We, Too, Are Violent Animals

Wall Street Journal ^ | January 4, 2013 | Jane Goodall

[Twotone]

Where does human savagery come from? The animal behaviorist Marc Bekoff, writing in Psychology Today after last month's awful events in Newtown, Conn., echoed a common view: It can't possibly come from nature or evolution. Harsh aggression, he wrote, is "extremely rare" in nonhuman animals, while violence is merely an odd feature of our own species, produced by a few wicked people. If only we could "rewild our hearts," he concluded, we might harness our "inborn goodness and optimism" and thereby return to our "nice, kind, compassionate, empathic" original selves.

[American in Israel]

Last I notice nature is very violent. Whence comes our violence and natures?

Sin, the turning from God in the Garden...

Whence comes our destruction as a nation?

Sin, the turning from God in Government.

[wastedyears]

I’m guessing Marc Bekoff is either a vegetarian or a vegan, and doesn’t understand what primitive man did to get to the top of the food chain.

[JRandomFreeper]

Harsh aggression, he wrote, is "extremely rare" in nonhuman animals,

Marc is full of crap. I've had catz fight bad enough to require a trip to the vet.

Male lions kill the cubs that aren't theirs when they take over a pride.

I've watched squirrels kill each other.

I shared a pasture with 3 bulls for over a year, and one of them had to be sent to the butcher because of a broken leg sustained in a dominance battle with another bull.

Marc is full of crap.

Real life isn't like a Disney movie.

/johnny

[vbmoneyspender]

Cognitive Dissonance in the Animal Kingdom

[CottShop]

[[we might harness our “inborn goodness and optimism”]]

In other words- ‘if only we coudl becoem our ‘true selves’ we wouldn’t need God or His morlaity because animals are by nature their own gods capable of complete morality’

Unbeleivable-

[Wings-n-Wind]

This is the inherent flaw in the liberal-humanist worldview...

The foundation stones of their belief system tell them that humankind is basically good, peace-loving, naturally communal & cooperative....
--AND--
Man does not need redemption and transformation... etc.. etc...

The Word of God tells us that we are all born into an inherited sinful & selfish nature--
--AND--
Lacking redemption & transformation... we might drone along for a while --
.....Even most of our short lives.... but eventually---

Unbelief our inherent sinfulness will cause the forfeit of our blessings...

As well as passing into death outside of the Lord's great promise (in Christ) has eternal consequences

*********

An OT prophet brought the Lord's insight...
Jeremiah 17:5-10

Christ himself affirmed this truth as God's view of unredeemed mankind:
Matthew 15:19
Mark 7:20-23

[deadrock]

...and that is why we need firearms to protect ourselves from said animals.....

They see the 1 and the 1, but miss the plus sign every time.

[cripplecreek]

Harsh aggression, he wrote, is "extremely rare" in nonhuman animals,

Sure if you ignore the 15,000 odd wars that have taken place over the last 4000 years.

[qam1]

Harsh aggression, he wrote, is "extremely rare" in nonhuman animals,

"The foreign policy of ants can be summed up as follows: restless aggression, territorial conquest, and genocidal annihilation of neighbouring colonies, wherever possible. If ants had nuclear weapons, they would probably end the world in a week." - Professor E.O. Wilson, myrmecologist

[cripplecreek]

Chimpanzee ambush and warfare in the wild.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7XuXi3mqYM

[CottShop]

[[Last I notice nature is very violent. Whence comes our violence and natures]]

Animal worshippers don’t concider animals killing for their meals to be ‘violent’- they excuse this obvfious violence as ‘impashioned necessity to feed’ whereas they woudl argue that huimans are passionate when committign violence- animal worshippers even excuse cats who play with hteir food as ‘learnign important survival techniques’ and wouldn’t deem it to be torture, but these same peopel are very quick to condemn humans who would do such things.

You simpyl can not reason with an animal worshipper- they are always right and in their minds they are the only truly ‘moral people’ around, and htey feel it’;s their duty to edumacate us ignant evil people who have strayed so far from our original nirvana where animals were all perfectly moral and holy-

If thsoe peopel wish to think they are lowly ignorant animals, let them- they will simply deceive themselves right into hell though unfortunately- all we can really do is pray that someday the scales might be lifted from their blinded eyes- I was created in God’s image- not in some lowly insignificant animal’s image- if those peopel are cotnent sleeping i nthe gutter with lowly animals- that’s theuir problem- they are truly insane and deceived people

[SampleMan]

Harsh aggression, he wrote, is "extremely rare" in nonhuman animals,

You are most correct. I've seen hawks kill rabbits all day long, despite not eating them. And why will a cat torture a rodent to death for fun?

I saw a documentary that showed natures capability for killing for very base reasons beyond eating. In the documentary, a pack of hyenas came across lion cubs and killed them. Upon returning and finding the dead cubs, the male lions (which don’t usually hunt) pursued the hyenas for several days, caught up with them, and killed them all.

[Lurker]

Chimp packs actually go to war with each other, and not just on the west and south sides of Chicago.

[CottShop]

[[Marc is full of crap. I’ve had catz fight bad enough to require a trip to the vet.

Male lions kill the cubs that aren’t theirs when they take over a pride.

I’ve watched squirrels kill each other.

I shared a pasture with 3 bulls for over a year, and one of them had to be sent to the butcher because of a broken leg sustained in a dominance battle with another bull.]]

Unfortunately you can not argue with people as ignorant as Marc- because they are always right and we are always wrong i ntheirm inds- no matter what yuo throw at them they always have some lame excuse to explain it away- peopel like marc woudl argue that these are all perfectly ligit actions and woudl probably even argue that it’s a moral imperative that these animals do those htigns you mentioend because after all, it’s ensuring that the most fit survive to pass along hte ‘superior genes’- these nutcases woudl even argue that the naimals make conscious moraL descisions to fight one another and that they sacrfice themselves in possible battles to the death just sop that the better fighter will have the chance to pass alogn hteir ‘superior genes’

Ylou’ll never win an argument with these insane people unfortyunately- Even peopel like ken miller claim that human morality is nothign more than a virus passed along via colds when peopel cough durign hte colds- that’s how lost to reality these sick peopel really are- They are desperately tryign to prove that only nature cousdl have provided ‘true morality’ while the universal moral code we ALL abide by in one form or antoher htroughout hte world is nothign but a virus that is deceivign innocent people- peopel like Ken and marc are truly sick people- They are desperate to try to prove there is no God, and that God is not respopnsible for the universal moral code that we all abide by seemingly ‘instinctively’

[djf]

Unbelievable, eh?

Anyone who spends a few minutes even watching wild animals will note how they are ALWAYS in a defensive posture, unless they are already fighting or flighting!

This Kumbaya stuff - not sure where it comes from. Maybe Disney. Maybe childrens books, where the princess takes the thorn out of the lions paw, and the lion is eternally grateful for one of the best lunches he ever had!

This jerk needs to be chained to a tree overnight in my backyard... possible cougars, definite coyotes, once in a while a brown bear...

First possum that wanders by and he’d dump a load way bigger than the scat piles I see...

[JRandomFreeper]

The most disturbing part of that video was that I kept wanting to tell them to spread out, don't bunch up, while they were on the trail.

In a lot of ways, we're not so different from them.

/johnny

[cripplecreek]

I saw a video a while back that showed what appeared to be an alpha male chimpanzee set up for slaughter by his own troupe.

They led him into an ambush and sat a short distance away as the aggressor troupe passed them up and all went directly for the alpha male and killed him. The victim’s troupe sat and watched quietly then faded off into the jungle when it was over.

If we had chimpanzees around here, I’d never go into the woods.

[JRandomFreeper]

where the princess takes the thorn out of the lions paw, and the lion is eternally grateful for one of the best lunches he ever had!

You just ain't right. LOL!

/johnny

[hinckley buzzard]

Noted ethologist Konrad Lorenz wrote a definitive work on animal aggression, aptly titled On Aggression many years ago. It is not news that the animal kingdom is "nature, red in tooth and claw" as the poet had it.

One recurring annoyance with these dramatic news events is that self-appointed instant experts like this guy at Psychology Today crawl out of the woodwork to give spurious opinions to media people hungry for copy. Fortunately Jane Gooddall is still around to bring some sense to the matter.