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Amazing! Am I like a god?

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Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby kakkerlak » Sat 15 Nov 2008, 13:15:34

Many thousand years ago humans started to think like this;

I am amazing!
I fear no lion and I am faster then a snake!
Yes, I am amazing!
I wrestle with crocodiles and I am stronger then the mighty elephant!
O' yes, I am truly amazing!
I know the location of every tree in the forest and I can sing every song from every bird!
O' yes, I am really amazing!
I am the master of the land, the sea, the air and I control fire!
O' yes, I am amazing!
I am like a god!


And everything changed at this moment in time; we ceased to be just animals and we became like gods. At this very moment we lost our innocence and we gained choice. At this moment our instincts became mostly irrelevant, replaced by reason and imagination. From this moment onwards we became responsible.

This moment was the moment in which words like "murder" or "crime" got their meaning. Murder didn't exist before this moment. We created the concept of murder by thinking "I am like a god!". The entire concept of "evil" came into existence at this very moment.

Two paths
From our point of view and looking downwards we appear to be like gods indeed. However, when we look up into the sky, in awe and wonder, we are at best small children building little sandcastles in a sandbox.

Do you not know that you have the power to move entire mountains, stop rivers from flowing and create or destroy forests? You can be a master of the land, the sea, the air and every creature on the planet. You can look downwards, take this path, embrace this choice, and be like a god.

Being like a god, ruling over the lands and the seas, is a great responsibility. It's very difficult to make good choices and many things can go wrong. You can recognize that your ability's are limited and that you're nothing like a god. Take this path, look upwards in awe and wonder, and see that you have no choice except to serve the greater good.

Are you like a god or like a servant?

All humans have this choice, a choice between two paths to follow. But beware because one of these paths is a deception, an illusion, a brutal lie.

Have fun!
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby Carlhole » Sat 15 Nov 2008, 13:20:15

Chimpanzees engage in "murder". They just haven't got a word for it.
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby Aaron » Sat 15 Nov 2008, 13:36:15

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') sometimes wonder what animals think of the phenomenon of humanity -- and especially of human babies. For no creature on the planet must seem anywhere near so obnoxious.
A baby screams and squalls. It urinates and defecates in all directions. It complains incessantly, filling the air with demanding cries. How human parents stand it is their own concern. But to great hunters, like lions and bears, our infants must be horrible indeed. They must seem to taunt them, at full volume.

"Yoo-hoo, beasteis!" babies seem to cry. "Here's a toothsome morsel, utterly helpless, soft and tender. But I needn't keep quiet like the young of other species. I don't crouch silently and blend in with the grass. You can track me by my noise or smell alone, but you don't dare!

"Because my mom and dad are the toughest, meanest sumbitches ever seen, and if you come near, they'll have your hide for a rug."

All day they scream, all night they cry. Surely if animals ever held a poll, they'd call human infants the most odious of creatures. In comparison, human adults are merely very, very scary.

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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby smallpoxgirl » Sat 15 Nov 2008, 14:54:58

From what I've read, the screaming baby thing is a phenomenon of "civilized" humans. Lakota babies were quickly trained not to cry. One screaming baby could easily give away an entire band of people, so that they were discovered by their enemies and killed.
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby eastbay » Sat 15 Nov 2008, 15:01:40

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'F')rom what I've read, the screaming baby thing is a phenomenon of "civilized" humans. Lakota babies were quickly trained not to cry. One screaming baby could easily give away an entire band of people, so that they were discovered by their enemies and killed.



Heh... I wonder how exactly they managed to do that! I hope it wasn't some sort of 'natural selection' process. Yikes.
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby mercurygirl » Sun 16 Nov 2008, 02:32:01

The breast is a wondrous thing. But seriously, babies who are carried close to the bodies of the mother or other family and fed on demand just don't cry. They only cry when something is "wrong". It makes me crazy to hear a small one crying in public and see the parents just doing their thing, as if nothing was happening.
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby smiley » Sun 16 Nov 2008, 17:48:56

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'L')akota babies were quickly trained not to cry.

Lakota babies dit not have to negotiate honking trafic, neon signs, loud and obnoxious ringtones, mini malls, and were not attacked by every cuddly elderly person they met underway.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mercurygirl', 'T')he breast is a wondrous thing. But seriously, babies who are carried close to the bodies of the mother or other family and fed on demand just don't cry. They only cry when something is "wrong". It makes me crazy to hear a small one crying in public and see the parents just doing their thing, as if nothing was happening.

Somehow I suspect that you both don't have children. Keeping your baby close and well fed surely is a good thing, but I think you'll quickly find out that there is more to it.

If you're annoyed about a kid misbehaving in public. Before you blame the parents, just think about how the public is misbehaving towards the child.

Try to see the world around you through the lens of someone who did not have any sensory input until a few weeks before.
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby mercurygirl » Mon 17 Nov 2008, 01:16:18

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smiley', 'S')omehow I suspect that you both don't have children. Keeping your baby close and well fed surely is a good thing, but I think you'll quickly find out that there is more to it.
If you're annoyed about a kid misbehaving in public. Before you blame the parents, just think about how the public is misbehaving towards the child.
Try to see the world around you through the lens of someone who did not have any sensory input until a few weeks before.

Well, I agree that there is much more to it than that. Actually, I am a mom and pretty sensitive about sensory input, even now, years later. Just wanted to make the point that small babies don't need much more than a warm body and (preferably provided by the warm body) food to be content and alert. Thankfully, conventional knowledge seems to be swinging back to the more positive and healthy ways of parenting. As little as decades ago, it was considered ok to put a newborn on a feeding schedule and let them cry, for instance.

Anyway, I'm derailing the thread. Sorry.
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby kakkerlak » Mon 17 Nov 2008, 06:55:56

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', 'C')himpanzees engage in "murder". They just haven't got a word for it.

Murder doesn't happen in nature. It doesn't exist.

Looking at nature from a neutral point of view it's not difficult to come to the conclusion that killing is not bad and that killing is in fact perfectly normal. It's the norm. From an evolutionair point of view it is even beneficial, eliminating the weak and giving the strong better chances of survival.

Because humans are part of nature and are participating under the exact same rules (or lack of rules) as all other creatures you can conclude that it is perfectly fine for a human to kill, even other humans. Animals do it all the time.

I hope there is a serious flaw in above logic because if it's flawless i could justify every crime. Just look at apes, they kill, steal, rape and fight wars. All of this behaviour is normal and part of nature. Humans are genetically closely related to apes, we have the same behaviour and we're part of nature. What's the difference?

Murder only applies to humans, we created the concept. We have rules and we can choose to break those rules. Animals can't break any rule because there are no rules. Only humans are capable of doing "evil".

Animals are just animals, innocent in nature.

Have fun!
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby dinopello » Mon 17 Nov 2008, 09:03:27

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kakkerlak', 'A')nimals can't break any rule because there are no rules.

That's not true across the board is it? Pack animals with some social order have rules. Break the rule and you get punished by the alpha or someone higher up. Domesticated pack animals exhibit the same thing and show awareness of the rules. If I walk into a room and find our two dogs playing keep away with my sock, I don't even say anything but they drop the sock, drop their heads and slink around. Guilty !
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby vaseline2008 » Tue 18 Nov 2008, 19:41:36

Only humans kill for the sheer joy of it. Never heard of a Serial Ape or of any animal using the hides of others for a rug.

Intelligence can be used for good or "evil"...by the way, it is only by definition evil is "evil"...what if it was socially the norm to do "evil"...then would those acts of "evil" be called "good"?
I'd rather be the killer than the victim.
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby Don35 » Tue 18 Nov 2008, 20:13:56

IMHO self awareness differentiates us from animals and "makes us gods". Chimps have a bit of self awareness, but not much. That's why being cast out of the garden of eden is a metaphor. Loss of innocence is the loss of the "paradise" of ignorance and into the tragedy of knowledge. We don't know how to handle our self awareness and we suffer. Ignorance would be bliss! The transition from animal to human includes self awareness therefore suffering. Just some thoughts!
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby Zardoz » Wed 19 Nov 2008, 01:57:37

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kakkerlak', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', 'C')himpanzees engage in "murder". They just haven't got a word for it.

Murder doesn't happen in nature. It doesn't exist.

Two female chimps were observed murdering something like seven infant chimps over a period of a couple of years. They were serial killers.

This is no surprise, of course, considering what close relatives chimps are to us. They can be extremely nasty.

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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby colliedog » Thu 20 Nov 2008, 07:33:52

Men are no different then animals now. They don't believe in God as neither do the animals.
Can't you tell the world is a Godless place, look around?
Rats eat their young and the other rats join in. snakes, dogs cats no problem, they are just aware but not selfish aware.

Humans have the capacaty to have morals, but gave it up a few years ago.

Men are no different then animals now, and will be put out of their misery by their own selfishness.

Its all in the book, which animals can't write or read. Men can no longer read it either any more. They are like reptiles, cold blooded to a fault, ignorant, procreating without respect for anything.

God is by definition the creator of everything with infinite knowledge of all things. For man to say that is utterly stupid, no man can even figure out peak oil.
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby Grifter » Thu 20 Nov 2008, 08:52:22

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kakkerlak', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', 'C')himpanzees engage in "murder". They just haven't got a word for it.
Murder doesn't happen in nature. It doesn't exist.

Two female chimps were observed murdering something like seven infant chimps over a period of a couple of years. They were serial killers.
This is no surprise, of course, considering what close relatives chimps are to us. They can be extremely nasty. Love and Murder Among the Chimps

Male Lions will murder the young of other males.

A pair of vultures will have 2 chicks and work out the strangest one and eat the youngest.
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Re: Amazing! Am I like a god?

Unread postby kakkerlak » Thu 20 Nov 2008, 10:16:26

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'T')hat's not true across the board is it? Pack animals with some social order have rules. Break the rule and you get punished by the alpha or someone higher up. Domesticated pack animals exhibit the same thing and show awareness of the rules. If I walk into a room and find our two dogs playing keep away with my sock, I don't even say anything but they drop the sock, drop their heads and slink around. Guilty!

Yes, social animals have rules. These rules can be described as "social rules" or "social norms" and are similar to our "unwritten rules". Shaking hands, driving on the right side of the road or giving gifts at birthdays are examples of these "social rules".

These rules are very different from moral or ethical rules. When you for example refuse to shake hands, breaking an unwritten rule, you're not doing anything illegal and you don't become a bad person in any way. However, people are not going to like you.

Note: Not shaking hands was a hot topic in my country not long ago. Some Moslim didn't shake hands with a female minister and was threatened to be deported back to the middle east. Only because he didn't want to shake her hand.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')rom Wikipedia (don't bite, please):

Social norms are the behavioural expectations and cues within a society or group. They have been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit. Failure to stick to the rules can result in severe punishments, the most feared of which is exclusion from the group." They have also been described as the "customary rules of behavior that coordinate our interactions with others."


$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vaseline2008', 'I')t is only by definition evil is "evil"...what if it was socially the norm to do "evil"...then would those acts of "evil" be called "good"?

Personally i make a very strong distinction between "good" and "evil" in absolute unchangeable terms. For someone thinking in relative terms the definitions of "good" and "evil" are changeable. Some would even argue "evil" doesn't exist in the first place.

Do you know the story of Robin Hood? The guy that stole from the rich and gave to the poor. When attempting to judge him you will notice a problem. Stealing is considered a "bad" thing, but his intentions are considered "good". I bet many people have different opinions about him, depending on their definitions of "good" and "evil".

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Don35', 'T')hat's why being cast out of the garden of eden is a metaphor. Loss of innocence is the loss of the "paradise" of ignorance and into the tragedy of knowledge.

Exactly!

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', 'T')wo female chimps were observed murdering something like seven infant chimps over a period of a couple of years. They were serial killers.
Chimps killing other chimps is nothing special and it happens all the time. Lions do the exact same thing, killing the young from other males. Even birds (from certain species) are known to kill their little brother/sister just after hatching. Survival of the fittest.

Ewww....Grifter is faster then me on this one. I'm slow. :(

From the article: "Other targets of male chimp murder are the suckling infants of females taken forcibly under control by a new male. The females quickly stop lactating, begin ovulating and are now able to bear the infants of the usurper male." Darwin at work here. Eliminating the competition and increasing the chances of successful reproduction. What's bad about this?

Have fun!
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