When humans are animals and animals are machines...

Much is written by the intelligentsia these days about the 'human animal'.
How unexceptional we are. How prone to our 'evolutionary programming'. How nasty we are. What an 'infection' on the earth we have become.

These ideas are disseminated as 'sceintific', but are obviously a very poor appeal to philosophy and metaphysics.
While no one would dispute that human beings belong to that class of creatures we called 'animals' (those with animus, or whom are animated) and not plants or elements, there is an implication or inference in these reductionist musings that is left unsaid. Essentially that we are no better or worse than the beasts that run wild or sleep on our sofas that we call pets.

This is, of course, absurd. Human beings are exceptional creatures. We build. We learn. We record our history in semiotic codes we call language. We use the immaterial numbers to engage and discovery things about our reality that lead us to entirely new worlds.

Much of the 'humans are just animals' blather is disguised as some sort of argument for 'animal rights', or more accurately to argue against cruelty towards the beasts. In reality, though, it is a far more insidious movement.

At the core of this materialist doctrine is another step; another level that is not as publicly acknowledged. That doctrine teaches that animals themselves are merely chemical machines bent on reproduction. They are just machines, and we are just animals, and hence machines.

Obviously this does nothing for animals or men. Worse, it enables a mindset that finds it perfectly 'ethical' to use these 'machines' to test out their theories, ideas, and political aspirations. Whether that is carrying out repeated and horrific experiments on 'lab animals' to justify some budget or product line, or justifying social engineering and eugenics programs - it is a much easier argument when the victims of these insane plans are described as machines.

This mindset is evident in language. Scientific terms and generic names are used to describe the 'subjects' of these madmen's fantasies come to life
A million people or creatures are referred to as 'populations'. Unborn children are merely a 'foetus'. A disabled infant that may or may not receive care - depending on a budget - are described as 'neonates'.
The list goes on and on..

The justification for these activities becomes much harder when the human and animal populations are seen in another light. When they are seen as exceptional and extremely rare. When they are thought to have some purpose beyond the material.

We have become, as a civilization, more and more jaded. More and more callous. In our hubris we devalue ourselves and the wonderful array of creatures about us. We think because we can design and understand complex machines that we ourselves have gleaned the reasoning behind the grandest design of all: Creation.
We are very, very wrong to make such arrogant and potentially evil assumptions.


May God bless and keep you all.
IHSV.