Are humans that much more evolved?

[LordJaric]

Are we humans more evolved then other animals? Sure we have our technology which makes us far more advance, but what about our basic instincts?

We are a territorial (boarders), just like so many other animals.

We have language, but other animals have their own forms of communication.

We gather in groups and so do other animals.

We have buildings, but other animals still can make their own structures, ants have their tunnels, bees have hives, beavers have their damns, ect.

So are we real any more evolved?

if there are any other comparisons you can think of feel free to add them

[Shaggytheclown17]

I wouldn't go as far as say that mankind has "evolved" or progrssed in the slightest but have gotten horribly worse. Just look around,nuff said.
Seeing as we humans seem to have a very advanced brain in yet a very low level of use of it, we indeed have gotten worse since the idea that we all of a sudden had it and are somehow gaining access to it, it just doesn't happen.

Anyway, all of the crap we've "invented" more like dicovered since the ability to create everything we can and have yet to, has always been here, back the we didn't need nor know how to create such things. (Think about it from this perspective, do you need a car to survive, no, its just a tool to make things more simple n easy, in that way we're getting worse because what has taken people thousands of years to develope takes a matter of minutes today, not to mention how things were done without such luxuries, people lived longer and were hell of a lot stronger (fast forward to today) people die of aids, diabetes,several cancers,ect, most horrible viruses n diseases are caused by things that are....very easily avoided such as a nutrient deficiancy, another way mankind is weakening, well not all mankind there are quite a few places that are still good....till the pollution n radiation n all that crap kicks in 8(

So now that I've done some discussing about that, this topic title is pretty much a fail since the OP is assuming and directing other people to assume that mankind has evolved somehow in which alot of people may know is simply a theory and really shouldn't be taken in any serious matter in the first place (.......too late D8 )

One more couple things, "evolve" really shouldn't be used in the place of "progress" and "improve" as a relative term as I've said before in the first paragraph, people back a few thousand years ago were prolly so damn strong they put stone henge together just for the fun of it lols, now children r getting diabetes n having to be a damn slave to a machine (blood sugar reader thingy)

[ReiperX]

:Are we humans more evolved then other animals? Sure we have our technology which makes us far more advance, but what about our basic instincts?

We also have a few advantages over many animals. First, we have a much higher level of intelligence than most animals. We have an opposable <sp> thumb, which makes using tools much easier.

:We are a territorial (boarders), just like so many other animals.

:We have language, but other animals have their own forms of communication.

:We gather in groups and so do other animals.

:We have buildings, but other animals still can make their own structures, ants have their tunnels, bees have hives, beavers have their damns, ect.

Our versions of many of these are much more advanced. You can bring up insects with how they can lay down chemicals to communicate, and while this is advanced it is also limited in what can be conveyed.

:So are we real any more evolved?

I'd say we are. And now to my favorite poster since Skunk n BeFell roamed freely. And that other religious nut that thought the earth was 5,000 years old.

At 6/16/09 02:11 AM, Shaggytheclown17 wrote: I wouldn't go as far as say that mankind has "evolved" or progrssed in the slightest but have gotten horribly worse. Just look around,nuff said.
Seeing as we humans seem to have a very advanced brain in yet a very low level of use of it, we indeed have gotten worse since the idea that we all of a sudden had it and are somehow gaining access to it, it just doesn't happen.

Do you have any direct evidence of our low level of brain usage?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl e.cfm?id=do-we-really-use-only-10 is one of many studies that have proven that the old myth of "we only use 10% of our brains" false. Unless you can disprove this of course.

Anyway, all of the crap we've "invented" more like dicovered since the ability to create everything we can and have yet to, has always been here, back the we didn't need nor know how to create such things.

We discovered gravity, light speed, speed of sound, math ect. We invented our many languages, cars (yes we invented cars).

(Think about it from this perspective, do you need a car to survive, no, its just a tool to make things more simple n easy, in that way we're getting worse because what has taken people thousands of years to develope takes a matter of minutes today, not to mention how things were done without such luxuries, people lived longer and were hell of a lot stronger (fast forward to today) people die of aids, diabetes,several cancers,ect, most horrible viruses n diseases are caused by things that are....very easily avoided such as a nutrient deficiancy, another way mankind is weakening, well not all mankind there are quite a few places that are still good....till the pollution n radiation n all that crap kicks in 8(

First off, I call bullshit. Lifespan has grown a lot over the years http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expect ancy

I'm currently 28 years old, and throughout a lot of history I would be considered an old man. Especially in certain time periods the average life span was 18 - 20 something years old. The infant mortality rate was horrendous for the longest time. Things like the black plague, polio, and smallpox just decimated populations in various parts of the world throughout history. Now polio and smallpox is pretty much wiped out, and the black plague maybe kills a handful of people a year now. Now in the US the reason that our life expectancy isn't as high as in other areas is our diet and lifestyle, but if you put together our life style (which is pretty damned good) in addition to a historically long lifespan (averaging 70+) we are still doing great. We may not be as strong as in the past (although there are plenty of exceptions) we are much healthier, have a lot longer lifespan, and a greater quality of life. And personally I"ll take quality of life over quantity any day.

So now that I've done some discussing about that, this topic title is pretty much a fail since the OP is assuming and directing other people to assume that mankind has evolved somehow in which alot of people may know is simply a theory and really shouldn't be taken in any serious matter in the first place (.......too late D8 )

Again, evolution is pretty much proven.

One more couple things, "evolve" really shouldn't be used in the place of "progress" and "improve" as a relative term as I've said before in the first paragraph, people back a few thousand years ago were prolly so damn strong they put stone henge together just for the fun of it lols, now children r getting diabetes n having to be a damn slave to a machine (blood sugar reader thingy)

I'd be willing to bet that the average "strength" of someone a few thousand years ago wasn't much more than today. And in many places it may have been worse. Yes we don't have to do as much manual labor, but we don't have as many diseases that tend to waste away our bodies.

[IETFB]

At 6/16/09 01:08 AM, LordJaric wrote:
So are we real any more evolved?

There's no such thing as 'more evolved'. Evolution isn't a progression to a higher state.

Humans are no more evolved than other animals just because we are more intelligent and build our own stuff. All it means is that we have adapted to our environment in a different way.

[Samuel-HALL]

At 6/16/09 01:08 AM, LordJaric wrote: Are we humans more evolved then other animals? Sure we have our technology which makes us far more advance, but what about our basic instincts?
We are a territorial (boarders), just like so many other animals.

Ah but, in fairness, we weren't always. Man existed in a nomadic state for many years. One could argue, easily, that a species that settles and maintains borders is more efficient than a species that always roams. So our transition, from nomadic to territorial, was evolution.

We have language, but other animals have their own forms of communication.

Our language is, arguably, more definied and nuanced. The possession of cognitive mind allows us a variety of tones, dialects, innuendos, and insinuation that horses and ants obviously don't possess.

We gather in groups and so do other animals.

So your argument is that because we are social, as almost every species on the planet is, that we are no farther evolved or adapted?
"Humans eat. Ants eat. So we're the same."
"Humans sweat. Pigs sweat. So we're the same."

We have buildings, but other animals still can make their own structures, ants have their tunnels, bees have hives, beavers have their damns, ect.

Are you comparing the grandiosity of skyscrapers and palaces to the base neccisity of a wolf finding a cave to sleep in?

[Victory]

At 6/16/09 02:11 AM, Shaggytheclown17 wrote: I wouldn't go as far as say that mankind has "evolved" or progrssed in the slightest but have gotten horribly worse. Just look around,nuff said.

Hm, good luck typing that a hundred years ago.

[Diederick]

How do you define evolving? I mean, it's not like it's a distance on a ladder, all species have their own ladder. We just happen to have been lucky enough to exceed in mental power, giving us the ability to create the tools we have to stay on top of the food chain (what you call technology).

[Vaxe]

Until you see me sniffing my ass and throwing my poo at your face, yeah I'd say were more evolved than an erection at the playboy mansion.

[Silverchaos]

Technically, humans isn't any more "evolved" than any other species on this planet. "Evolution" is merely an organism adapting to a certain evironment/need via change. So by definition, we are just as evolved as any other animal, we just took a different evolutionary route.

High school taught me a lot about semantics...

[Brick-top]

At 6/20/09 07:02 PM, Silverchaos wrote:

High school taught me a lot about semantics...

And semantics should have told you the rate of evolutionary progress isn't a constant and some can evolve faster than others and some can evolve better than others.

[Silverchaos]

At 6/20/09 07:04 PM, Brick-top wrote:

At 6/20/09 07:02 PM, Silverchaos wrote:

High school taught me a lot about semantics...

And semantics should have told you the rate of evolutionary progress isn't a constant and some can evolve faster than others and some can evolve better than others.

...I never said High school taught me everything, and your right evolution isn't a constant. Animals only evolve to adapt to whatever need that their habitat demands, and some animals can evolve faster merely because of their original genetic make-up will allow such adaptation, something that they evolved to posess.

[Drakim]

At 6/20/09 07:04 PM, Brick-top wrote:

At 6/20/09 07:02 PM, Silverchaos wrote:

High school taught me a lot about semantics...

And semantics should have told you the rate of evolutionary progress isn't a constant and some can evolve faster than others and some can evolve better than others.

I think what he meant was that the traditional creationist view of that evolution is like levelling up is wrong. Lizards aren't lower than humans because they don't have as big brains. Their surroundings did not demand high intelligence, and thus they did not evolve such a thing. It doesn't mean that the lizards are under evolved or weak. In fact, if the environment demanded it, humans could loose brain size, and it would still be evolution. Such humans would not be less evolved or something like that.

[KeithHybrid]

At 6/16/09 01:08 AM, LordJaric wrote: We gather in groups and so do other animals.

Actually, there are many animals that are solitary. Birds of prey and most big cats, for example. The only time when they congrigate is when they mate.

That said, I classify animals into one of two categories: intellegent and instinctual.

Instinctual animals encompass most living species on earth. These animals live only to do four things: eat, sleep, mate, and protect their young. While these animals aren't necissarily stupid, they do lack the means to learn much beyond these four tennants.

Intelligent animals, on the other hand, can learn beyond these four tennants. These kinds of animals include many apes (orangatans, chimpanzees, and humans come to mind), as well as many birds and octopi. Most of these kinds of animals think up of more complex means to accomplish the four basic tennants of living as outlined when I discussed instinctual animals. Where they differentiate themselves greatly from instinctual animals, however, is that their socializations extend far beyond simply "find female, mate, kill competing males".

[Ericho]

I'd say we are much more advanced since we can build structures and create great inventions. I think that's the biggest difference. I don't see any animals building houses (well, they build nests but that's not the point) or making some sort of invention widely distributed among other animals to make their lives easier?

[Drakim]

At 6/21/09 02:24 PM, Ericho wrote: I'd say we are much more advanced since we can build structures and create great inventions. I think that's the biggest difference. I don't see any animals building houses (well, they build nests but that's not the point) or making some sort of invention widely distributed among other animals to make their lives easier?

I can't remember what species of monkey, but monkeys use tools to eat ants and crack open nuts and whatnot. This skill isn't something all monkeys of this species can do. It's only the monkeys who are "taught" by other monkeys, thus, there are places in the world where the monkeys of the same species are unable to do these things. It's a form of culture in other words.

[PsH]

I think the main thing is that we have evolved a much higher level of intelligence as far as being able to utilize our knowledge to accomplish our goals. We don't have an intense sense of smell, or really good eyes, and we can't run 60 miles per hour. But we don't need too. We ride other animals or vehicles to go faster, we don't have to hunt because we know how to farm, we can shoot guns, etc. It's our intelligence that is really the defining difference between man and all other animals. No other animal comes close in that respect.

[VenomKing666]

At 6/16/09 01:08 AM, LordJaric wrote: Are we humans more evolved then other animals?

Pretty fucking much yes...

Sure we have our technology which makes us far more advance, but what about our basic instincts?

You do not seem to get how instincts work...

We are a territorial (boarders), just like so many other animals.

How does that make us primitive ?

We have language, but other animals have their own forms of communication.

Exept our language is maybe billion times more complex.

We gather in groups and so do other animals.

I guess this makes us just like them right ? God why am I replying to this giant logical fallacy of a post?

We have buildings, but other animals still can make their own structures, ants have their tunnels, bees have hives, beavers have their damns, ect.

Okay, now it is confirmed, you are a fucking troll.

So are we real any more evolved?

I can't wait for the shitstorm.

if there are any other comparisons you can think of feel free to add them

We like animals breathe oxygen, it proves we are like them and therefore as primitive as them amirite ?

[LordJaric]

At 6/21/09 07:13 PM, VenomKing666 wrote:

Calm down. I was just throwing something out for people to think about. There is no need to throw a fit over it.

[LenardNotLenny]

Humans group together

and

Animals group together

so

Humans are the same as animals

Holy shit, it all makes sense now.

[Ericho]

At 6/21/09 02:51 PM, Drakim wrote: I can't remember what species of monkey, but monkeys use tools to eat ants and crack open nuts and whatnot. This skill isn't something all monkeys of this species can do. It's only the monkeys who are "taught" by other monkeys, thus, there are places in the world where the monkeys of the same species are unable to do these things. It's a form of culture in other words.

Hmm, that's a good point but it is still limited to monkeys in this case and they're supposed to be closely related to us anyway.

[Chickidydow]

What makes humanity humanity is society. I'm sure you've heard of feral children before, and that about answers the question right there. We are only as instinctively evolved as how we were raised to be. In the nature vs. nurture argument, nurture is vastly more important.

[VenomKing666]

At 6/21/09 08:46 PM, LordJaric wrote:

At 6/21/09 07:13 PM, VenomKing666 wrote:

Calm down. I was just throwing something out for people to think about. There is no need to throw a fit over it.

Exept it's retarded bullshit that will not even make someone with half a brain hesitate to tell you that what you said is pointless bullshit, you might have had good intentions, and I respect that, but think about your shit better next time.

[animehater]

Don't you think the fact that we're having a discussion about whether or not we're more evolved is a good indication of such?