of man and animal...

"...I said in mine heart concerning the...sons of men...for that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts...yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity...all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again..." (The Bible)

Had a thought-provoking session with church friends last night. You know, I'm not a religious person in the conventional sense (i.e. belief in regular attendance in church, meetings and other forms of participation in formal displays of religiosity). There is a God, there's no doubt about it, I have seen and felt too many signs to deny His existence. The bottom-line is that I'm probably too proud to be mixing it up with pious people but anyway, that's another story, I'm digressing...


The polar bear.
Largest land carnivore.
Snaps off the human head with a single bite...

The thing is, are we really all that different from the animals we see around us? It's true, you know, that we are made from dust and subjected to the same forces that drive animals. Eat, sleep, reproduce, fear, joy, death. That much is certain. So there is a basic question which must be answered before we even begin to contemplate other things:

Q: Are we really unique?


The chimpanzee.
Opposable big toe.
Try manipulating things with your feet...
This fellow can.

The fearful thing about giving an answer is that either way will take us down very different roads. I don't agree fully with this guy (his statement about plants) but there is a point to what he says about the evolution vs. creation debate. If we are truly a result of random chance and this universe as we know it is really driven by natural & unguided forces, then what significant is there in being civilised? Countless men died fighting the Japanese Imperial Army and the Nazi machine, in the hope that they were doing something right. But is there a right to begin with? If "no", then everything is just a joke. Well, you say, the victors write history. So we're back to square one. Your point-of-view is as valid as the next person's. And the reason for civilisation collapses.


Huge leaf of the fan palm.
Able to make food from just sunlight and water...

What if we were really unique? Different from the beasts. There should must be a purpose to all that we're doing. Why are we doing what we do? For fun and laughter? Partly. Why did I get married? Why do I want to bring another life into existence together with G? Spend probably the next 18 years fussing over Baby. Why am I tramping around the forest looking at ants, getting stung, bitten, rained on, cut up by thorns and subjecting myself to unpleasantry. The end of it, I get to spend some more sleepless nights writing a thesis which no more than 4 people will read (me + supervisor + 2 other examiners, not even the binder will read it).


The California sea-lion.
Dives to 800 feet.
Swims 100m faster than an average human takes to run on land.

I am beginning to realise the enormity of answering "Yes" to the above question. We all want to answer "Yes" to give justification to what we do but do we know the responsibilities that come along? And by answering "Yes", we cannot set our own standards anymore. There has to be an absolute standard to strive for, otherwise our arguments for being unique would degenerate once again...

The question that follows "Yes":

Q: Are we ready to face the Standard by which we claim our uniqueness?...