Are humans higher life forms than animals?

[Beet]

But what does it mean to be created in the image of God? Does that mean God has nipples?

[Beet]

I think all of life is part of a great continuum, and humans are just one aspect of that continuum. I think all people are part of a continuum, and you and I and everyone is just a part of that continuum. I think one advantage that humans have is that we have civilization.

In a sense, civilization is the larger organism, and each generation simply embodies a part it for a limited period of time. We are biologically practically the same as our ancestors; we go through the same life cycles, have the same desires and frustrations. If the generation born in 1790 was born in 1990, most of them would favor gay marriage. Same with the generation born in 590, or 5010 B.C.E. The only thing that's different today is the outside, not the inside. But even the outside is a reflection of the past because it was the labor of past generations that made the material conditions of today, which in turn made support for gay marriage possible. Both the linear external world and the human internal world, in which each generation is reincarnated again and again, connect us with other generations in different ways. Our biology makes us similar to them, while our environment was shaped by them (and we in turn shape for our descendants). Teachings, philosophies, religions, and culture are the same.

Hence, I don't put a lot of stock in individualism. Our bodies are just vessels to experience what's lasting, which is outside the body. In writings, in buildings, in languages, in and in the metaphysical.