On My Way, he did not understand at all; he is more interested in backing up his own ideas than using either correct definitions or trying to understand what someone else is saying so that a true discussion may be had.
So let me explain myself a little better. I believe the list I gave regarded ways in which people are quite different from animals.
1. Imagination. This is not simply logical or deductive reasoning. However animals are not capable of logical or deductive reasoning either! They can learn by experience, by trial and error, but this is different. Taking an abstract series of 'givens' and going from there to an abstract conclusion is totally beyond what any animal does.
Aside from that, imagination is, as On My Way indicated, much more than reasoning. It is, literally, playing with thoughts. It is combining and recombining known elements either for one's amusement alone or to produce something we would refer to as a work of art (not necessarily good art!). An aniimal can be trained to pick up a paintbrush and make strokes with it, but there is no way they actually envision what they are doing or attempt to come out with a design they have imagined.
Imagination is exactly what Alyrium was using in trying to confine the definition so that he could try to wiggle his way around the idea that imagination is limited to humans.
2. Individual creativity. Although the comment Alyrium gave was right, it was severely limited. Individual creativity is not about tools or 'evolutionary advantage.' It is about the desire to express one's unique individual self in what one does -- something entirely absent in the animal kingdom. All robins built exactly the same kind of nests. All salmon of each type form exactly the same kind of pebble 'nests'. But each and every man and woman seeks to make his home a little different. We have tons of magazines dedicated to encouraging people to spend money in this way, with this or that architecture design or color use, etc. No animal cares in the slightest about individuality in its nest or 'home.' They care about staying alive, regardless of the appearance.
But humans love to create. Pottery gets designs. Food is presented attractively on a plate. Clothing is designed and styled. Absolutely none of this is necessary for any 'evolutionary advantage', but all of it is intrinsic to human nature. We are very different from animals.
3. Appreciation of beauty for its own sake. Alyrium was skirting the point when he said beauty is an opinion. And yet he added another point to the list for us. People have opinions. They think about things and arrive at different conclusions or feel differently about them. What group of animals is going to argue or even discuss among themselves the value of one color over another?
But the entire concept of beauty is what we should consider here. Humans have a concept of beauty, regardless of opinions. A man can listen to something by Beethoven and perhaps be moved to tears. A man can stare transfixed at a sunset as its glory increases and then fades. The art a man does often expresses his ideas of beauty, whether or not others agree. There is no need for much of what we see architecturally -- it is done because the architect considers it beautiful in addition to the basic structure.
No animal comes near to anything like that.
4. The desire to express one's individuality. This is seen as early as two years old in a human and never in an animal. "I want jelly mixed with peanut butter." "Not me. I want jelly on top of peanut butter." "I don't want that shirt. I want THIS one."
As a parent, I will grant you that much of this is an attempt at control. But that does not explain that when one child wants something, another will change his mind from that particular thing and want something different just for the sake of being different. There is a deep drive within each human being -- even my profoundly retarded 20 year old son -- to express their own individuality. Chris' IQ cannot be measured, which means it is below 20 (he had encephalitis when he was three), and he is autistic. He will always need diapers and cannot speak. But he sure can communicate! If he is thirsty, he will take me by the arm (or neck!) and lead/push me to the refrigerator. I will open the door (which has been locked) and say "what do you want? Show me." He will reach either for the drink shelf or the meat drawer (liquid or solid). I will react appropriately. However if I pour him apple juice and he wanted something else, he will push the glass back toward me and then lead me again to the refrigerator. In other words, he wasn't just thirsty, like an animal would be -- he had a preference. He loves music. We have a CD player in his room. He does not know how it works, but he will lead one of us to it and stand there, expectantly. If he wants Christmas carols, a favorite of his, then he will keep leading us back until we put on the music he wants. No animals 'wants' music, let alone a certain kind! But Chris has individual preferences of the sort known only to humans.
5. The ability to communicate in abstract language. Language is key as well as abstract. Animals communicate. We have language. No animal, contrary to what was claimed, has language. They have sound nuances which indicate various communications, but the communications ALWAYS have to do with physical realities and the present tense, if you will. "I'm here" the mother communicates to the child. "Food is here" "Get out of my territory" -- this sort of thing is communicated by animals to animals of their own species.
However we communicate using language, tense, grammatical construction. We communicate in symbols which we learn to associate with sounds which go into words which may not have any physical relationship to what they indicate. The word "indicate" for example has no clue in it as to its meaning when you say it.
A couple of days ago I was sitting on our sofa with a special friend of mine who is in the first grade. We were talking about something and I meantioned 'cause and effect.' She looked at me curiously. "What is 'effect'?"
And so, to get this abstract thought over to her, I used physical examples. I had her hit my hand so it hit my face and then I said 'ouch.' I put vinegar into baking soda to let her see the effect. She understands now.
No animal would have asked, let alone cared. They do learn, in the case of this particular word, that there are effects they do not want, but the concept of 'effect' has no bearing in their intelligences. It is a human thing. It is something we use to communicate with one another in the same way these fully little black lines that happen when I press keys on the keyboard actually are conveying abstract meaning to the person who reads them. NO animal communicates in abstract terms or with actual language.
6. A concept of the distant past. We study history. We write down history. We reenact history in plays and such. We study civilizations distant from us in time. How could Alyrium have ignored this? Oh well...
7. A concept of the distant future; the desire/ability to prepare for that future for children and grandchildren. This has nothing to do with passing on one's genes! If that were so, then large families would be the norm among the rich and not small or non-existent families! Instead, those who are in a position to not have to be concerned with where the next meal is coming from start college accounts for their kids, contribute to political parties, ecological concerns, charities -- trying, in one way or another, to make the world a better place for all people alive, whether or not these people are related to them or carry their genes.
8. The desire to show/prove intellectual superiority. Alyruim's response was "LOOK AT ME, I AM SMART, MATE WITH ME!!!" Yet it was ME he challenged! A 56 year old woman long past the breeding age! Or did he show his post to a girl he wanted to seduce? I doubt it. The desire to show intellectual superiority is uniquely human. No animal, at mating time, tries to show off his problem-solving skills! Rather, the uniquely human desire for intellectual superiority has some very different causes: self-gratification, or a desire to know or show the truth, or desire for advancement in one's job or peer respect. It is this last one which is interesting, for when intellectual expertise is lacking, the respondent often resorts to mocking, hoping to 'appear' intelligent and also to make his peers laugh.
This is totally unknown in the animal kingdom.
9. The drive to look at life through a philosophical frame of reference. This has NOTHING to do with simply 'understanding one's surroundings.' This has to do with the meaning of life. No animals gives a whit about the meaning of life. They only try to stay alive. It is uniquely human to want to know "why" where life is concerned.
10. The drive/desire to harness nature itself is NOT just a 'survival instinct.' We see no animals, all of whom desire to survive and have that survival instinct, attempt to alter their environments to suit them. We see instinctual behavior such as the relationship between ants and those little things that suck the juice out of the roses whose name I cannot for the life of me remember right now! But that is behavior that never changes. We see nest-building, but that uses what it at hand and does not try to change the environment. Only humans have the desire and drive to control nature, over and above any kind of survival instinct.
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While I was responding above, the thought occurred to me that people like Alyrium have been so brainwashed that they seem to be losing the ability to think for themselves or express their own individuality, or even, perhaps, appreciate beauty! I don't know that, but the thought did occur to me. I see so much mocking and so many of exactly the same arguments using the same words when creation is being attacked that I am wondering seriously now if believing in evolution the way they have been taught to believe means "think as I have taught you to think, say what I have taught you to say, believe what I have told you to believe, see what you are supposed to see...." etc. That is scary. I was there once, but I was awfully much younger than today. I praise God I was rescued, literally, from that position of becoming less and less a person instead of more and more a person which is what God has done for me.
Just a thought -- it's still burbling around in the mudpots of my mind....