Can you site one instance where an animal has invented something useful to the rest of society?
Otters use stones on their bellies to break open the shell fish they eat, certain monkies will use sticks to get at insects deep in a rotted log, Seagulls/Eagles/Many other birds will use train tracks and/or rocky shorelines to drop shellfish onto to break them open to eat.
Humans are not the only species on this planet which use things supplied to us on this planet to suit their needs. Who knows which otter was the first to use a rock..... who knows which human was the first to use spears for hunting.... the point in, each animal on this planet adapts to survive and through time, they can end up doing many things humans used to do.
As it goes for inventions by other species, that's sort of irrelevent to the point. Each species on this planet has their own traits in which make them special and keep them alive. Compare humans to other animals without throwing in our intelligence, and you would wonder how the hell we ever survived in the first place.
We don't have fur to keep us warm, we don't have large tallons or claws to hunt our prey, our eyes are not the best out there and are crap at night in comparison to other animals, our teeth are dull, our jaws are weak, we're not the fastest animals on the planet, we don't have wings to fly, we can't swim underwater for long periods of time..... and so on, so forth.
What we do have is our intelligence, but our intelligence doesn't make us anymore special then any other animal on the planet. We revolve around inventions because that's all we can rely on for our survival.
But then you might say that we're the only creatures to build large cities and communities as well as communication..... but Ants, Bees, fish and other species also have very detailed and complex cities/communities... heck, check out how a pack of dolphins hunt their food.
An animal such as a Tiger does not know that chasing, killing and devouring an innocent baby fawn, is what seems to be an evil deed.
To that tiger, that baby fawn as a sin is irrelevent, it's food and that tiger requires survival while trying to conserve its energy so it doesn't have to continually hunt again and again to keep up that energy reserve. Hunting down and killing a fawn for food is far more easier for them then it is to try and take on an adult.
And claiming it's an evil deed is to be human and to put human morals on something where human morals don't belong. If you wanted to compare how a tiger will hunt a fawn to how we live, I would say that us humans farming pigs and cattle in slaughter houses for our mass consumption where they stand even less of a chance then that fawn is immoral. What we should be doing is putting some effort into what we eat and hunt the stuff down in order to earn that food, not simply pick it out in the local store, already butchered and packaged for you and your family.
Denying those animals in our slaughter houses the right to live a normal life and to have an equal chance at survival compared to that baby fawn is far more immoral in my books then the tiger taking what it can get in order to survive.
But what you think is the norm is just a by-product of our intelligence. Our intelligence gives us the ability to make collective morals, rules and laws for our societies in order to keep order as a whole. When you have a species such as us humans, who are so dependant on our intelligence for our survival, it's no suprise that we would eventually start trying to impose those morals on just about everything we encounter in our lives, including how other animals act and live.
And it's also no suprise that through our species' history, our generally accepted morals, laws and rules in order to keep collective order, would eventually give us Religions.
I mean, after all, the fawn is but struggling to survive in a world that is dead set against it to start with.
Just look at how helpless human infants are compared to that poor fawn you speak of. When a fawn is born, they are usually walking and running within minutes.... a level of independancy in which our children don't have. From the moment a human child is born, they are 100% dependant. They can not fend for themselves, they do not have clothing on them to keep them warm, they have no teeth or able bodied limbs to protect themselves, and they sure as hell can't just get up and run away.... let alone get food they need.
I would not compare my intelligence with that of an animal, but above the animal as a God given gift.
It is our intelligence that makes us think we're so great and special above anything else, which to me, is a flaw.
When we are determined to do it our way, there can be no room for any outside influences.
That to me sounds like ignorance and arrogance. Humans would do very well by following and understanding the other species and how they live on this planet.... in fact, you can thank much of what you take for granted today to those animals in which you think you're so much more better then. We are just as much a part of the Earth's cycle of life as any other living being on this planet. We do play an important part on this planet, no more important, no less important however.
We do things our way, just like how other species do things their way with or without our approval..... I still see no difference.
I have raised six children, now all over 21, but the last one, a boy, likes to go at it on his own terms, regardless of what I tell him.
Not only does he has to face his own consequences, but includes us as well.
Includes Us? What do you mean by that? That whatever he does with his life affects your own? Sorry, but welcome to reality, you have no control over what anybody else does in their life once they become an independant adult, and when you spend your entire life trying to impress others or to make sure you do whatever they tell you to do to make their own lives feel better, you're no longer living.... so then what the heck is the point in the first place?
You speak about our intelligence, and your son is doing exactly what you are talking about and is using that "God Given" gift to his fullest..... and yet you're giving the impression that he shouldn't and that he should live your life and do what you do..... if we have intelligence for us to use, then why should we live like ants following one ruler's desires?
You're right, whatever he decides to do in his life, he will have to accept the consequences of his actions..... and that is his freedom to do so, not your's to restrict.
You can tell your children all of your own first hand experiences, you can tell them what's bad and what's good, you can try and make sure they will avoid all the bad things in their lives, but not only does that never really work, but like yourself at that age, they will have to go through those problems themselves in order to actually understand them in relation to their own lives.
You can tell your son or daughter that the girl/boyfriend they're dating isn't good for them and that they will eventually cheat on them or treat them like crap, but that is their life and their decision to make.... and like myself, they will have to go through those things in order to fully understand.
But you have to understand something about what you said
"Not only does he has to face his own consequences, but includes us as well." Well with that same mentality, your children, the rest of your family, friends, co-workers, everybody around you have to deal with the consequences of your own actions too....... and when you keep that mentality, you just have one big confusing fight amongst everybody else and their own set morals and opinions of how to properly live their lives.
You raise and teach your children as best you can while they are under your roof, but after they start to take flight and live on their own, their lives are in their hands overall.... whether or not they make decisions you approve of or not, ask yourself
"Are they happy?"
Everybody thinking and doing for themselves is the core reason of how humanity has reached this point we're living now. If we all thought and acted the same, then we wouldn't get much done at all and probably would still be surviving like the other animals on the planet.
The point of this story is that God gives us guidance’s, by reason of rules and practices that are geared for our own protection.
Without them and His help spiritually, we are on our own, totally.
And that is a choice that God is willing to allow.
And as I see it, you, I, and everybody else on this planet has been told God gave us guidance, by other humans.... technically in a court of law, that's hearsay and couldn't be used as evidence. Until God himself shakes the living b-jesus out of me and tells me how to live directly, I'm not going to revolve my life around the unknown, that doesn't make any sense, contradicts itself over and over again in its rules, and has never answered any of my questions before, and probably never will.
To me, we are all on our own.... many just can't handle that, and so they require some parenting figure head that seems to have a plan to make themselves feel better about their current lives. There is something beyond this life in which I believe, but it isn't some cloud resort in the sky of purity and forever following more rules and laws based on someone else's morals.
Indeed he made the claim, but if you felt that it was nonsense, why did you respond? Why not let it die on the vine, for it would have not bared any fruit.
I responded because:
#1 - It's a forum.
#2 - I had an opinion I wanted to express and I did
#3 - I have heard way too many friggin Doomsday predictions in my short little life that I can't be bothered to not let it go.....
And it wouldn't matter if this was a Bible/Religious-Related prediction, or some fortune teller in an alley, I would have still said the same things about the chances of it occuring as being quite slim.
And thus far, I am right, since it's now July 3rd.
