Why do we have animal instincts, when we are called as human beings?

Question

If we are not animals, what we are? If we are called as human beings, why we have animal instincts? And if we are called as civilized, why we fight like animals and killing each other? When the time will come to grow like perfect civilized people?

Answer 1

a thought provoking question

Answer 2

we a specie......... the human specie........ take a cat for example...... he only wants attention when he wants it, no other time........ (love)..........

fighting and killing...... why does a cat or a tiger or elephant fight each other almost to the death....... its for POWER..... just as our humans...... we fight for power, territory, loved ones, etc....... etc.............

Answer 3

We are animals, but we just dont want to come to believe it.

Answer 4

Human beings are also animals.The difference lies in our overall evolutionary development that took place over some millions of years.WE have become a higher class of animals today.But, even then,all living beings have some amount of instincts.That's natural.There's no unusual factor involved in this.

Answer 5

In the flesh we are animals, what separates us from the animal kingdom is our soul and spirit.  I never will understand why people eat animals flesh, its disgusting cannibalism.

Answer 6

we are animals....

human beings.. are part of the mammal family..

:P

Answer 7

Like it or not, we are primates with all the baggage that comes with being a highly evolved bipedal ape. Actually we don't try to dominate other individuals nearly as much as most social animals do, but we have become very good at killing off our competition, be it human or the less cognitive animals.

Early hominids had too many other enemies to worry about & probably only fought over food or mates... but then that is only conjecture.

Answer 8

we differ from animals in that we can rationalize our actions - good and bad. animals operate purely on instinct.

Answer 9

Humans are not fully animal nor fully--- as the term goes to imply"Human" with the wiseness of consciousness and the ability to make Humane decisions at all times.  Humans are caught in between the 2 extremes.  You can say that animals are "good" because they are not inherently evil (not having knowledge of good or evil concepts) or say that they are "bad" because they follow instincts with out law., and are dumb & mute, as in not having the same capabilities as us for speech.  We have opposable thumbs so we are different, we make tools.  Some birds and apes utilize objects as "tools" in the normal sense of the word.  Civilization falls away when our basic needs are not being met and we revert to needing food, shelter, etc......We are sentient beings and are supposed to have a  choice and yet oftentimes, because of, environment, or stupidity are not  able to do what we know is right.  And so we fall.   Our instincts are still there but a long long time has been going into making us "tame" and to ignore such things.  Maybe it has been bred out of us.  There has never and will never be a perfect civilized people.  We are all sons of Adam and Eve.  Not in the literal sense but in the C.S. Lewis sense.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

Answer 10

b/c there all human labels... everything that exist in our eyes we pretty much made up!!! it is a culturally constructed description.

there is no such thing as a perfect civilization.

evolutionary speaking we are just that, animals. its just that we are self interpreting beings, so we hold ourselves higher in the animal kingdom than other animals and label ourselves differently.

knowledge and an ever present consciousness that we are alive helps cause this distinction. so 'human' is just like saying 'fly' or 'animal'. it means nothing until put into context!

we are animals!!

Answer 11

Well we are mammals there is no doubt about that and in my opinion the so called higher form of animals.  The fact that we are called human beings merely describes what we are.  Like a dog might be described as a doggie being meaning that we are in a certain category and we exist - We BE!!!!  Like if an alien came down he/she would be an Alien Being???  I suppose we are also technically Homo Sapiens as cats might be called Felines.  All living things whether they be reptiles, insects, mammals like us all have certain instinctive behaviours to keep their species on the go and fight for territory or defence or whatever and we are no different and just because the majority of us don't act "like perfect civilized people" is because we are not mapped out to be that way - like we are what we are and there aint too many Saints in our midst???? and if you are religious at all maybe with the Second Coming we all might be perfect then?????????????????????????

Answer 12

According to my college psychology textbook, humans are devoid of true animal instinct. Our behavior and actions are based solely upon  cognitive thought processes, including murder, mayhem and voting for Hillary Clinton.

Answer 13

Because we evolved from animals and unfortunatly some of those early instincts have never left us.

Answer 14

I dont know what instint you have.

Answer 15

We ARE animals classified as "Homo Sapiens".  The difference between us and the rest of the animal kingdom is our ability to reason.

Answer 16

What was the difference between animals and the first humans? Archaic religion - according to a famous anthropologist, Rene Girard.

This archaic religion introduced the sacrifice. It was a way of relieving tensions in society. As the sacrifice was completed, the primitive society´s "thirst for vengance" was aleviated. The society then entered  period of peace and the peace was attributed to the death of the victim. This is why the victim was worshipped and deified, and it explains animal worship, and the hunt which was at first ritualistic. But tensions continuously built up, and victims were few to find and they ran fast, so what was the answer? Domestication. And how to feed the domesticated animals? Agriculture.

This "scapegoat mechanism" brough peace to societies, it brough advancement and progress. But what was the problem? It was based on ignorance. Of what? Of the fact that the victim did not deserve to die, that the scapegoat is innocent.

The Old Testamen rules "an eye for an eye" was a great advancement in human society from the caveman times. Before this rule you killed your enemy, his entire family, and descendants. But also, the Old Testament alluded to the injustice of this sacrificial "scapegoat mechanism" of avoiding conflict. Throughout the Old Testament God always sided with the weak and opressed, but it was the New Testament with the passion of Christ that served to humanity a strong demonstration that the scapegoat is innocent. "A reed he did not break and a rock he did not overturn" - the Lamb of God was innocent, because he was whom he claimed to be, and his "sacrifice" was murder.

In this way the sacrificial system is overturned and exposed as unjust.

But wait, isn´t that sarificial system needed for peace in societies? Yes it is, and undermining this system will bring chaos at first, untill the new system ofthe bible is adopted. And shure enough, Jesus is told to say "I did not come to the world to make peace but war and discord".

Answer 17

Empty factories to the east and all our waste

The shape of things that came shows on the broken workers face

To the west you'll find our silicon promised lands where

Machines replace our minds for systematic profit plans

The course of human progress staggers like a drunk

Its steps are quick and heavy and its mind is slow and blunt

I look for optimism but I just dont know

Its seeds are planted in a poison place where nothing grows

It's 1989 stand up and take a look around

Weathers bitter tension it seems is sinking down

Drunk with power and fighting one another

Every hour shows the winter getting harder

There's a freeze up coming...

One nation stands the tallest radiating blinding light

Plastic and fluorescent energy robbing us of sight

Set in our way content with our decay

We wave the flag of freedom as we conquer and invade

Ever ask yourself where's my place in this h**l

But no ones there to tell you cuz they dont know that themselves

The well rehearsed lines from our elated politicians

No longer offer solace we can see the self destruction

Just one political song, just one political song

to drop into the list that stretches years and years long

Static and division is increasing like a storm,

we are shelter, we are forewarned,

nothing can be changed except ourselves,

nothing can be changed except ourselves,

There's a freeze up coming...

Answer 18

We're part of the ape family.

Apes are animals, therefore we are animals.

Answer 19

Well, we may be called "human beings" but if we are anything, we are...animals.

Of course, the other choice would be that we are...plants!

I sense an assumption that us human animals are somehow more civilized that some other members of our Genus.

I personally take some measure of comfort belonging to the Kingdom of Animalia. Possibly one might prefer Plantae.

Sometime the human ego gets in the way of understanding just what we are. We can be civilized but all too often we are disgustingly human. I can think of no other animal who kills its own kind over differences of opinion.

Answer 20

We are animals!

Answer 21

We are actually animals. We are just the most intelligent animal species. That is why we still fight and stuff like that.