1. language.
Which can be used to wound curse at people or whip up crowds to an murderous frenzy – advantage apes
2. Civilization.
Used as an excuse to dominate, enslave or simply slaughter members of a their own or another civlization – advantage apes
3. Culture.
Again used as an excuse to impose one’s will upon others as in “they have no culture the savages” advantage apes
4.Technology.
used to improve killing ablity
5. Reasoned thought
All to often used as a tool to make excuses for horrible behavior – wittness our angels on the head of a pin discussion about torture. i have never seen an ape waterboard someone.
6. Art.
Kind of a wash here – for every Goya’s the horror’s of war you have a Kipling talking about picking up the white man’s burden.

all these things are tools – to be used for good or ill – a hammer can be used to build a house or crush a skull – it’s how we use all this that counts – just because we have them doesn’t necessarly give us a gold star from sky daddy.

Turtles all the way down!

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Anyone who assumes we are superior to animals because we have managed to develop a rudimentary skill set is missing the point.

And where does this flow from? Wait, let me guess! A giant tortoise. I’m right, aren’t I?

It’s true. Every thread, there’s WereBear going on about epistemology this and teleology that. No wait, that’s not true at all. Damn you for fooling me yet again.

PENIS

As I always say:

If a person cannot expand their consciousness to comprehend the Divine, they will shrink the Divine to fit their limited conception.

All else flows from this.

NARRATOR It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance — on the planet Earth Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much. . . the wheel, New York, wars, and so on, whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely the dolphins believed themselves to be more intelligent than man for precisely the same reasons. Curiously enough the dolphins had long known of the impending demolition of Earth and had made many attempts to alert mankind to the danger; but most of their communications were misinterpreted as amusing attempts to punch footballs or whistle for titbits, so they eventually gave up and left the Earth by their own means shortly before the Vogons arrived.

The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double backwards somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the “Star Spangled Banner,” but in fact the message was this: ‘So long and thanks for all the fish.’ In fact there was only one species on the planet more intelligent than dolphins, and they spent a lot of their time in behavioral research laboratories running round inside wheels and conducting frighteningly elegant and subtle experiments on man. The fact that once again man completely misinterpreted this relationship was entirely according to these creatures plans. Arthur Dent’s current favourite fact is that life is full of surprises.

</obligatory Adams>

(that’s the Narrator’s intro to the last bit of Fit the Third, right after the Slartibartfast gag, for readers listening along at home)

1. language.
Apes exhibit a capacity for language, with several children of the original language experiment apes exhibiting their own variations on sign language (which, in humans, is as natural a language as English). Their language skills are far cruder than ours, but you don’t see us torturing stutterers.
2. Civilization.
Civilization is the simian grouping instinct left to ferment. The great apes are as civilized as human beings were a million years ago with greater relative brain capacity.
3. Culture.
Apes exhibit cultural transmission, especially hominids.
4.Technology.
The great apes, especially hominids, have made breathtaking advances in technology in recent history. Certain tribes of chimpanzees are known to create and use wooden spears.
5. Reasoned thought.
A mouse can be taught to figure out simple puzzles. It goes without saying that the higher reason which man is capable of is present pretty much universally among the great apes.
6. Art.
Has also been observed of apes.

The book of Job posits that God loves ostriches more than any other animal. I sincerely doubt you’ve actually read the Bible, so you wouldn’t know that; but you could save us all a lot of trouble by not pretending to care about that God business.

Great ape citizenship is pretty long overdue, but it’s a small wonder it’s so hard to get it past people who think a blastocyst or a mechanically living corpse is a human being endowed with the full dignity of creation but an Arab with the same name as a terrorist from the 90s isn’t.

1. language.
2. Civilization.
3. Culture.
4.Technology.
5. Reasoned thought.
6. Art.

paraphrasing the late Geoerg Carlin (missing him more than ever):

Name six ways humans are superior to apes. You can’t do it! That’s because apes are good people.

My late (and exceedingly great) German Shepherd had an extraordinary, Andy Kaufmanesque sense of humor and an emotional sensitivity that made the humans around her seem like doltish idiots. She delighted in showing her remarkable grasp of the english language in a game where we would call out descriptions of her fifty or so toys, sometimes differentiated only by color, and she would unerringly pull them out of the pile until we were exhausted with laughter and amazement. I will never have a more loving and loyal friend, or one who will find more joy in delighting me. In more instances than I care to write or you’d care to read, she wasn’t simply the equal of humans, but superior to them. Of the few things I’ve actually been to learn in my life, one of the most important is this: if humans have “souls”, so do animals. Those humans who are incapable of recognizing this simple fact are particularly dull-witted and should probably be regarded as being developmentally retarded. You seem to enjoy spouting words, you might try actually reading what you’ve written before posting nonsense like “animals don’t have souls”.

That’s pretty good Erik. I know that you’re feeling threatened by Randal, super teacher, but ya don’t have to bust out the weapons grade batshit yet. There’s lots of room left to play with your use of clams.

BTW, even the hater-est of ya h8ters have to admit that this Monkee deserves human rights.

Sigh. Low-hanging wax fruit

That was a typo as I posted above, I meant that by giving primates equal rights with humans cheapens human life, making human life no more valuable than the life of a clam or mouse.

I do however believe that animals including clams and mice have more natural worth than any of the Al Queda terrorists we currently have detained at Guantanamo Bay. By their actions of terrorism they have forfited their natural human rights to be treated humanely and thus it is prefectly acceptable to torture and execute them.