Oneness with Evolution

[Chesterton]

Speaking of looking into an animal's eyes, I am finishing up Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma," and on page 306...

"A few years ago the English writer John Berger wrote an essay called "Why Look at Animals?" in which he suggested that the loss of everyday contact between ourselves and animals - specifically the loss of eye contact - has left us deeply confused about the terms of our relationship to other species. That eye contact, always slightly uncanny, had brought the vivid daily reminder that animals were both crucially lilke and unlike us; in their eyes we glimpsed something unmistakably familiar (pain, fear, courage) but also something irretrievably other (?!). Upon this paradox people built a relationship in which they felt they could both honor and eat animals without looking away."

I heard a scientist on a TV show recently claim dogs (man's best friend) are the only animal that will maintain eye contact with humans for more than a few seconds, as if they're trying to understand our communication. Not sure what it means, but maybe it means dogs really are our species' best friend.

 

[Skaloop]

I heard a scientist on a TV show recently claim dogs (man's best friend) are the only animal that will maintain eye contact with humans for more than a few seconds, as if they're trying to understand our communication. Not sure what it means, but maybe it means dogs really are our species' best friend.

I just now looked my cat straight in the eyes for several seconds. So no, it's not a dog thing. It may, however, be a domesticated animal thing.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

I own a starling. It has been one of the most remarkable experiences in my 56 years. When I look into my starling's eyes, I see 10's of millions of years of evolution that separate us, but yet, there is a oneness there that takes my breath away. Astonishing wonder. I don't need a god, or religion, or any of that clutter to be inspired. I've found it in a lowly bird who evolved before me. Find it. You will be changed forever.

You need your eyes checking then. Starlings and their ancestors have been evolving for just as long as we have.

 

[LifeToTheFullest!]

I heard a scientist on a TV show recently claim dogs (man's best friend) are the only animal that will maintain eye contact with humans for more than a few seconds, as if they're trying to understand our communication. Not sure what it means, but maybe it means dogs really are our species' best friend.

Yeah, I once looked into a gorilla's eyes for about 20 seconds at the San Diego Zoo.

Was the 'scientist' you were watching on the TBN? It wasn't Ray Comfort was it?

 

[Skaloop]

You need your eyes checking then. Starlings and their ancestors have been evolving for just as long as we have.

Yes, they have. For tens of millions of years. So there's that length of time for evolution to separate us. Evolution on both sides. I'm not really seeing a problem with what futzman said.

 

[AV1611VET]

Yeah, I once looked into a gorilla's eyes for about 20 seconds at the San Diego Zoo.

I can only imagine what they are thinking when you guys do that.

 

[Son of the King]

I heard a scientist on a TV show recently claim dogs (man's best friend) are the only animal that will maintain eye contact with humans for more than a few seconds, as if they're trying to understand our communication. Not sure what it means, but maybe it means dogs really are our species' best friend.

I might have more proof of a dog being our best freind. I locked my wife and dog in the trunk of my car and drove around for over an hour. When I opened the trunk, the dog wagged its tail and was happy to see me.

 

[AV1611VET]

I might have more proof of a dog being our best freind. I locked my wife and dog in the trunk of my car and drove around for over an hour. When I opened the trunk, the dog wagged its tail and was happy to see me.

 

[LifeToTheFullest!]

I might have more proof of a dog being our best freind. I locked my wife and dog in the trunk of my car and drove around for over an hour. When I opened the trunk, the dog wagged its tail and was happy to see me.

 

[AV1611VET]

I like:

Dear Lord, please help me to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am.

 

[Yoder777]

I own a starling. It has been one of the most remarkable experiences in my 56 years. When I look into my starling's eyes, I see 10's of millions of years of evolution that separate us, but yet, there is a oneness there that takes my breath away. Astonishing wonder. I don't need a god, or religion, or any of that clutter to be inspired. I've found it in a lowly bird who evolved before me. Find it. You will be changed forever.

What do I see in a lowly bird? The loving Father who created us both.

"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" (Matthew 6)

Whether God created all things ex nihilo or through a lengthy process is beside the point.

 

[Skaloop]

What do I see in a lowly bird? The loving Father who created us both.

Even in the abominations?

Leviticus 11:13-19

 

[Yoder777]

Even in the abominations?

As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
Romans 14

“Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
Mark 7

 

[Chesterton]

Of course I want my kids to ask question. Why wouldn't I or where did you get the idea I wouldn't?

Now, are you saying that after I explained to you HOW I found my meaning of life, you still find it 'mysterious?' I'd explain it the same way to them and, hopefully, they'd be better at grasping what I told them. Now, it doesn't mean that they have to adopt the same meaning for their lives I did.

It's internally inconsistent, incongruent, and contradictory to reality because none of it is real in any way we can verify nor demonstrate.

I already gave you the reason I came to my meaning of life and it'd be the same I'd tell them.

No you didn't.

They won't necessarily ask questions. A lot of people, I dare say, the majority are trained to no ask questions, usurp the status quo, or 'make waves,' in church, school work, and social situations. I want to actively teach them to ask questions and critically think about everything through.

That's not what you said before. You said you were going to tell them what to believe.

As far as the second part of that, I have no idea what "the true meaning" is and if you mean that it's the meaning that we should all follow, then I'll have to ask you to demonstrate why anyone should reasonably follow this "true meaning" with verifiable evidence.

If you have no idea what the true meaning is, then you shouldn't tell children you do know.

I just now looked my cat straight in the eyes for several seconds. So no, it's not a dog thing. It may, however, be a domesticated animal thing.

Right, animals can become like us through domestication, I think, as Christ can domesticate humans to become more like God.

 

[Chesterton]

Yeah, I once looked into a gorilla's eyes for about 20 seconds at the San Diego Zoo.

That is so sweet. Did you get her phone number?

 

[futzman]

What do I see in a lowly bird? The loving Father who created us both.

"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" (Matthew 6)

Whether God created all things ex nihilo or through a lengthy process is beside the point.

And, helps them loose a leg when they are bad baby birds?

I guess I just don't share your view of a "loving Father." I would say nature is cruel, but as someone once put it (Darwin?) it's simply indifferent.

 

[Gawron]

Oh Noes!! Nature is cruelz, crokodiles eats stuffs, God is bad and e-vilz.......

Please, this argument is laughable, that because the smallest of God's creatures suffers pain, God is somehow deficient.

 

[Skaloop]

Oh Noes!! Nature is cruelz,

Not cruel, indifferent (as mentioned).

crokodiles eats stuffs,

Yes, they do.

God is bad and e-vilz.......

Only if He exists, but even then, not necessarily bad or evil, but certainly not all-good.

 

[Gawron]

The premise upon which you base this conclusion is false.

 

[futzman]

You need your eyes checking then. Starlings and their ancestors have been evolving for just as long as we have.

Birds recognizable as modern birds have been around far longer than humans recognizable as humans. But that was not what I was referring to when I said "10s of millions". Birds and humans have been on separate evolutionary paths for 10s of millions and still we can share a connection.