Saturday, February 23, 2008
What does it mean to be human II
This is my response to the author of the post called: What does it mean to be human?
Your ideas are really good, and it seems that you are sort of stunned by the discrepancy between the notion that people are image of god and the evolutionary notion that humans stem from animals due to evolution. Well, I can understand it, most probably you were raised as believer, I was raised as atheist, so I think this is where the difference comes from. I do not have the questions you have, but I believe I can suggest you an answer to this question.
It is a matter of hierarchy. Humans as a group when developed a bit away from the animals might start using the word animal as pejorative one against some other members of their group, and thus trying to make difference between themselves and the others who did not behave alike. This is also valid for the differentiation among groups, saying that animals are lower creatures than humans.
If you will follow this notion of hierarchy, you may find it functioning perfectly well in today’s human life. You can see it everywhere, just recall status symbols; just recall specific addressing with all the titles and names of functions by top people, so differentiating themselves from the “plebs” below. Any kind of racism stems from xenophobia and is based on the notion of hierarchy. Have a look at the setup of any society, say Americans or people in UK, in Germany, and you will find extreme differentiation among group inside these societies. If you look at all the humans all over the world you will find also grouping of these societies, and hierarchy among them.
9/11 might be seen as an example of an attempt to show that some nation that is perceived as top nation, at the top of the human extra-group hierarchy can be “sort of lowered and equalized” to the lower position of another group in the human extra-group hierarchy. The explanation is as follows: when I can do you any harm and you are unable to protect yourself then you are not so great, I have lowered your position by attacking you successfully. Then I feel better, because you do not appear any more as GOD, you are vulnerable and “I“can cause you this harm.
So using wording that god made humans to his picture is nothing else than an attempt of humans to make clear that hey are higher in the hierarchy then the creatures called animals. But is that really so? And if so, in what sense exactly? We should look at this a bit more differentially.
You may also want to read some of my other ideas that you may find here.
Your ideas are really good, and it seems that you are sort of stunned by the discrepancy between the notion that people are image of god and the evolutionary notion that humans stem from animals due to evolution. Well, I can understand it, most probably you were raised as believer, I was raised as atheist, so I think this is where the difference comes from. I do not have the questions you have, but I believe I can suggest you an answer to this question.
It is a matter of hierarchy. Humans as a group when developed a bit away from the animals might start using the word animal as pejorative one against some other members of their group, and thus trying to make difference between themselves and the others who did not behave alike. This is also valid for the differentiation among groups, saying that animals are lower creatures than humans.
If you will follow this notion of hierarchy, you may find it functioning perfectly well in today’s human life. You can see it everywhere, just recall status symbols; just recall specific addressing with all the titles and names of functions by top people, so differentiating themselves from the “plebs” below. Any kind of racism stems from xenophobia and is based on the notion of hierarchy. Have a look at the setup of any society, say Americans or people in UK, in Germany, and you will find extreme differentiation among group inside these societies. If you look at all the humans all over the world you will find also grouping of these societies, and hierarchy among them.
9/11 might be seen as an example of an attempt to show that some nation that is perceived as top nation, at the top of the human extra-group hierarchy can be “sort of lowered and equalized” to the lower position of another group in the human extra-group hierarchy. The explanation is as follows: when I can do you any harm and you are unable to protect yourself then you are not so great, I have lowered your position by attacking you successfully. Then I feel better, because you do not appear any more as GOD, you are vulnerable and “I“can cause you this harm.
So using wording that god made humans to his picture is nothing else than an attempt of humans to make clear that hey are higher in the hierarchy then the creatures called animals. But is that really so? And if so, in what sense exactly? We should look at this a bit more differentially.
You may also want to read some of my other ideas that you may find here.
# posted by Dalibor @ 2:26 AM 
