Aug. 31, 2005 - 21:22 MDT

TO THINK ABOUT

Every now and then some one or some ones come up with a bit of shtick that seems absurd. However, it does lead some of us to think.

I don't always agree with Jay Ambrose of the Scripps Howard News Service, but his article in today's Rocky Mountain News puts me in a thoughtful mood.

In full:

IF WE BELIEVE WE'RE BETTER THAN BEASTS, WE MIGHT BE

"In the London Zoo, eight scantily dressed people have been frolicking around in an exhibit accompanied by an explanatory sign, "Warning: Humans in their natural environment." I am sure the whole thing is funny and pretty much harmless, but I am far surer that the purpose behind the exhibit is defamatory to an excellent species."

"Seeing people in a different environment, among other animals . . . . teaches members of the public that the human is just another primate," a zoo spokesman told the Associated Press."

"That's about as wrong as it can be. Humans are not just another primate."

"Humans and humans alone on the planet Earth are possessed of a creative, conceptualilzing, comprehending intelligence that can produce the philosophy of an Aristotle, the poetry of a Shakespeare, the music of a Mozart, the art of a Michelangelo and the science of a Newton."

"This is no small thing."

"While other prmates might learn to catch delicious ants with sticks, that is light-years from what our minds make possible, such as starting fires for warmth, planting crops for food, telling stories that lend our experiences coherence and meaning, etc. -- even sustaining a civic enterprise we call a zoo."

"The difference between us and any other animal we know about is not just a difference in degree, but a difference in kind, said the late Mortimer J. Adler, a down-to-earth, supremely logical philosopher. You have a difference in degree, he says in a book called Intellect, when two entities share the same characteristic, only one of those entities has more of it than the other."

You have a difference in kind, he says when one of those entities has a characteristic or property that the other entity simply lacks."

"He then lists any number of characteristics humans have that other animals lack, animals live in the present, whereas humans are forever connecting the present with the past and future; humans alone make machines that produce things; you can train animals to do all kinds of things, but you cannot teach them non-sensory concepts; animals do not produce art that changes from generation to generation, reflecting new cultural realities."

"Put all of this together, and what you have in the human is an intellectuality that animals do not possess, Adler concludes."

"All of this is a matter of concern not just because of a zoo spokesman but because the idea of human beings as something grown apart from nature is under attack from many quarters. Some enviromentalists think we will destroy the world because we think ourselves superior to it, as if it weren't our special intellect that makes it possible for us to be environmentally concerned, and some people devoted to the welfare of animals think that our human pride makes us callous, as if our special intellect doesn't enable us to sympathize with animals."

"If these just-another primate positions carry the day, if we start thinking of ourselves as creatures with no dimension beyond the animal, look for us to forget that our specialness imposes special responsibilities on us, that it calls us to high achievement and noble purpose, that it affords us rights, that it confers magnificent blessings. Don't looks for us to be suddenly kinder or somehow better."

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Mr. Ambrose makes some very good points there. Even many religious figures might just agree with him. To my mind we are different than animals -- even though animals, many of them, have beauties of character that I wish I had. Still they don't play cards, drink beer or tell dirty jokes (or jokes of any kind for that matter). They aren't worth a damn at cleaning house or other onerous duties, it's simpler to hang out in a cave, forest or rocky spot and grow fur to keep out the cold. But in their element they are magnificent creatures and things to be admired and preserved.

One thing ocurring to me, in some cases of humanity, I think that difference in degree is so degraded as to make some humans fit the difference in kind category.

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Katrina has been the overbearing cloud over our country the last few days. I have thought deeply about that and probably will think more about it on into the future. I read one journal by a young lady who lives in the New Orleans area only on ground a bit higher than what is now underwater. She recently bought a house or is buying it I think. In her journal today she talks about sheltering some folks who are refugees from the morass of New Orleans. Supplying a few clothes, feeding them and making them welcome into her home. What a generous lady she is. Her url is:

http://elizalou.com/journal/083105.html

Then there is Marn in her entry today who provoked tears from my dry eyes. her url is:

http://marn.diaryland.com/neworleans.html

I also had a word or two in my Xanga site:

http://www.xanga.com/riddiger

We pray as we have quite somethings TO THINK ABOUT . . . . . . .

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