Why are we the ONLY creatures that can talk?
I know bees wiggle their butts and things of that nature, blah blah.......and monkeys have learned a word or two but..........
If we're not special, why are we the only ones to be able to speak if evolution is true?
I'm taking a college course on this but wanted your in-put on it, especially from atheists. Of course believers, as I am one, know God made us different.
This class talks about the larynx and pharynx and how it changed over the trillions (joking) of years we've been on this planet.
Why hasn't the same thing happened to other species?
*raises hand*
Yes Diane.
Because we're not evolved from apes, we were made from God and he gave us this ability.
Thank you Diane, you will now go the the Principle's office for speaking about God in a class room.
73 comments
I'm with Mudak on this. Birds,whales,dolphins, apes, etc all have communication skills It's a survival trait that occurs all through nature. There are even animals of different species that inter-communicate, e.g. Honeyguides in Africa "speak" to humans about the whereabouts of bees' nests. So, BC, step away from the bible and learn something from your college course and drop the persecution meme.
Baby, that ain't a Christian.
Communication has a wide range of methods. Is a human less human if they cannot actually speak? That's what the ASL method is for.
*eyeroll* Fundies...
Many, many creatures can talk. Listen to one of the deep sea microphones they have in the Mediterranean, the place is alive with dolphins and similar animals clicking and whistling away at each other. What you have cleverly noticed is that these animals can't speak English, which isn't the same thing.
Even if you were right and animals couldn't talk to each other, there are tons of animals that can do neat things that humans can't do. Can you see ultra-violet light? Can you shoot poison out of your teeth? Can you fly? If creationism is true and humans were specially created, why can lizards re-generate their tails but I can't re-grow a leg if I lose it?
Because Lizards are God's chosen species and He game them that ability?
The Dolphins would like to have a word with you.
-Shit, sorry, I'm not gonna translate that to you...
Don't bother listing the numerous examples of animals that communicate, because:
I know bees wiggle their butts and things of that nature, blah blah.......and monkeys have learned a word or two but..........
If we're not special, why are we the only ones to be able to speak if evolution is true?
In other words, the examples you've listed simply don't count. They want animals speaking fluent English, apparently. And humans are unique, just like every other species: if different species weren't unique in some way, we wouldn't be able to classify them as different species.
Principal's office? In college? Also, the professor is more likely to make an example of you by showing you exactly how ignorant and stupid you are rather than sending you to get disciplined. It'll be a great learning opportunity for your classmates, and let's be honest, a great opportunity for the professor to show off.
If we're not special, why are we the only ones to be able to speak if evolution is true?
Gee. I wonder why no one else has thought of that for the last 150 years. The whole theory of evolution can be destroyed with one simple question! Baby must be a friggin' genius!
Why haven't we developed wings, or echo-location, or the superior eyesight of some predatory birds? Because they weren't useful to our survival, language was. Humans are special, unique, very intelligent animals.
Bullshit you're taking a college class, no college has a "principa."
But hey, Jesus is totally cool with lying for him right.
BabyChristian here would have an aneurysm if she'd heard of Washoe the chimpanzee. Whose sign language skills were so advanced, she even taught such to her own offspring.
This cunt-for-brains would crainially explode if she saw the film "Rise of the Planet of the Apes".
Not only do animals and even plants for fuck's sake communicate in extraordinarily complex ways, you halfway acknowledge that IN YOUR OWN POST. You just defeated your own goddamn argument and you're too fucking stupid to notice!
And you don't get sent to the principle for being a creationist prick, you either get gently corrected or ignored.
Human speech is a by product of sentience and the way our larynxs evolved. As we grew more sophisticated we had to come up with ways to compensate for other deficiencies in our biology to communicate. Most pack hunting animals use smell to communicate and coordinate. Obviously we cannot do that. So we used sounds, just like our simian ancestors. But again going to back to human intellectual superiority as that got better so do did our capacity to invent sounds and imbue them with meaning to express the more complicated ideas that we were able to comprehend. I think it's not so much that we're the only species that can talk, it's just that we're the only species that has anything to say. But how do we know that whale songs or the color changing ability of cephelopods aren't communicating ideas as complex as ours. And if one day we find out that they are, then were is your god now?
Another thing occurs to me. Humans have been around, in our current, communicative state, for what? 100,000 years or so?
Whalesong. Scent, chemical, and pheremone communication. Several Gorillas and Chimpanzees have been taught fluent sign language... Need I continue?
While we've not deciphered the meaning behind the communicative methods of most animals or consider the messages crude and driven by instinct without higher thought they do indeed have their own languages.
You have the answer but you laugh at it. We evolved the ability to talk. Why haven't other animals? They evolved in different directions that gave them differently shaped larynx that prevent the development of speech. Besides, they don't need it for their continued existence.
Cats Meow. Dog Bark. Whales Sing. Wolves Howl. Lions Roar. Bees Butt-Wiggle. Eagles & Hawks Shriek. Sparrows Tweet. Mockingbirds & Lyrebirds copy everybody. Elephants Trumpet. Horses Whinny. Donkeys Bray. Sheep & Goats Baaaah....Humans Talk.
BabyChristians Suck. You have no point.
Koko The Gorilla knowing several hundred words of American Sign Language is actually rather impressive. How many animals do you know can literally say, in a human language, "I love you" or "I want a Coke" & understand what they actually are saying? What about that one gray parrot that recently passed away. Unlike the usual parrots, this bird knew what it was saying...and it ACTUALLY SPOKE!
Humans may be rather advanced but we're still animals! Nice try, dork.
Why hasn't the same thing happened to other species?
*raises hand*
Yes Diane.
Because we're not evolved from apes, we were made from God and he gave us this ability.
Thank you Diane. However you want to believe. Now, does anyone know the scientific reason?
*fixed*
How does "we don't know yet" = God?
Anyway, aside from colleges not having a principal (we have presidents), you spelled principal wrong.
@Anon-e-moose
I love that movie!
@ 1206208451 Atheissimo : I've been saying lizards are the favorite of god all the time, regeneration included, and Baby here proves it as Geckos have some of the most developed vocal chords of any animal. Of course, I don't have the ears to distinguish between too many sounds, but my little one who won't shut up certainly tells me, "Whatca doing?" "Stop annoying me" and "Really, stop annoying me or I'm going to get territorial on you."
/she talks more than I do some days...
"Why are we the ONLY creatures that can talk?"
We're not the only animals that communicate, but I'll bet we're the only ones that have invented a method of posting our stupidity to the world.
I hate when people act like they are being silenced or whatever when they weren't taking the issue seriously to begin with. There is a huge difference between asking legitimate questions because you are seeking real answers and just being disruptive and stupid.
You weren't sent to the dean's office (that's what its called in college, honey) because they are persecuting Christians. You were told to leave the class because you were being disruptive and purposefully argumentative.
Why are we the only talking species?
"monkeys learned a word or two" ?
citation seriously needed
unless you mean sign language
all animals speak english, they are just putting you on with the squeking and barking. You say "sit" and your dog sits, he understands english.
There have been studies that show that certain whales and dolphins have a "language." Also, crows have regional dialects. Elephants have shown signs of mourning their dead.
So, us having a language is not some great phenomenon.
2. other animal species have developed language, although more primitive than ours. one of the best examples are whales, who actually seem to chat with eachother.
3. human language is far more sophisticated than anything alse on earth. why? because that is how we evolved. we became smart enough to make tools and coordinate between eatchother, and developed an easy way of communication, which is vital in groups. and since humans are sapient, they can learn new things, and then evelop words for them. so orka's for example, can talk, but they simple have no words for stuff other than "food here", "cirle around"run like hell" etc.
"Why are we the ONLY creatures that can talk? "
we aren't. seriously, have you never heard of whale song? and parrots even give their children names.
Your college has a principal? Uhm. If you said that in a combative enough way, you would be walking the line to willful disruptiveness, I guess, but otherwise it's more likely 'please restrict your comments to constructive discussion of the actual subject, Diane.'
Humans can talk because of a whole host of traits. Brain specializations and throat structures and social behaviors. The odds of which co-occurring in any other creature, especially again in the (evolutionarily) tiny span of time since we evolved them, are slim to none. There were other hominids who had enough of the prerequisites that they might have reached that point, but they're extinct. So we'll never know whether they had or could have.
There are only a tiny handful of animals on Earth that are even social enough a highly detailed communication system would help them, and none of them have the brain power for anything approaching the abstract thought or memory articulated language requires, let alone our weird throat and tongue set-up.
Except the great apes. Our nearest relatives, who share these traits because they share a hell of a lot of our DNA, because we share ancestors less distant than the ones we share with other mammals. You nimrod.
You've never been around a foraging flock of chickens have you? They cluck to each other to communicate their feelings. chickens, while they care for their fertilised eggs, also sing to their unhatched chicks.
Other animals understand human speech. My cats understand what I say to them. One of them adores the song "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."
I'm you going to bet you have never actually been around animals acting naturally, and the closest you've ever been to them are at the supermarket.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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