Are humans special or are we nothing more the mere rabbits

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Originally Posted by Virgil

Thanks for that quote Jon. I was wondering what Aristotle would or has said on the subject, and while I did a quick google on it I didn't find anything significant. I think rabbits are cute too. iIve got a few relatives who find them tasty. :D

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Virg, you gotta tell those relatives to leave those poor wabbits alone!!!!

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Originally Posted by hitchhiker

I wonder if man is something special in this world or are we just merely as special as rabbits or any other animal for that. What I am saying, is man special in the way are we able to truely concieve the meaning of life or are we just ignorant for thinking that we can. The rabbit I am talking about is the simpale creature that goes through life wanting nothing more then to reporduce and just go through life eating and having sex eating and having sex. No questions about life no thoughts or evening careing to think about itor better yet they know that they have no ablilty to understand the conseption of life so why insult who ever started it by thinking they can. So what are we, are we special by haveing the ability to undestand life or are we stupid for even thinking we can are we jsut as important as rabbits.

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you may have a point here, hitchhiker. there are important points here (sorry if this might sound repetitive, i didn't read the other posts..). but they all come from perception. philosophically, yes, we may be nothing more than rabbits.. but then again, what separates humans from other animals is intelligence, as other creatures rely on instinct. w can study the world around us; we're the only creatures who can. that said, are we special? but, going baack to your question, are we special by having thr ability to understand life?

do we understand life? why is it that that to this very day we ask ourselves what the purpose of our existence is? the fact is, we don't understand life. but we're not stupid to think we can, because curiosity is innate.

not sure if i made my points, my brain is kinda out of it today.. anyway, we're not rabbits, rabbits who do nothing but reproduce and eat. but at the samt time, we also aren;t those special creatures who can fully comprehend what there is around us, so i guess mankind is somewhere in between--unless personal beleifs say otherwise.

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Originally Posted by Nightshade

only then?
not whenever you say allahoma??
thanks!!:D:D

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Right, I've heard that you move it in these three cases:
1.when you say the shahada.
2.allahuma Sali. ..wa a'la aali Mohammada.
3.wa barik 'ala Mohammad .
Briefly,shahada and the places of dua (allahuma Sali wa barik).

You know I think reading William Falkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech would be appropriate in this thread. Here is what I think is the key section of his speech.

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I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

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Man is special for these very reasons, and Faulkner says it way more elegantly than I can.

You can read the entire speech here: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/l...er-speech.html

interesting articl,Virg. Thanks.
it's good to see some links that enriches our topic.