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From: gds@mit-eddie.UUCP (Greg Skinner)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.flame
Subject: Re: Laura Creighton's bull...
Message-ID: <1074@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-Dec-83 11:51:44 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.1074
Posted: Mon Dec 19 11:51:44 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Dec-83 02:17:59 EST
References: <4027@umcp-cs.UUCP> <1487@utcsstat.UUCP>
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 21

I'm not sure what you're arguing about, but I'd like to point out one
inconsistency in your arguments.

There is no concrete proof that non-human forms of life either know or
don't know what the act of sexual intercourse is, means or causes.  We
do know, however, that it is a natural (I'm being very cautious here,
because there are always homosexuals, but on the whole of the mammalian
population) tendency for mammals to choose a member of the opposite sex
to mate with, for whatever reasons.  So, it is superfluous to argue
whether animals actually *know* what they're doing, one can only
speculate.  The fact that humans have language sort of gives us the idea
that we are the sole judges of what is considered intelligence,
cognition, comprehension etc.  The roaches, rats and mice may just be
laughing at us (remember HGttG?)

--greg
...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!gds

p.s.  the Bible makes no attempt to distinguish man from the animals in
terms of superiority of intelligence.  Read Ecclesiastes 3:18-21 for
this.