humans

[DanaC]

i don't like pink unicorns.
there's been hundreds and hundreds of various pink unicorns through-out history.
pink unicorns can be held responsible for the stupification of our kind.
who knows how advanced we'd be if we we're free from these blind-folds.

My point is that it isn't actually the pink unicorns which have retarded us. We haven't been 'retarded'. There is no end-goal. There is no optimum speed of development. The blindfolds are a part of what we are now. They are where we have developed to. Or more specifically, our capacity for blindfolding ourselves is where we have developed to. You can make specific arguments for the retardation of specific elements of specific societies/groups/communities, by particular stages in a particular pink unicorn's development...but that cannot be applied at a species level in any meaningful way.

I realise that to an extent this is semantic, but semantics are important. I agree with some of what you say. But there are certain points I do not agree with. We both seem to agree that humans are animals and in no way divine. That Gods are merely pink unicorns blindfolding large numbers of people and standing in direct opposition to reason and science. I disagree with idea that religion itself has retarded our development. I disagree that we have been retarded as a species at all. I disagree that what separates us from other species is what has caused our destructiveness. Rather, I think that what separates us is the thing that allows us to 'look in the mirror' as you put it.

What separates us from other species is potentially the thing that will allow us to reign in, or halt our destructiveness. By harnessing the same animal instincts which gave us something to reign in or halt.