Monkey Monday - The Cultured Ape

Thank you: Atheist Media Blog & Non Serviam

The Cultured Ape -- 58 min 18 sec
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E7DEEB8AF3EAB443From Aristotle to Augustine, philosophers and religionists alike (and even some orthodox scientist academicians) have for centuries imposed an artificial gulf between humans and other animals. Defend as they must the sacred notion that our species - just one amongst many millions - is different, unique and of course, therefore special. Similarly, in antiquity, the belief in the geocentric solar system, contrary to all observation, preserved the perceived rigid dogma that the earth was the centre of a divine plan. Nowadays, loony fringe creationists, clinging narcotically to their snake-oil, use culture as the sole identifier of humans as superior. Meanwhile, religious apologists use morality as the singular attribute (therefore necessitating the existence of a soul) as the last bastion in a nonsensical retort against growing scepticism.Contrary to their fatuous endeavours, modern research has sealed the rift between monkey and man, revolutionising the assumption of exclusivity and crushing the conceit and hubris of petrified thought. Primates (and other animals) have been observed to exhibit a yawning plethora of social displays and emotions, ranging from non-reciprocated altruism (both inter- and intra-species) to gleeful deception, from reverential awe to brutal aggression, and from syntactic communication to empathy.The classification of species as 'superior'/'inferior', or 'higher/lower animals' is intolerable and indefensible to a modern scientist, as are descriptions such as 'more evolved' or 'less evolved' (unless one means by 'more evolved' to simply say 'living' - as opposed to the 99% of all species which have ever existed that are now extinct!) These categorisations have their origins in antiquated philosophy. Aristotle thought it so manifestly obvious that species were intentionally arranged on a ladder. Today, people will no doubt mistake this video as supporting the view that a chimpanzee is just "a human in the making" - preserve as they must their superiority complex. Similarly, religiously influenced minds will ask "isn't it clever that evolution did all this?" - thereby presuming the blind mechanisms of nature to be conscious and as having intentions. Proponents of 'Vitalism' or 'Essentialism' expounding no theory different to that of Plato (influenced via Parmenides and Pythagoras) will be unable to comprehend how variation can occur let alone how species can have so many shared characteristics. An evolutionary psychologist, on the other hand, understands that natural selection is undirected and unconscious, gradually incremental and slow, that propagating genes into subsequent generations is the only ultimate goal, and that the vast majority of genes in the human genome are identical to those in the genome of most other species. Hence, the entire range of cultural manifestations (including the elusive property of morality) are also beginning to be elucidated as biological phenomena, ubiquitous not only in rimates but in many other 'social' species also.

Related: GAME: Super Monkey Poop Fight

Monkey Monday - The Cultured Ape