Is Human An Animal?

What about the possibility that any other species could possibly overtake us in social behavior or intelligence? If that possibility exists, then we're not really all that special, are we? We just happen to be more intelligent currently; it probably won't change anytime soon, but it could happen.
 
I dont know if anyone remembers but a couple years there was this massive uproar when a Gorilla used a peice of bamboo to reach for a....thing....in a pond and they suggested it was a sign of a burgening intelligence lol
 
Lol. i think i remember that one.

I love this argument. My friend and i always argue about this. I stand firmly on that humans are animals. i always ask what makes us superior and he always answer that we are smarter. Intelligence is only a human determined factor in which we compare every animal to. It is through this intelligence where we get our culture and our civilization, which many points as a why they think we are superior to animals.

HOWEVER, what if we were to take away the comfort of said civilization in an area which is hostile like Antartica or the desert? Humans would abandon intelligence and their precious civility in order to survive, even going as far as to perhaps murder each other for it. The only reason we feel that we are superior because almost 100% of all humans do not face said threat which all animals face. Since we do not do what animals do, we assume we are not animals.

If you are confused as to what i said (and i can get VERY convoluted), here is my stance and reason shortened.

Due to civilization, we do not need to present ourselves to danger in order to survive. We have order and laws. Once these comfort are taken, humans are all too readily to fall back into being animals.

In actual fact, i sometimes see humans worse than animals (Yeah, i'm rather cynical about this stuff). At least animals have the excuse of lack of intelligence and kill merely to survive. Humans kill for greed and petty reasons, but that is another debate in any case.
 
Theres a reason why we are called humans and they are called animals.
That is because we are different from them. If we were the same then we wouldnt be called humans we would be a spieces of animal.

Or maybe since animals are seen as inferior creatures to humans, people dont want to think of themselves as being the same.

I dont know .:?:.
 
But we ARE a species of animals. Just because you are a human doesn't mean you can't be an animal. Just because a tiger is a tiger doesn't mean it can't be a cat. And just because it's a cat doesn't mean you can't call it an animal; it's just a classification. And we are classified as animals. Or would you rather be a plant? Being a human isn't significant enough biologically to create a sixth kingdom of organisms.
 
Humans and Animals are two diferent catagories. Yes we are both classified as CREATURES, then humans and animals are like 2 different sub-catagories. If you dont get what i mean think of like a family tree.Creature being at the top then Humans branching off to one side and animals branching off to the other side, then under animal are things like cat and dog etc. then from cat comes tiger and lion. A bit confusing but i hope you understand where im coming from.
 
No, not really. Why do humans have to be separate from animals? Why is there a distinction between animals and creatures, when really, they just amount to the same thing? Where do monkeys, apes and gorillas fit in? If it's not biologically accurate, and if that's not how you were classifying them, then I don't know what you're trying to achieve.
 
Chocobo Sandwich said:
Humans and Animals are two diferent catagories. Yes we are both classified as CREATURES, then humans and animals are like 2 different sub-catagories. If you dont get what i mean think of like a family tree.Creature being at the top then Humans branching off to one side and animals branching off to the other side, then under animal are things like cat and dog etc. then from cat comes tiger and lion. A bit confusing but i hope you understand where im coming from.
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No...human taxonomy is as follows - We are part of the kingdom Animalia, of the phylum Chordata, class Mammalia, genus Homo, species Homo Sapiens Sapiens, evolved from the extinct species of human Homo Sapiens Idaltu. We are animals, and we are not special as far as biology is concerned.

LuxAeterna said:
We supposedly evolved from apes... Blah blah
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Zell's Hotdog said:
Yes we are animals as we have a tail bone (at bottom of our spine) also we are related to monkeys (evolved from them)
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We did not evolve from apes. Humans and apes have a common ancestor, but evolve from apes we did not.
 
I wasnt trying to achieve anything i was just giving an example of how i see it.
You make very good points so i may have to re-think my decision.
 
I know you weren't, I just wanted to correct the assumptions that humans are separate from the animal kingdom. All members of the animal kingdom are consumers, and humans aren't exempt; we have to kill and eat other living things for sustenance.

Animals are classified as eukaryotic (our cells have nuclei), multi-celled consumers, which we fit. The phylum Chordata contains animals that at some point in life have pharyngal gill slits, a notochord, tail, and a dorsal nerve cord. In the case of humans we lose our gill slits in the early stages of development during the time that we spend in our mother's womb, and our tail never develops beyond that clump of cells that becomes the tail bone. The notochord and dorsal nerve cords merge and segment to become the spine, the dorsal cord forming the base of our central nervous system.

Other Chordates include the jawless fish, bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and all mammals.
 
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