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While You're At It, Bruce, You Can Apologize For Saying...

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Posted by Michael W. Pearson on September 19, 2004 05:34:38 UTC

that my breath "most assuredly smells like poo."

Bruce wrote:
Its Questionable Whether... humans actually have 'superior' intelligence. The fact that humans are the only species who deny other species food [usurping their habitat to support a growing population of takers who will continue to destroy the habitat of other species to support further population growth of takers, etc..] and work diligently to destroy a habitat that is critical to the continued exixtence of all species makes me wonder what the word superior actually means. It all started when we believed the creation myth that the Universe was created for humans to do with as they please.


Bruce, I believe your heart(s) are in the right place(s).

1) Humans do have "superior" intelligence by standard definitions.
2) Humans are not the only species which will crowd out other species or even destroy their own habitat and thereby all the other species in an area -- from yeast up, many species will do this if allowed to reproduce too fast. Humans are out of balance in a more extreme way than the others precisely because nature's usual checks and balances cannot overcome our savage intelligence.
3) Was a human-centered creation myth really the beginning of human ruthlessness and shortsightedness? I think most predatory animals tend to be pretty ruthless and shortsighted. Nature keeps them in check through predator/prey ratios.
I think we could modify your statement to agree that many foolish policy directions can be advocated by current believers in that human-centered creation myth. On the other hand, experience itself shows that humans are the stewards of earth's biosphere at present. So , the earth, at least, _is ours, though there is danger we will not just continue to make big mistakes in stewardship, but that we will make one too many mistakes, in part because some of us believe God gives authority without monitoring how meritoriously it is used.


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