Humans and Animals

I’ve been reading about animal psychology over the last few days and I got think about this last night.

In the animal world it is commonplace to allow the weakest member of any litter to die or even to eat them, this is a practice that the animal world has adopted for as long as they have been around. It might sound like they don’t care if they allow their own offspring to die but to them caring means caring for the pack as a whole and a weak member puts the whole pack at risk, it also increases the likelihood of more weak animals being born from that genetic line.

Humans used to do this but have now evolved to care for our weaker offspring. Is this a step backwards in evolution? I’m not suggesting that we start euthanizing weak or disabled children but I’m curious as to what you think.

I think it's evolution. Now we can protect the weak & go a long way to making the weak stronger. Also, you've got to think, under those rules people like Stephen Hawkings wouldn't exist. As one of the smartest people of our times would you say that he his a weakness due to his physical disabilities??

No I wouldn’t dream of saying that but in terms of following the natural order of things we are bucking the trend. I guess you’re right in that the mind is what’s evolving for us now so maybe the body isn’t that important anymore.

That said, what about people with mental health problems?

Well I don't know about evidence Ty, I'm actually just taking the word of the author on that point. Do you suspect otherwise?

People with "Mental health" problems are just people whose minds work differently from "Mentally stable" people. Does that really make these people weaker? Autism is said to be a Mental illness, yet some of the smartest people on the planet are autistic......

Humans are animals basically. There's not much difference really. And for an example of letting the weaker ones die, look at ancient civilisations like the Spartans........
Also, in battles passed, it was often the weakest & least experienced members of an army on the front lines doing the "Canon Fodder" bit....

NR_TOAB wrote:People with "Mental health" problems are just people whose minds work differently from "Mentally stable" people. Does that really make these people weaker? Autism is said to be a Mental illness, yet some of the smartest people on the planet are autistic......

Yeah that was a bit of a throw away comment really, mental health is a very broad spectrum. I guess the question is are we now more concerned with our fellow man than we are with our advancement as a species and is this the path to evolution of the mind

To make an omelette you need to crack a few eggs......

I think we are advancing as a species by becoming more concerned with our fellow man. If we can make our fellow man stronger then it can only bode well for the species as as a whole.

Yeah I like that idea, by helping others we are helping ourselves.

Oh really? Tell me more.....

But the science also says that it's not impossible to have evolved from primates.........

Science also says that Cillt bang will remove 99% of household stains but it can't !

jack wrote:Old-fashioned Naturalism - from the 17th century on - is challenged by the latest findings in Genetics, Cosmology, Information Theory, Physics, and Geology.


I always read that as ...clit bang.

You've got my undivided attention here Jack, tell me about it.


clit bang

Hmm, maybe! I'll look into it for you Yanks

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It's not looking good I'm afraid