Originally Posted by
binderdonedat 
We're a tad bit different from animals. And a neocortex is a bit more complex and fascinating than a fish gill, otherwise the fish would be running all the Starbucks, and we'd all be tasty meals.
Yes animals share many of the same building blocks as humans, but there are certain elements of human cognition completely unique. Here are 4 examples of our uniqueness:
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1. we are the only species on this planet that can combine and recombine different types of information and knowledge in order to gain new understanding;
2. We apply the same "rule" or solution to one problem to a different and new situation
3. We create and easily understand symbolic representations of computation and sensory input; and
4. We detach modes of thought from raw sensory and perceptual input.
In fact the amount of empirical data showing that we have characteristics completely unique to our species alone is vast. In our physiological composition, our ability to adjust reason and principles, our application of morals and ethics, the list goes on really.
Never said we weren't a different kind of widget. But, at base, a widget we are.
The neocortex has allowed us to dominate the planet, yes. It has all sorts of wonderful features and unique abilities, yes. But I think you missed my
simple point. We dominate the planet because we
can. How'd that happen? Science provides all sorts of lovely answers and data. Limitless and endless conjecture and projection does as well. The possibilities of wondering and testing are
limitless. It will never stop because we continue to evolve. Isn't that cool?
That is why I never believed in Him. No God this cruel is worthy of my attention, exist or not.
What makes you think He is being cruel or not? Are not those human attributes? Is that not humanizing God? Whether it is or isn't is fine. Again, the wonder and unknowingness of it all is absolutely
limitless.
But some arguments to what you ask might include:
a) He gave our species the caretaker role here, along with free will. It's ours to build or destroy. The only real cruelty being done on earth is being done by humans, and if He were to intervene then we may as well be monkeys for a while so He can put the elephants in charge. Perhaps we are here, experiencing all this now to work it out in His grand plan?
Dunno. There is tons of evidence that monkeys show the same type of cruelty toward each other, including rape.
I do agree that we
could be in the role of caretaker of the planet. But whether we are or not, by intent or by mistake, I think nature itself will 'take care' to further its own cause, even if that leads to human demise. Now THAT is cool. It all keeps chugging along, whether we are here or not. (Though there is the argument that if there is no one observing it all, that which IS, has no significance. Anthropic Principle. Which is an interesting POV, too).
b) God as you describe Him must be conscious, sentient overseer. But what if the term God is just used as a label applied to what amounts to a large collective consciousness, a reservoir of energy produced by us all, as of yet undetected? Something that - by each individuals actions, beliefs and practice - can gain access to the immense power? If that's a possibility then God can neither stop a tsunami nor start a war. Only we, by virtue of individual and collective consciousness, are responsible for kindness and cruelty by deed and by belief.
Yep. Another consideration.
Limitless.
Possible? I think so.
Of course! That's what's so cool about it.
Not catching your meaning there.
Is it within your experience to say that you love someone? You know that concept, at least in your own frame of reference? Okay. Prove it to me.
But we actually do regard the world from an animal's perspective, down to insects, and even bacteria. We do so as we study animals. We observe their behavior, we follow their patterns, we do what they do (when possible), we experiment with their social structures, their instincts and reactions, hell we even try to coax cognitive thought from them (in the case of primates). Our ability to study animals is, in part, made possible by our human ability to look at the world (and everything in it) from different, unique perspectives.
We observe them, yes. We do not experience the world as an insect, or as bacteria. I can determine, by an accepted set of standards developed by humans, that a tree is a living organism. I do not know what it is to experience 'the world' as a tree.
We are getting a little deep here, and that wasn't my intent. Perhaps just to introduce the enormity of trying to absorb 'limitlessness' ... there is no end to it. That's the only way I can begin to describe/verbalize (and even that isn't close) to what I experience when one thinks of 'higher power.'
Where you go from there is an individual experience... maybe. Again. Limitless. :-)