Evolutie^? & my microbes made me do it ;)

[Henk Elegeert]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

2009/7/23 Cees Binkhorst <ceesbink at xs4all.nl>:
> REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl
>
> Voer om na te denken.

Ok, hier nog een:

"Charles Siebert's cover story from the July 12, 2009, New York Times
Magazine, "Watching Whales Watching Us," became one of the more
popular articles for the week or so following its publication.
Therein, Siebert tells of his journey to Baja California to learn of
new studies being conducted with the eastern Pacific gray whale.
Alongside continuing human-made threats to the extinction of many
whale species (whaling, navy training, etc.), this gray whale has
fared better than its beleagured cousins and offers scientists many
points of research.

Siebert's writing is nicely seductive, perfect for a Sunday afternoon
reading, the Baja cool breeze laced with tidbits of scientific
research from working biologists along the way. And while
anthropomorphic whale descriptions may be contested, clearly part of
the intention is to suggest that it isn't anthropomorphic, but rather
the fact that we homo sapiens share many behaviors with these deep-sea
cetaceans. The whales actually do "mourn" the death of family members,
they "teach" their young (their behavior isn't just hardwired into
their nervous system), and they actively reach out to help other
species of whales, not to mention the article's main point: they seem
to be reaching out across the specificities of species and making
contact with us humans, even offering, Siebert intimates, something
like "forgiveness" for killing off their ancestors.

One finds, here as elsewhere, an underlying question: If animals like
non-human primates (see the inspiring work of Jane Goodall and her
followers) and cetaceans have shown themselves to have highly
developed communication skills (possibly higher than homo sapiens),
self-awareness, tool use, a refined memory apparatus, and even dreams,
can they also have religion? "Religion," like "culture" and other
human categories, is indeed predicated on such abilities.

These abilities include that oft-elusive term, "transcendence." Can
animals have transcendent experiences, and thus also religious ones?
I'm not a biologist, but I do think we need to think through our terms
here. Transcendence itself must be reimagined. There is nothing in the
notion of transcendence itself to suggest anything "meta-physical,"
for one can "go beyond" oneself and one's species and remain purely in
the physical realm. If the whales are trying to express anything,
perhaps it is just that. When we dream, when we connect with others
(animal, plant, or human), when we express pain and joy, we live in a
state of transcendence. And there is increasingly every reason to
believe that animals too experience this. So, again, do animals have
religion?
"

Hadden olifanten niet ook zo'n soort gedrag?

Communisten, naar het schijnt, daarentegen weer helemaal niet. ;)

Henk Elegeert

**********
Dit bericht is verzonden via de informele D66 discussielijst (D66 at nic.surfnet.nl).
Aanmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SUBSCRIBE D66 uwvoornaam uwachternaam
Afmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SIGNOFF D66
Het on-line archief is te vinden op: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/d66.html
**********