(Balance!) Consciousness, identity, OBEs... (Identity)

by David Turell , Monday, May 09, 2011, 15:23 (4946 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Here is another article that seems to show chimp awareness, but true self-awareness, in an intellectual way, no way!:
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> http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-chimps-self-aware.html-
> We know that animals very different from ourselves reason, communicate, and are sentient. The question is therefore not whether but to what degree they are self-aware, and to what degree they can communicate, reason, feel. You can just as easily ask that question about children: to what degree is a baby, a toddler, an infant, a child "truly" self-aware etc.? -I think the differentiation is a simple one: animals can self-identify. If I call Jack, my poodle, he responds to me. He is aware of himself in the mirror. But he doesn't think more deeply and study the fact that he is aware. He is not aware that he is aware, which is a much deeper level. Chimps are not philosolphical is another way of putting it.
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> Underlying David's scepticism (please correct me if I'm wrong) is the belief that the human mind is different in kind from that of other animals, and this in turn ties in with his belief that the history of life from the beginning was geared to God's intention to produce humans.-Simply, yes. 
> I'm sure David does have just such respect. These are general comments which are in no way to be taken personally!-I am very aware of our animalistic evolutionary background. I've been on safari in Africa twice, to shoot animals, by camera. I do not kill animals for pleasure. But yes, if a ferel hog is tearing up my ranch, and then he goes to the BBQ pit. I respect all animals who respect me. For our pleasure and to help them we have bird feeders, ten bluebird houses, a butterfly garden, and feed plots for the deer.