humans and animals

[DOMLORD]

this question came up when i was driving around doing errands and remembered a quote a heard once. "the only thing that 'separates' humans and the rest of the animal kingdom is porn."

it makes sense, if monkeys could get more sexual arousal from the sight of a female rather than pheromones they'd look at porn too. i mean they masturbate, dogs hump people's legs (even though this is generally a dominance assertion thing they don't assert squat more often then not), i was at the zoo in kindergarten when a porcupine humped a log. they fight too, interact in non-sexual social manners, they eat, and sleep aswell.

so, are really humans any different than humans (given that humans are descended from one animal or another), why or why not?

[Ozme52]

That sounds like the kind of thing someone against pornography must have said...

because what it really means is the difference is our ability for abstract thinking and language to describe it... (remember, pornography is not merely dirty pictures.)

And our ability for abstract thinking may not be all that unique regardless. New studies are questioning that very assertion.

The answer, imo, to your question (presuming you really meant to ask was "are humans any different than animals?") no. We are exactly what we are because we are animals, descended from earlier animal types, with a set of ingrained instincts and responses to stimuli that govern our behavior. We are also an animal that over the eons "learned" to how to teach many survival skills to its offspring... and that ability to teach and learn has been "humanities" biggest advantage over "animals".

We are, none-the-less, animals.