Arrogance? When will we humans learn we are not the center of everything?

by mavie 21 Replies latest jw friends

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  mavie

  We humans are an arrogant, anthropocentric species. Consider the following:

  Ptolemy posited that the Earth was the center of the universe. Once Copernicus began to show that the Sun, not Earth, was at the center of our solar system, some still believed that the Sun at least was the center of the universe. Fast forward a few hundred years, our Sun has been shown to be an average star on the outskirts of an average galaxy. At least we still have the fact that humans are made in God's image, right? Enter Darwin and evolutionary biology.

  I see the next chapter in this story being written today, with the evolving (no pun intended) view that God used evolution in 'creating' mankind. If so, at what point in the evolutionary process did God decide we became human and worthy of an afterlife? When we got opposable thumbs?

  Can anyone else add any human centered views we as a species have held?
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  Dave_T

  "Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and *subdue* it, and have in *subjection* the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth."
  Human arrogance is definitely not new...
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  kid-A

  The very notion that we, as biological beings and sentient primates somehow were "created" by some divine intelligence is profoundly arrogant.

  Moreso the notion that human animals somehow "deserve" to transcend mortality and obtain some illusory "eternal existence" beyond the mortal coil.
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  XJW4EVR
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  james_woods

  If you think about it, the idea of the Jesus Christ (God upon Earth, "ransom sacrifice", to save just the Earth humans) is pretty arrogant in itself.

  Did you ever wonder if God made people on the "billions & billions" of other planets? (if not, then what are they there for?) Were our ancestors the only ones to accomplish an original sin? Or did Satan get to maybe half or more of these planets in their premordial gardens? And then did Christ have to go to each one in turn? Did each of these get to have it's own Governing Body & 144,000?

  And then each one of these planets gets its own version of Armaggedon?

  Has this already happened to some of them, if they were created before us? Or, were we the very first?
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  kid-A

  Wow, another brilliant comment from XJW!

  Hey, when you pass the third grade, they let you make finger paintings!
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  parakeet

  ***Can anyone else add any human centered views we as a species have held?***
  Humans still believe they have the right to destroy the habitats of other animals to make room for themselves.
  Humans treat the earth's natural resources as their own private warehouse with little regard for the consequences of exploiting those resources.
  Humans treat the earth like a toilet, pouring their personal and manufactured wastes anywhere with few qualms of conscience.
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  skeptic2

  I don't think we are innately anthropocentric, it just seems to be taking a while to shake off outdated and simplistic beliefs.

  If you rephrase the question: "When will all humans have learned we are not the center of everything?" the answer is never. There will always be religion to a greater or lesser degree, there will always be, to a greater or lesser degree, the misunderstanding that homo sapiens is somehow atypically special, and I think this is more often due to simply having not been presented with the facts, rather than arrogance.
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  XJW4EVR

  Wow, another brilliant comment from XJW!
  

  Hey, when you pass the third grade, they let you make finger paintings!

  You're funny, Kid. Glad that they still let you ride the short bus. In response to this thread: when dolphins construct & staff hospitals, when whales quit beaching themselves, when chimpanzees institute a democratic from of government, and when mountain gorillas find a cure for the common cold, then I'll stop being an "anthrocentric."
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  Inquisitor

  Can anyone else add any human centered views we as a species have held?

  Homo sapiens = Latin homman + Latin sapiwise, rational

  Unlike the astronomical fallacies, we've yet to prove that humans aren't "the only surviving hominids with sophisticated language and tool manipulation abilities". But yeah, it is a rather arrogant title.

  INQ