Other than arrogance, what separates us from the animals?

ability to simulate life by non sexual means
ability to create, understand, and manipulate the environment of OT?HERS


the ability to build cities, countries, ability to communicate through writing, ability to create artistic and musical masterpieces,,,



etc,,etc,,etc,,,

The only honest answer is agnosticism.

Anything less is dishonest.

The thread was discussing meaning anyway.

Why would your life be more meaningful to you if some external entity created it and be less meaningful to you if that were not the case?

Is it more meaningful to you to be the slave of another separate consciousness than to be a free consciousness in your own right?

I would personally feel just the opposite. Life would be far more meaningful to me if I were a free spirit than to merely be the expected obedient servant of another independent conscious being. The latter would certainly be a lesser existence than the former.

The latter would be oppressive fascism that threatens to be an eternal state of affairs.

Certainly not something that I would embrace with open arms.

Clearly being the "God Consciousness" would be the better picture.

So being a slave to that consciousness would be less meaningful than being the free consciousness in the first place.

Do we really need a cosmic fascist dictator to give meaning to our lives?

Electric shavers.

But, of course you would say this.

lol..haaaa

I didnt know we were getting that deep

I wont name all the 'feminine items' they dont quite have access to or ability to create,,lol

In other words we enjoy "Sins of the flesh" and indulgence in physical pleasures where animals do not become addicted and dependent upon these things.

Most spiritual writings suggest that we should abstain from these physical lusts anyway.

Didn't Jesus himself supposedly give up all his physical possessions to roam the countryside as a bum? And didn't he ask all of his disciples to do the same thing.

Where did Jesus create any works of art or music. Or even write anything down for that matter?

He spoke about the birds that toil not yet God gives them what they need and basically suggested that we should be viewing life in the same away as the birds. He also taught to take no thought of the morrow.

Well no one is going to be planning to build a city if they are not taking any thought of the morrow.

Countries would not exist either if everyone followed the teachings of Jesus because there would be no need for them. Just treat your neighbor as thyself. No need to ask them to pass through any customs agencies before they can step onto your property.

According to the teachings of Jesus it appears that we might be far better off if we actually lived like the animals.

an entirely different question

I was answering the question 'Other than arrogance, what separates us from the animals? '

So are you saying that there must be a God because we have evolved to the point of technology?

Or are you saying that electric shavers give life meaning?

I actually prefer a straight razor myself. Perhaps it's the primordial animalistic instinct in me.

So in other words you are saying that when intelligence evolves to a certain point that implies the existence of a God. But lower levels of intelligence could potentially have evolved without a God?

Or are you saying that it is intelligence that gives life meaning, and you simply can't imagine intelligence coming into existence without an intentional designer in the first place.

If that's the case, then how do explain the intelligence of God.

From whence did it arise?

Actually Jesus was quite the scholar according to those who watched him study and debate. There was nothing that compares him to a bum what-so-ever. But than you enjoy taking low blows to get a rise.

Well, in the Buddhist traditions being a "bum" would not be considered a "low blow".

It's the Buddhist tradition that Buddhist monks should "beg" their food and not work. The begging bowel and a Buddhist monk go hand-in-hand. As does the continued pursuit of scholarly wisdom.

So it's only a 'low blow' if you chose to judge it as such.

I believe everything in the PHYSICAL world has a beginning and end,,,

I have a limited/nominal certainty about the Supernatural/spiritual world, however


perhaps God will reveal that at a different time,,,,

Once again (are you listening?) we believe that God is the creator not the created.

I only base it on the definition of bum. I forgot though, you make up your own meanings.

Well the point of the thread is to ask what gives meaning to life.

So if having a creator is what gives it meaning, and the creator did not himself have a creator then there would be no meaning for the creator.

If a creator can have meaning without the need to have a creator then why couldn't we?

If a creator can have intelligence without something else having created it, then why couldn't we.

I'm really not interested in what you 'believe'.

The question is, "How does this give meaning to life that would otherwise not have meaning?".

The Eastern mystics believe that the creator and the created are One, just as Jesus taught, "I and the Father are One". That's what we are. One with God. "We and the Creator are One". When Jesus was charged with blaspheme for having said this he quickly replied, "Is it not written, I have said, Ye are Gods"? Thus via his own defense he conveys that he expects that this is true for everyone.

So even Jesus supported the holistic pantheistic view of the Eastern Mystics.

Well, whether bum your food or beg your food is just a matter of vernacular syntax.

Is life just an accident? I don't believe so. Here is why.

That this incidence of life as we know it is an "accident" is simply impossible. If it only happened once and we are destined to die out and never return, then statistically we would probably not be here at all.

In the face of eternity our 'time' as living creatures in this vast and infinite universe is less than one tiny micro-second. It is highly unlikely that we are currently living in that micro-second.

Therefore, life, is an on-going occurrence within space-time.

It was not "created" in the past, nor will it cease to exist in the future.

The meaning of of life is simple. To live, to exist, to be or not to be. I believe that consciousness exists and seeks to find expression in living conscious sentient beings.... life.

If there were no living beings at all, I believe consciousness would still exist. It is an intelligent energy. It creates time and space just like we create time and space in our dreams.

If It (God) could tell us something or give us some advice I believe It would say: "Live and be aware."

this is how i speak in tongues on the internet forums,my how glossolalia has changed

LOL but we don't have a creator so we are surviving and living and all that....