The human animal?

What is the difference between humans and animals?

The only difference that anyone can identify for sure is that humans refer to humans as humans and refer to animals as animals. Of that, there is absolutely no doubt. It doesn’t need to be scientifically proven and there is no need for a theological debate on that issue.

But, wait a minute! Aren’t all animals as different to each other as they are to humans? Apes, for example, are considerably less different to humans than they are to giraffes.

Humans, we are told, are at the very top of the evolutionary ladder. This may be so but… er… remind me once again: which species was it that charted an evolutionary ladder in the first place? I’m sure my memory is getting worse. Was it dolphins or pigs? Then again, it might have been the duck-billed platypus. It’s no good; I’ll have to consult the Universal Oracle, Wikipedia… guaranteed 100% reliable. Ah yes! Of course! It was… er… humans.

OK. Let’s assume that we were right to put ourselves at the top of the heap; in what way does this separate us from animals in general? If something were to wipe out the human race but leave the rest of the animal kingdom unaffected, would the next in line (which would either be chimpanzees or orangutans, according to which school of thought you favour) then cease to be animals?

Theologians would argue that man (and presumably woman) is unique because humans have a soul whereas the rest of the animals do not. Scientists would argue that it is consciousness that is uniquely given to Man but not to other animals. Both are equally difficult to define and it has never been more than an arrogant assumption that neither is present in any other animal.

What about human’s creativity, inventiveness and engineering skills? OK what about it? Many animals create structures and manufacture materials with which to build them. I’ve already mentioned beeswax in an earlier post and termite mounds have been found to incorporate ingenious baffle chambers that provide effective air-conditioning.

Many may argue that the technology of humans cannot be compared with the technology of other creatures but by what criteria are comparisons to be made?

Perhaps every species considers itself separate from all other animals and at the top of the evolutionary ladder, measuring every other creature’s place in the scheme of things based on similarities to itself. Then again, perhaps what really separates humans from other animals is that we are the only species that would bother itself with such a meaningless question in the first place.