This thread could spawn some interesting discussions and eventually metalbasspro will respond, but not if religion is brought up and the thread gets shut down.
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Question about mankind.
- Thread starter Metalbasspro
- Start date
This thread could spawn some interesting discussions and eventually metalbasspro will respond, but not if religion is brought up and the thread gets shut down.
There is no plan or grand design. Everything happens based on Newton's law of action and reaction. Forces build up, you have the big bang. The big bang goes off, the Universe starts to grow. The conditions get right, chemical elements start to form life. Life wants to survive so it evolves because its chemical composition pushes it to. It eventually evolves into humans. Humans need to survive so they grow larger brains. Larger brains mean better solution solving: fire, domestication of animals, the wheel, electricity, etc. Here's the interesting question: Why does man pervert everything? Inventing money was a good idea but it led to corruption, crime and unjustice. Inventing weapons was a good idea for hunting and protection, but they became used for other purposes as well. Why does man take from nature more than he needs? The answer is simple: survival instinct. The more rich powerful a person is, the better chances he and his family has. This happens in all hierarchical animal groups, take wolves for example. So everything that happens is natural, "artifical" is just a concept we made up. This is all my personal opinion, of course.
"Natural" and "Artificial" are both concepts we made up, they are both terms of language created by people and, as another poster pointed out, it's probably simply a way to mark what we do as being different from everything else.
Artificial- anything not occuring in nature.
SUVs don't grow on trees.
LSD 25 requires a chemist and several organic sources and a chemistry lab. Chemistry labs are not root crops
Polysorbate 80 comes from the polysorbate 80 bush. Wait, no it doesnt!
Nuclear bombs are natural because atoms split on their own and wreak havoc in nature by wiping Japanese cities off the map-not!
Etc etc etc...
SUVs don't grow on trees.
LSD 25 requires a chemist and several organic sources and a chemistry lab. Chemistry labs are not root crops
Polysorbate 80 comes from the polysorbate 80 bush. Wait, no it doesnt!
Nuclear bombs are natural because atoms split on their own and wreak havoc in nature by wiping Japanese cities off the map-not!
Etc etc etc...
I was objecting to the OP's statement "Why does he [man] harm the environment unlike any other creature on the planet?" However, I am interpreting that statement as "Man harms the environment, other creatures do not", when possibly what the OP meant was "Man harms the environment, other creatures less so". To be clear, I would generally agree with the latter statement.
Artificial- anything not occuring in nature.
SUVs don't grow on trees.
LSD 25 requires a chemist and several organic sources and a chemistry lab. Chemistry labs are not root crops
Polysorbate 80 comes from the polysorbate 80 bush. Wait, no it doesnt!
Nuclear bombs are natural because atoms split on their own and wreak havoc in nature by wiping Japanese cities off the map-not!
Etc etc etc...
Do birds' nests grow on trees?
Mankind loves nature. It gives us our food and our raw materials for constructing things that make our lives, in the short term at least, better. Unfortunately we seem to have a big problem with the notion of "enough".
Nope. Just happily surprised that we've had none of it, and I hope that continues. Not trying to provoke anyone into it, believe me.
No, but they are made by animals using plant material - and are not human - hence it is natural.
From the Oxford English Dictionary, but you'll find Cambridge and Merriam-Webster to hold the same distinction:
Nature
Noun
1 [MASS NOUN] The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.
Natural
Adjective
1 Existing in or derived from nature; not made or caused by humankind.
Artificial
Adjective
1 Made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural.
As I said before, the very definition of the words is what separates humanity's actions from things defined as natural. The words separate our actions from those of anything else, right or wrong or whatever the intention, that's just what the definition is. The issue is that people seem to adjust what the definition is so that Natural = Good and Artificial = Bad.
Yes, we are all part of the same system and what makes our actions separate from those that happen in nature is in the definition of the word.
bird animal builds things its natural
man animal builds things its artificial
hubris or stupidity?
Human-defined etymologies notwithstanding, are you saying humans are unique in some way ?
Historic hubris mainly.
Though it's probably worthwhile having a line of demarcation between what happens and what we cause to happen, given the higher impact of what we can do, knowingly, as a species.
Though it's probably worthwhile having a line of demarcation between what happens and what we cause to happen, given the higher impact of what we can do, knowingly, as a species.
Not at all, beyond our ability to adapt our environment more than any other animal - it is simply that the distinction is in the definitions of the words used, and yes, down to semantics.
Just not a fan of people trying to use the terms as synonyms when they aren't!
If you want pure LSD-25, you have to isolate it in a laboratory.
Ergot contains NUMEROUS LSD molecules INCLUDING LSD-25.
So - pure LSD-25 requires a chemist, but LSD-25 (in a mix with other lysergic compounds) is naturally occurring in ergot.
