Scientist have made much of the fact that chimpanzees have been trained to use sign language. They take this as proof that primates are our ancestors because they, like us, have “language capacity.” It is amazing the length to which people will go to prove what is so palpably false. The ability to make sounds which serve to communicate the simplest to most complex ideas is an astounding thing, almost supernatural in itself. Equally remarkable is the ability to reduce those sounds to written symbols universally understood and capable of conveying the ideas that those sounds represent. To suggest that all this is an accident of evolution belies the intellectual power language represents. Those are gifts given to mankind by God who created us. He gave those gifts to no other creature. There is an unfathomable gulf between humans and all other creatures because creation was designed that way. No amount of time or theorizing will ever bridge that gulf. Only mankind was made to represent the divinity and genius of God himself.
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Equally remarkable is the ability to reduce those sounds to written symbols universally understood and capable of conveying the ideas that those sounds represent.
Which is why Mr. Jackson will have absolutely no problem telling me what this says:
image
"Universally understood" -- I do not think that those words mean what Mr. Jackson thinks they mean.
So the deafmute aren't humans since they can't communicate with sounds?
If you think writing is valid too, then know that Koko can read and write. She writes upside down, because she learned by looking at people's notes (which were turned toward them, not her) rather than being taught. No doubt other gorillas would be able to learn that too.
By the way, we never stopped being primates. Small technical point, but it shouldn't be hard to get it right!
"Equally remarkable is the ability to reduce those sounds to written symbols universally understood and capable of conveying the ideas that those sounds represent."
Even more remarkable is your apparent ignorance of illiteracy making understanding less than universal. Especially considering how often you fundies are illiterate.
"Those are gifts given to mankind by God who created us."
What about apes who learned to read? Did god also give them this gift? A gift he refused to give to your fellow illiterate fundies?
OK, GOP, I know you want to try to reach out to minorities before you lose that feeble rest of your relevance. But that doesn’t mean you have to give every nutjob a position, just because they are black or hispanic!
Tell this to humpback whales .
@P-G
You made the same point on another thread, albeit without the Jewish part. You're getting to be duller than your imitators.
What Jackson misses the most is that there isn't one step between communicating simple concepts, and writing, there are many many steps.
Suddenly it doesn't seem so implausible when you don't irrationally believe the earth is only 6000 years old and that seemingly huge accomplishments are the result of small steps rather than huge leaps.
EW Jackson, next your commenting on the history of language, look up the history of language.
No, it's not unfathomable or supernatural. Stop pretending that people can't understand things that they can, in fact, understand.
And writing/speaking is more special than sign language, because?
"The ability to make sounds which serve to communicate the simplest to most complex ideas is an astounding thing, almost supernatural in itself."
Ok, first of all sign language is just as legitimate a form of communication, and can be written down.
Second, by you saying it's "almost supernatural" I know you have never learned a second or third language. There's nothing supernatural about it, it's hard work and tens of thousands of hours of practice. So please, for the sake of all polyglots, STFU.
There's nothing all that stunning about letters, alphabet or signs. We are surrounded by signs all the time. We have an image of a tree in our head and we can copy it on something, somebody else recognizes the form and understands the concept of a tree. You can see this happening on any airport - FFS that's how the Chinese got their writing system. Letters are just abstractions of signs derived from iconographic writing.
Don't get me wrong, I definitely feel a sense of wonder thinking about it, but it's not much more amazing that the stars on a night sky.
"He gave those gifts to no other creature."
Nahh, they just came up with it themselves!
Well, I taught one of my cats to play chess. To be honest, though, he's not all that good at it. I can beat him two out of three.
I bet scientists couldn't teach EW Jackson sign language. He would just fling his poo and stare at the men in white coats, drooling and blabbering about some sky wizard or some shit like that. The scientists would proceed to shake their heads and release him into the wild,which happens to have a lot of pews and is decorated with roman torture devices. EW would then proceed to interact with the other fundie creatures as they convulse on the floor for unknown reasons as others look on, oddly, encouraging the madness of the whole spectacle. Finally the alpha fundie herds the flock and the ordeal is done. Now it's time for the fundies to go into their family groups and pretend like they live righteous lives.
"The ability to make sounds which serve to communicate the simplest to most complex ideas is an astounding thing, almost supernatural in itself."
I dunno... my cat can make it QUITE clear when she wants something from me, and she has built up quite the vocabulary of meows over the years.
"There is an unfathomable gulf between humans and all other creatures because creation was designed that way."
There is an unfathomable gulf between religiots and sane people because religion was designed that way.
No language is universally understood, you have to learn them.
Dogs and cats convey messages to their owners. Parrots can talk a bit and ask for things.
All animals "talk" to some extent with others.
I represent Gods genius ? is there a heavenly short bus ?
They take this as proof that primates are our ancestors because they, like us, have “language capacity.”
Um, no. We teach chimps sign language because they are humanity's closest living relative and can give us valuable insights into linguistic psychology.
The rest is the usual fingers-in-ears refusal to accept facts.
@Cloning Blues:
Ah, PG indulges in a little anti-Semitism, and the OP indulges in a little "humans are special" whining. Just another day at FSTDT.
And before that, back when he assumed that Hasan was Muslim (based solely on his name, it seems), PG was quite generous with the Islamophobic jabs... I do wonder how he'd behave toward Hasan if he thought that he was the Rapture-handy, "let's rebuild the Temple", religious kind of Jew. Would he still be antagonistic, or would he turn into an ass-kissing sycophant?
Speaking of Rapturites and their hard-on for rebuilding the Temple, I wonder how the Abrahamic religions would react if the Apple of Discord that is Jerusalem was obliterated by an "act of god" natural disaster, for example a meteor strike. Particularly if said disaster made the region uninhabitable for the foreseable future, let's say at least half a millenium.
Many animals do actually have their own languages. They just don't write. Apes n monkeys in particular have quite specific and varied language. They know how to warn each other of specific dangers in their area, convey sympathy and good will, etc. Also, apes have learned to write in controlled settings. Maybe if we all just tried to "meditate it into existence", dogs and cats could talk and write too!
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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