The human epiphany

I had a previous spouse, who once told me that if he could contort himself sufficiently, I would be unnecessary.

Uh huh.

Difference between men and dogs -- men don't generally hump your leg at parties. Some men, however, blur that line.

 

And parrots

 

Saw the Alex the parrot segment. Impressive, riveting...

Some time ago I voiced my former opinion that "talking" birds only
repeated words and phrases with no thinking or discrimination involved.
At least in the case of Alex, I was wrong. He wasn't speaking in
sentences, but he was responding intelligently, at what was said to be
the level of a five year old.

So, I am left thinking is this a trait of just Alex, or just gray parrots?
What if it is true of all birds; crows, sparrows, pigeons, and (gulp)...
chickens? What if they are all talking intelligently in species-specific bird
talk all the time and we just don't understand it?

Or is the possibility limited to extremely long-lived species like the parrot?

I don't know if it logically follows, but if a creature is intelligent does it
has a "soul?" (I hope this doesn't cause this thread to go spinning off
into acrimony and ugliness.)

 

That makes me think that we were created in a "test environment" to see what we needed to survive before sending us to our own planet to evolve and repopulate.

 

I've always wondered if there were other "human" forms in the universe. We couldn't possibly be the only ones of our kind. We can't be that unique that billions and billions of miles away there isn't a planet just like ours. I think there's a higher intelligence, like an Earth that is far more advanced than ours. Maybe we are all a test. Multiple planets and beings just like us are in different galaxies to see who can produce what with natural and created resources.
This makes me want to read this book that I used to have called "Physics of the Impossible." It talks about the "what ifs" and that possibilities of things we couldn't even know where to begin producing.
This is an awesome subject and one I could get really into. My mind wanders to the most random thoughts and "humans" in other planets is one of them. It's funny how society is scared of the thought that aliens could exist but those so called aliens may actually be just like us, or smarter than a lot of us.

 

I've known dolphins were smarter than us. I heard that specific dog breeds were of a higher intelligence.

It's sad the humans out there think they run this planet and can do whatever they want (i.e. abuse dogs, hunt dolphins) all because we have opposable thumbs.

Once dolphins evolve with these thumbs and learn how to live out of water, humans better watch out. Well, the humans that don't deserve to be here much.

 

And that is why I can see it was a PREVIOUS spouse.

 

NEWS
Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs
AUGUST 30, 2000 | ISSUE 36•30

HONOLULU–In an announcement with grave implications for the primacy of the species of man, marine biologists at the Hawaii Oceanographic Institute reported Monday that dolphins, or family Delphinidae, have evolved opposable thumbs on their pectoral fins.

"I believe I speak for the entire human race when I say, 'Holy ****,'" said Oceanographic Institute director Dr. James Aoki, noting that the dolphin has a cranial capacity 40 percent greater than that of humans. "That's it for us monkeys."


Aoki strongly urged humans, especially those living near the sea, to learn to communicate using a system of clicks and whistles in a frequency range of 4 to 150 kHz. He also encouraged humans to "start practicing their echolocation as soon as possible."

 

This thread is silly since we already know the answer: humans arrived on the B Ship.

Tom

 

i think that was an episode of star trek.

 

If what you say is true, it really screws up Immanuel Kant's philosophy of religion. I can't tell him; he's dead!

 

Rae, you, me and a bunch of other people will be here chatting in FHOP when that happens.

 

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine. Sir Arthur Eddington
English astronomer (1882 - 1944) It never ceases to amaze me about the amazing lifeforms that we share this planet with.

 

We had a Mynah bird when I was a kid that carried on simple conversations, about 4 yr old level, I would guess.

I've watched crows, and scientists have studied crows, using tools. Pretty complex problem solving tactics. I'm convinced brain size is really no indicator of intelligence.

 

Maybe the epiphany is that we're not the only intelligent species. In our hubris, we've misinterpreted both 'dominion' and 'survival of the fittest' to the detriment of most lifeforms, including our own. Hopefully our emerging sense of responsibility will shift our focus towards cooperation, and away from domination and exploitation.

 

i once had a raccoon open the door to my screened porch, (had to turn the doorknob) pull a chair out of the porch and prop it against the door to keep it open, and proceed to rifle thru all the foodstuffs i was storing on it for the winter.

 

I guess that would be the exit strategy...
Seems like a lot of folks, in gov't and out, could learn from that critter.

 

There is no "missing link". Claims about missing links come from creationists, not biologists or archaeologists.

As for the consequences of discovering that we (by "we" you mean modern humans, right?) are Not Of This Earth, you might as well ask about the consequences of discovering that pigs have wings. It's simply not the case. Our ancestors have been on Earth for at least three billion years; we evolved here, from them.

 

I agree with FL_Prius and Richard, there's too much evidence that we evolved here on this planet.

But I kinda like the Ancient Alien series on satellite TV, where our ideas about our God/gods actually derive from aliens that landed on our planet millenia ago with their spaceships and such. (The TV show does get off-track a bit with the Bermuda triangle and stuff, they started running out of material apparently). What if these aliens had visited several times over a much longer time period and influenced our evolution to produce a sentient species? Like Genesis says, we were made in God's image. They could have told us about the Big Bang and evolution, which got translated into a few paragraphs in Genesis (with some people mistakenly thinking 'day' is a literal time period), and also helped a bit with basic sanitation (washing hands, food preparation etc. under Moses' law was probably pretty revolutionary). Would that make them really our gods? Makes as much sense as most of what organized religion has provided, IMO.

 

The OP has a very interesting question, but it could have been presented in less controversial clothing. Let's take the MelissaAnne post viewpoint. At some point we might be able to communicate with aliens that are probably vastly older and more advanced than us. In all likelihood, they will be asked about their "religious beliefs". Whatever their answer is, it probably is not going to fit into any major theology present today by a long shot.

Undoubtably, one of the first religious questions asked will be if they believe in God. Whatever the answer is, it will pack one heck of a punch.