Surprisingly

[CloudHands]

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29237276

[silent thunder]

deleted... posted in the wrong thread...

Edited September 20, 2014 by silent thunder

[beyonder]

While we share 99% of DNA with chimps, the differening 1 % is on some pretty fundamental levels. The coding of our brains in DNA is radically different than chimps resulting in a much more developed cortex for us. At the end, the article suggests this issue has "deep implications for human nature", but that's rather overstated, imho.

Edited September 20, 2014 by beyonder

[CloudHands]

(It doesn't matter)

Edited September 21, 2014 by CloudHands

[Marblehead]

And let us not forget that there is a sub-species of the chimp that holds its social group together through love, not murder.

 

And let us also not forget that there are many other species that engage in murder but not as do that one family of chimps.

 

Killing one's revel is nothing new in nature. Many reasons why it happens. And some members of other species kill just for the pleasure of killing, just as some humans do.

 

Nature is what it is and sometimes it's not very pretty.

[dust]

While we share 99% of DNA with chimps, the differening 1 % is on some pretty fundamental levels. The coding of our brains in DNA is radically different than chimps resulting in a much more developed cortex for us. At the end, the article suggests this issue has "deep implications for human nature", but that's rather overstated, imho.

 

If I imagine a man like Mowgli -- someone who's been born in the jungle and raised by wild animals without human language or culture -- what I picture isn't much more than a tall, hairless chimp.

 

When we see chimps that are raised in captivity, taught whatever amount of human language they can be, and exposed to human culture, we see behaviours that most of us would never expect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_%28chimpanzee%29

"Lucy would greet him with a hug, take the kettle, fill it with water, find two cups and tea bags, and serve the tea"

"...never reproduced, displaying sexual attraction only to humans"

"Lucy showed many signs of depression, including refusal to eat"

"Lucy was observed [lying] – something that was once considered uniquely human"

 

What I mean to say is, I don't think we're nearly as different as many humans would like to believe.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2014 by dustybeijing

[silent thunder]

so much common ground among all life...

indeed, nothing is unrelated, it never could be.

[beyonder]

so much common ground among all life...

indeed, nothing is unrelated, it never could be.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_universal_ancestor

[woodcarver]

Even if we are inherently killers which is entirely possible nothing changes for us...

 

-Spiritual practice would most likely reduce the desire to kill

 

-Would would take scripture with a grain of salt instead of cling to it as holy doctrine, oh no!

 

-We also are not chimps

[thelerner]

Even if we are inherently killers which is entirely possible nothing changes for us...

 

I think its also a truth that our species owes its survival more to its ability to band together. Stand as one, then its killer instinct. Because for the first couple hundred thousand years, we simple weren't good killers. We survived because we protected one another; our family, our group, our tribe. Its undoubtedly been at the expense of nature, but the human race has grown and thrived.

 

While the civil wars going on are horrible, the great majority of nations and people are living in peace. There's a chance we're living in a Golden Age and don't realize or appreciate it.

 

hmmn, I wonder if that'd be easier recognized if things got much worse.. or much better?

[woodcarver]

I think its also a truth that our species owes its survival more to its ability to band together. Stand as one, then its killer instinct. Because for the first couple hundred thousand years, we simple weren't good killers. We survived because we protected one another; our family, our group, our tribe. Its undoubtedly been at the expense of nature, but the human race has grown and thrived.

 

While the civil wars going on are horrible, the great majority of nations and people are living in peace. There's a chance we're living in a Golden Age and don't realize or appreciate it.

 

hmmn, I wonder if that'd be easier recognized if things got much worse.. or much better?

A lot of things have improved for humans but conversations like this will just end in "duality no-people nyarhar!!!"

[dust]

I think its also a truth that our species owes its survival more to its ability to band together. Stand as one, then its killer instinct. Because for the first couple hundred thousand years, we simple weren't good killers.

 

Yeah, I've been reading a bit about long-distance running, and it's suggested that for a long time we were the ultimate pack hunters -- entire families of humans would go running together, over hundreds of miles, exhausting their prey to death...

[silent thunder]

Yea, having sweat glands let us just run things into the ground as they died of heat exhaustion, then became lunch.

[joeblast]

we arent inherently killers

 

monkeys learn their behavior just like we do.

 

if monkeys kill its because their societal group evolved in a might makes right fashion.

 

interesting when some scientists observed a group of moneys that was like this, but they ate some very tainted meat...

 

and only the weak that were not able to gets their way to the meal survived

 

ya think that group of monkeys stayed violent? hell no, the new society was ostensibly founded by victims of violence.

 

all just learned behavior, humans and monkeys have a relatively similar capacity.

 

(that sounds like a story taomeow might have told around here before, but I only vaguely recall)

Edited September 22, 2014 by joeblast

[CloudHands]

While the civil wars going on are horrible, the great majority of nations and people are living in peace. There's a chance we're living in a Golden Age and don't realize or appreciate it.

 

hmmn, I wonder if that'd be easier recognized if things got much worse.. or much better?

 

I think that's very true, at least in the west. We are living a golden age and as the life goes easier we become more exigent. I mean (physical) violence has never been that low in France and we never been that intolerant toward it. Culture (library) is often free -and I don't even talk about illegal culture/entertainment available- but we all focus on the east, making them look like "the others that are taking all that we are not capable of enjoying yet

 

Back to the topic, what I was planning to say earlier is we come from far lower that moral tends to make us believe. All in one, it makes me rather optimistic.

Edited September 22, 2014 by CloudHands

[woodcarver]

I don't know guys, maybe this disproves everything lao tzu wrote. I think I'm just going to go back to being angry and afraid all the time... maybe get the new iphone.

[silent thunder]

bad news has good legs...

in every day, thousands and tens of thousands of things go right that we never even consider...

 

so much more good than bad happening right now... we just call it boring, everyday life.

 

every boring, regular day is stocked full of outstanding good stuff, it's just so common place, many look past it.