It seems like all animals move about effortlessly, eating, shitting where they please, sleeping when they want.. Not paying any mind whatsoever to what other animals might say about them.. They don't have a schedule, they just take one second at a time..And i'm one against the thought of animals not having emotions. The love of a mother for her young is apparent across the board. Anger, fear, they're no different from us. So are all these animals enlightened already? It seems like they really are one with everything.. If we were, we wouldn't have to sleep in air conditioning, or cook our food etc.. Everything living experiences reality. But we are the only ones who can observe it as well... So we are already fucked when we're born pretty much. So is that what they mean when they say we're natural born sinners? Living in babylon, etc.. But how about a wild child? These ppl are taken out of their natural habitat, and brought into society at young ages after being brought up by monkeys, wolves, etc.. Yet they still can't grasp the concept of language, words, logic etc.. Acting purely out of instinct and only showing minuscule progress even after years of therapy.. So does the lack of observation of reality take away from their humanity? Is the ability to reason our downfall? Is being born into society and imitating other human characteristics, the whole reason we're in hell? Could logic be our curse from the forbidden fruit?
I do think animals are more connected to other universes or dimensions...thought this was interesting about the dance bees do [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTtGcNk7Rhs]Are Bees More 6th Dimensional? - YouTube[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXoOA-BSKcg&annotation_id=annotation_126043&feature=iv[/ame]
Let a child be raised by feral dogs and he will turn out an animal. See how relative the word "human" is? And one could argue that reason is bad because it leads to a whole other world of possibilities (technology, mathematics, philosophy, etc) that in some way or another, interfere with the natural course of the history of earth. We are the only species that can change the fate of our planet. But reason is also a blessing. Remember the dinosaurs? They went extinct 65 million years ago (ok, birds are their descendants, fine, but still) when Jupiter failed to sling a mountain sized asteroid away from earth's path. Gone forever. Now imagine if earth is threatened again by an asteroid; most forms of life would die as result of the impact. But with technology, we might be able to shoot the asteroid or deflect it in some way or another. That all being, fruit of our reason; 200,000 years in the making. Reason (and our ability to observe reality) have both their pros and cons, but the pros slightly outweigh the cons (not trying to have an anthropocentric POV by the way. I hate humans, well most anyways).
thank you for mentioning that, feral children are quite a fascinating psychological phenomenon [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEnkY2iaKis[/ame]
We need more people who think like you in Washington. Everyone in the government is an anthrocentric hypocritical sonofabitch that wouldn't know reason if it dick-slapped them in the face. +rep for you.
I think we are the only 'enlightened' species we know exists. What other species think spiritually or philosophizes. We may be 'hard wired' for survival but, our minds want more, we have knowledge BUT more importantly we have a memory base larger then any other species allowing us to progress leaps and bounds ahead of other species. I mean look at all the books, media, internet, information we have access to. NO other species will come close to us without our help. We(humans) own this earth.
I don't think they're enlightened necessarily.. they're just relieved of questioning/over-thinking everything. They survive on impulse alone. We're blessed with the need to know why for everything. I guess it just depends on your understanding of enlightenment.
There are some problems with this... 1) Animals don't just shit or sleep where they want. Most animals have well defined territories and shelters they do this in. Going outside of these territories could mean big problems when it comes to finding food, shelter, and dealing with intraspecies competition. 2) They have to pay attention to other animals. Not paying attention to what other animals are doing around you could mean you end up being preyed upon, or if you aren't paying attention to possible prey items you could starve and possibly die. 3) Yes, animals do run on a schedule. Circadian rhythms helps determine what an animal does when during the course of the day. Also, certain signals that present themselves with the changing of the seasons "tell" (I put quotes here because often hormones are telling the animal it's time to do these things) these animals when it's time to do things, such as when to migrate, mate, etc. However, I do agree that animals do feel emotions, to certain extant, most likely not in the same way we experience them. That's a good question. I wouldn't say it's our ability to reason that makes life hell, it's that everyone reasons in a slightly different way, and what is reasonable to one person may not be necessarily reasonable to another, which causes conflict. I wouldn't say it's reason that makes life hell, but the conflict that arises from reason.
It appears the sole drive of evolutionary progression is survival, and as we have seen time and time again, that process often involves, no, necessitates great sacrifice and suffering. Call it growing pains. I personally feel that our current state- mankind with all its reasoning and logic- is nothing more than a stepping stone to something greater. Just as consciousness was a solution made on-the-fly, so is intelligence, which was born out of consciousness, and out of intelligence, who knows where this path will go? Who among us can know? I think the better question is, out of the billions of species on earth why was ours the only one that diverged into the capacity of reasoning and logic?
I stand corrected, you are totally right. Blame the XJ13 But you know what i was trying to get at.. The oneness that the animal has with earth, with other animals (including prey/predators), everything around them.. Ever heard of dogs and birds freaking out when there's an earthquake or some type of disaster on its way? That type of stuff. Animals just "know" certain things, like a 6th sense that all animals share, yet most of us lack or deem superstitious. Conflict would never arise without reason though, you said it yourself. And I find it hard to imagine reason existing without conflict present.