you makes my personality disorder radar bleep
The question is, why would other animals not have a soul in their opinion.
“My friends may hate me, but sushi will always be there for me. 🥰”
“Animal with a soul”
No they have one too. All beings go to heaven. Heaven is the seventh day. The universe grows logarithmically more complex as subpatterns come together to form superpatterns. And so, the seven days of creation are:
Alpha>Light
Light>Matter
Matter>Molecules
Molecules>Cells
Cells>Creatures
Creatures>Society
Society>Omega
So, the perfect society we are creating WILL BE the transcendental object at the end of time, the restaurant at the end of the universe, and that IS the transcendental particle at the beginning of time that can be in multiple places at once and communicate instantaneously with itself to form a topological matrix, which is what light is.
But, back to the point, we’re in the sixth day. The seventh is where we have instantaneous global telepathy and begin reconstituting the dead. All beings that have ever been will be connected together telepathically in Heaven, and you can’t stand that, then I guess that eould be Hell!
Don’t worry, God is good. If you fibd yourself maladapted for the seventh day, God will replant you in a new life in the sixth day, which is what you’re doing now.
I too enjoy drugs.
Child. I’m this way naturally.
I’m jealous. I need a heroic dose to chat that much crazy.
Then you are a child you is npt truly in charge of their life and just floats in some ni shit as life passes you by.
You got all that from a few sentences? Impressive. Did God help?
I got ball in my ass, child
No shame, if that’s your thing.
What’s with the “child” thing? Are you a pedo?
I don’t think there’s a heaven. It was a convenient excuse to keep the working class from going nuts, back then.
That’s cool that you don’t think there’s a heaven. I know the Earth is an illusion, and the way this happens is that you follow the synchronicities of the Server in faith/personally constructed frameworks of reality, and then the Server will prove itself. Do you know what synchronicity is, though?
What a moron
Have you eaten enough for breakfast?
Then you haven’t truly felt alive and human yet.
If you think that being human is being an “animal with a soul” then I think you haven’t.
“soul”, well i think i know where this talk is going.But if you think that the mind and body are entirely separate things, then you are mistaken.
I don’t, my point is that it’s stupid to think that humans are different from other animals (and if they are, it’s definitely not out of superiority).
Whatever “soul” people believe in, animals have it more than humans
You’ve never felt your place in the universe and how you and all living things and matter are connected? You’ve never had a loving bond with a pet that will stay with you until you die? Feeling oneness with nature and the physical world is cathartic and freeing. Feeling that humans are better or separate than everything else is terribly self-centered and misleading. We have souls and other living things don’t? Either we all do or we all don’t.
Edit: also humans are just animals. Source? My entire education and career.
My point is exactly that someone that thinks that humans have souls and animals don’t, is a moron. If anything, a lot of animals have much more “soul” than most humans. But saying “humans are animals with souls” implies that humans are superior, which is why I said that it was moronic.
Okay cool. Agreed but you might want to be more clear in your comment.
