We are the final frontier

The Guardian ^ | 2/10/05

[jennyp]

We are also vertabrates. The point is what? Humankind have the mechanisms and biological make up as animals do. But we are human, they are animals. We are able to have Faith, animals, plants, minerals cannot. That's how I think. It's really okay for me to think this way.

Ah, what you said there I agree with completely. We are animals, and we have extra capabilities from all the other animals. This capability lets us sit back & consider a world of thought that's astronomically larger than the mental world that the other animals live in.

But if we got this way purely because of evolution, that takes away nothing from the wonder & majesty of what we are. Explaining something is not the same as explaining it away. If anything, it should only enrich our appreciation for what we are.

For example, I love sunsets. I love movies. I love my husband. In all three cases, I understand those things more than I did when I was younger. And in all those cases, the increased knowledge has only enriched my joy at experiencing them.

You see, explaining something only explains it away if that "something" was false to begin with. That's why we don't have to get all scared & defensive at the prospect of science explaining what makes us human.