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Are humans really different from animals?
WPTV-TV / CNN ^ | November 21, 2013 | Thomas Suddendorf, CNN

Posted on 11/22/2013 1:58:08 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

We humans tend to think of ourselves as better than, or at least separate from, all other species on this planet. But every species is unique, and in that sense humans are no different.

Nevertheless, it seems obvious that there is something extra special about us -- after all, we are the species running the zoos. In "The Gap," I survey what we currently do and do not know about what exactly sets humans apart.

What are the physical differences that distinguish us from our closest animal relatives?

There are some notable ways in which our bodies differ from those of apes and old-world monkeys. We can lock our knees straight, have longer legs than arms, and habitually walk upright, freeing our hands to do things other than carry our weight.

We have a chin. Our body surface is covered in sweat glands that provide a more effective cooling system than those of other primates. We have lost our canines and much of our protective fur -- leaving males with the apparently pointless, but persistent, growth of beards.

The iris of our eyes is relatively small and surrounded by white rather than dark sclera, making it easy for us to identify the direction of another's gaze. Human females show no outward markers of their fertile phase, and human males lack a penis bone.

These are not exactly groundbreaking traits, compared to, say, the emergence of wings in birds, which catapulted their bearers into a new sphere of possibility....

(Excerpt) Read more at wptv.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: anthropology; science
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To: jtal
Men have souls and are made in the image and likeness of God.

If you are correct we ARE different.

If not? We may still be different and of our own volition. If so we are the only creature, on this globe, who has risen to a place where we can understand our own existence and can and are learning how the universe works.

I could not nor would not remove a supreme being from the equation as denial of God's existance is as unprovable as those who insist it his existance is provable.

21 posted on 11/22/2013 3:30:24 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The headline is disrespectful to animals.


22 posted on 11/22/2013 3:40:18 AM PST by ThePatriotsFlag
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9EU264EA00


23 posted on 11/22/2013 3:41:02 AM PST by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole..)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Gloria Steinem and Oprah.


24 posted on 11/22/2013 3:45:44 AM PST by Daffynition (*$17,000,000,000,000* Fear the beards! GO SOX!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Creating man was just one of God’s experiments. He created every single cell life-form and moved on to multi-cell creatures. They successfully reproduced, learned to survive, kept their numbers stable and contributed to the earth’s environment.

Then God created man and gave him an ‘intelligent’ gene - just for fun.

It worked for a while until man got too big for his britches.

Now God is wondering “what next?”


25 posted on 11/22/2013 3:58:42 AM PST by sodpoodle (Life is prickly - carry tweezers.)
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To: jtal
Men have souls and are made in the image and likeness of God.

Man is extremely vain, from which all evil flows. Man comparing himself to God is the ultimate vanity.

26 posted on 11/22/2013 4:00:50 AM PST by Reeses
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The Lord gave us dominion over all the animals, birds, fish...all of them. That’s enough for me to know that we are different.


27 posted on 11/22/2013 4:23:16 AM PST by ruesrose (The Anchor Holds)
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To: muir_redwoods

I find the subject fascinating. We have very different appearances, although I have noticed some features that seem to be regional—for instance, I recognize a general “Maryland” appearance in people whose families have been established here for hundreds of years. Our genetics, OTOH, are remarkably non-diverse. Although a species’ fitness is tied to its genetic diversity, we seem to be doing fine.


28 posted on 11/22/2013 4:39:17 AM PST by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Only man has reason (the ability to judge right and wrong) and free will. No other animal can place itself before a banquet and deliberately choose to starve itself to death for what it judges to be a just cause. End of argument.


29 posted on 11/22/2013 5:14:59 AM PST by Petrosius
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I can hear the atheists crying “speciesist!” to honor their master down below.

They don't even know who they serve.

30 posted on 11/22/2013 5:58:38 AM PST by PATRIOT1876
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Some humans are different than animals. Some are not. I’d say the cutoff is around IQ 60. If your IQ is below 60, there is very little difference between you and apes.


31 posted on 11/22/2013 6:31:37 AM PST by Born to Conserve
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To: Reeses

If one believes Western religious tradition then it wasn’t Man who made that declaration.


32 posted on 11/22/2013 6:55:32 AM PST by jtal (Runnin' a World in Need with White Folks' Greed - since 1492)
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To: PATRIOT1876

Like my tagline?


33 posted on 11/22/2013 6:58:31 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
We humans tend to think of ourselves as better than, or at least separate from, all other species on this planet.

We can kill from great distances. That is our most important distinction.

34 posted on 11/22/2013 7:07:29 AM PST by GingisK
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The writer must not have a dog. ;)

If you clip your dog's nails, you'll find the front (paws) grow twice as fast as the rear (paws). Just like humans. 'Guess we "grubbed around" like our progenitors. 'Course, there is much more evidence, but we are more similar than we think, and more similar as we compare—especially among Mammals.

35 posted on 11/22/2013 7:12:37 AM PST by Does so (Soon, we'll be looking like Detroit.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Well the bell curve proves there are many sub-humans who are closer to animals than the rest of us. Muslims would be a perfect example.

Using the left’s beloved Darwin theory, humans like ALL other living things must have both beneficial and detrimental mutations.

It is becoming quite clear that various clans/cultures celebrate the breeding with other inferior members of their clan/culture and have tilted the gene pool towards the negative mutation scale. Again Muslims are a perfect example of breeding intelligence out of a specie and breeding in violence.

In the USA with the liberals love of killing the unborn we should be seeing a decline in their numbers and we would if it were not for the public school system being a conveyor belt for liberal minds into society. The Communist Manifesto called for this Conveyor belt of brainwashed minds as it is much easier to instill such a false belief at a very early age.


36 posted on 11/22/2013 7:52:19 AM PST by Wurlitzer (Nothing says "ignorance" like Islam! 969)
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To: jtal
If one believes Western religious tradition then it wasn’t Man who made that declaration.

I'm thinking Satan. If God can work the pen of man, so can he.

If chapter one of the Holy Bible had "The universe is absolutely gigantic. You are tiny and must kneel in humble awe of God and his creation." it probably would not have been a best seller. They had to hook the reader in early.

For thousands of years man was convinced Earth was the center of the entire universe and the sun revolved around Earth like the moon. The stunning vanity of man knows no bounds.

37 posted on 11/22/2013 8:56:32 AM PST by Reeses
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Send pictures.


38 posted on 11/22/2013 9:48:15 AM PST by Conspiracy Guy (Did the ancients know they were ancients? Or did they see themselves as presents?)
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To: barmag25

Smarter too.


39 posted on 11/22/2013 9:48:57 AM PST by Conspiracy Guy (Did the ancients know they were ancients? Or did they see themselves as presents?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

My cat has a chin.

When we get another species to tend to all of our needs, the way that cats get us to tend to them, I’ll think we’re at least equal in some respects to some other species.


40 posted on 11/22/2013 9:50:07 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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