Man is also an animal. But unlike all other animals, man is different. Though he is just another creature on Earth, he has gained dominance over all the other species and has become the ruler of the whole world. But what makes man unique? The intellectual brain? The erect posture? The conscience? The disproportionate ratio of the brain size & body size ? i.e, a large brain in a small body ? By the way, will man ever get extinct like the dinosaurs???
Well ironically, dinosaurs even with their disproportionate ratio of their brain size & body size, that is with very tiny brain in a huge body, they had dominated the earth during the Mesozoic Era (248 million to 99 million years ago) which is divided into three periods: the Triassic Period, the Jurassic Period, and the Cretaceous Period and have survived for around 150 million years. But modern man has only been on earth for only about 200,000 years .
Before pondering deep into this, let’s compare human beings with other species. Man was the last product in the whole universe. All entities in the universe - the living & non-living were created before man. So is that just a coincidence or has the creator of the whole universe, saved the best for the last ? Dinosaurs which dominated the Earth was wiped up much before humans appeared. Was it just an unfortunate accident ( the universally accepted theory suggests that the bombardment of a meteor on Earth) which led to mass extinction or was it deliberately done to make the stage set for humans to sustain ?
As per Darwinism, primates (which includes human beings, apes, gibbons, lemurs, monkeys etc) evolved from a common ancestor. So monkeys, apes, lemurs & humans are 'cousin-species'. Moreover studies have also proved that there were lot of "intermediate species" which evolved before man which are believed to be the ancestors of modern man, but vanished from the face of the earth much before man evolved. Those species include Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon, Australopithecus sediba, Peking man, Homo floresiensis, Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, Homo Erectus etc. Darwin points this out as a potential clue which corroborates his theory that man & apes evolved from a common ancestor , and the evidence of "intermediate species" affirming his hypothesis.
Without being too scientific or philosophical, by mere logical reasoning it seems to anyone that when man was created, unlike any other species he was created with utmost care. The creator was too careful, diligent and meticulous with His "last creation"- the homo sapiens, that it was accomplished after repeated meticulous testing and observation.
Various "test samples" used were the ancestors of man - Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon, Australopithecus sediba, Peking man, Homo floresiensis, Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, Homo Erectus etc each with different morphological & anatomical features. So after rigorous and meticulous testing and diligent observation was the final species - the 'Homo Sapiens' created. Hence man being made superior to the rest of the species is not a mere coincidence but something that was deliberately done.
Now man is unique in various ways. It is not just the sophisticated complex brain alone, but there are other significant differences. No other species has a level of conscience like humans - to know what is right and what is wrong ; No other species believe in the existence of a supreme being - God & worship Him; No other species have any needs other than food, shelter, mate; No other species has the inquisitiveness to attain knowledge, to know the unknown; No other species feel 'naked' like humans; and so
on... The differences are many. But all these facts point out that man is indeed a superior being!
On the contrary, various factors force you to defer your perception. The inhuman acts and cruelty meted out by man, wars and bloodshed that happen around you, and various atrocities of man alters your perception.
Wars & bloodshed were a part of human civilization right from time immemorial. Even in all the mythologies of the world battles & slaughter play an important role which has impressed & inspired everyone.
Brutal battles of Alexander the Great, to the Gladiator games that were held in the Roman Colosseum where people used to gather to watch with enthusiasm the gladiators being scourged to death by beasts. It was one of the most brutal & inhuman "entertainment' in the history of man.
Right from the earliest records of human civilization wars & atrocities formed an integral part of their history. The Holocaust, The World wars, the brutalities of Hitler during world war-2 the Nazi's atrocities in concentration camps, the nuclear attack of US on Japan during the world war-2 were some of the most significant one which shocked the world. Heinous crimes of murder, looting, & rapes - including the recent brutal Delhi gang rape garnishes the dish of human cruelty served to the devil!
When you lists down man's atrocities, the list is never ending. Even ferocious beasts on earth like the lion, tiger, leopard etc won't even mete out such cruelty to their prey. The carnivorous animals hunt down for food & they never derive any sadistic pleasure by tormenting its prey - but man does. He inflicts cruelty to others not to quench his thirst or hunger but to satisfy his sadistic mind and wicked desires which demotes his status among other species.
So the big question still remains unanswered - Is man a superior being?
- Suveen Jacob Abraham.
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