Are humans the only great apes that can be "holy", or could, for example, an Orangutan be divine?
Are humans the only great apes that can be "holy", or could, for example, an Orangutan be divine?
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Depends on which philosophy you ascribe to I suppose. While standard Judeo-Christian philosophy would most likely dismiss the notion of divine orangutans, I for one would posit that orangutans by thier very nature are divine and that humans may in fact be the only creatures on the planet that must struggle toward divinity.
Edit: my network is being just, like, absolute crap. I don't know why it posted multiple times. Such is the life of rural America, living with a 4g hotspot for home internet. Lol. Apologies!
I'm a sort of hodge podge of different traditions, philosophies and religions, and this is absolutely my view. In Hinduism, one of the reasons humans are at the "top" of the reincarnation cycle is because we have the intellect to understand things like karma, and are able to achieve liberation through that understanding. In my view, while we may be the only ones able to achieve liberation, we are also the only ones building up negative karma. It's a double edged sword. Animals, plants, bacteria, they don't do wrong things, they don't engage in wrong thinking. They act on impulse, on intuition, on instinct, and as such, they're pure spirited. Humans on the other hand are capable of evil, and as such we are the only species on earth that must struggle towards divinity. We just also happen to be the only species that can understand the nature of divinity. You don't think the universe be like it is but it do, y'know?
I’d like to point out that chimpanzees are pretty evil, but then again they are a great ape as well
“That piece of evidence allowed the researchers to link the murders with a motive – that of gaining new ground.”
https://www.livescience.com/8316-chimpanzee-gangs-kill-land.html
Fair enough. The other great apes, elephants, dolphins and a few other species sort of blur the line between animal and people in some ways.