Saturday, June 6, 2009

Just Another Animal, Eh?

To all of those who think that man is just another animal, evolved, albeit somewhat specially, same as all the others, I have just one question. What other animal...?

What other animal tills the earth and produces food from it?
What other animal creates society? Uses money? And saves it?
What other animal creates language? And translates from one language to another?
What other animal writes words?
What other animal creates things that remain in their first state for thousands of years, like the Coliseum or the Sphinx or the Mayan pyramids?
What other animal lives on 7 continents?
What other animal can understand what the moon is?
What other animal has landed there?
What other animal enjoys leisure?
What other animal upholds justice? Or even a need for it?
What other animal swindles another just because he can?
What other animal steals, hoards, lies, and makes war?
What other animal rapes and pillages?
What other animal takes slaves? Or dies to free them?
What other animal holds for ransom?
What other animal shows compassion and mercy?
What other animal defends the innocent?
What other animal defends the guilty, that he must be proven so?
What other animal supports artistic endeavors, visits plays, builds sculptures, throws pottery?
What other animal considers the sky as some place to be traveled beyond?
What other animal knows what the sun is?
What other animal considers that there may have been beings from another planet visiting us?
What other animal loves so much?
What other animal talks to another half the world away without leaving home?
What other animal speaks of "conquering" nature - up Everest, across the Pacific, over the Channel.
What other animal has created the pulley, the lever, the inclined plane, the screw, the hinge, the trebuchet, gunpowder, penicillin, the internal combustion engine, filament lightbulbs, eyeglasses, tomato sauce, graphite #2 pencils, 802.11 N wireless routers, Teflon, the compass, stained glass, RFID tags, checks and balances, flat-edge shovels, Nike Shox, granola bars, wheat grass shakes, non-alcoholic beer (why bother?!), terra cotta, rickshaws, Nintendo, percentages, Soweto, geneaology, religion, incense, notebooks, DVD regions, chess, swear words, and the Country Music Awards?

What other animal is there like man? Can he be any more different from so-called "close cousins"?

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