re: The only animal its ok to kill are humans

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What about the cetaceans? Many scientists think their intelligence surpasses that of chimps; do you think they have the capacity for evil?

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First let me emphasize that evil is a human construct that we use to describe some human behaviors. Only when we anthropomorphize animal behaviors can we say that they are evil. Of course, the closer an animal is to us genetically the more valid that anthropomorphization seems.

We look at the world through human eyes and process what we see with human brains. Therefore we tend to paint the world with human biases. So, when we see one human murder another, or many others as in Las Vegas, we say it’s an act of evil. Social scientists, who are less influenced by religion, say it’s an act of psychopathy.

So, we can ask, “Does psychopathy (and by projection its religious ‘equivalent’, evil) exist in the nonhuman animal world? And is it directly related to intelligence?”

Psychopathy is broadly defined as a mental disorder in which an individual manifests antisocial behavior. Can a bird, turtle, mouse, beetle or spider have a mental disorder? They all have brains, after all. Obviously, they can because defects occasionally occur in every organ of every animal. However, at the level of intelligence in these animals, a defect is fatal long before one can grow to adulthood and exhibit the psychopathy.

In big-brain animals it's a different story. For this discussion, let's just include those animals with the biggest brains: Humans, the great apes, elephants and cetaceans.

We've established that psychopathy can occur in humans and common chimps. I have read of rampages by elephants where they sometimes kill many people but never about an incident of one killing another elephant. It's easy to understand why a very intelligent creature, especially one as big and strong as an elephant, can snap while in captivity by humans as they so often do. Captive humans often lose their sanity, too. This isn't psychopathy, however. It's a defensive action caused by mental stress. Psychopathy is innate.

That leaves the cetaceans. Certainly they're intelligent. Some, such as dolphins, are very intelligent. Some species are loners, such as the biggest whales while others like the killer whales and, again, the dolphins, live in gregarious social groups.

Big brains and social groups make up the breeding grounds of psychopathy. Earlier I mentioned that specimens with mental disorders are weeded out very quickly in the lower levels of animal intelligence. This isn't the case with higher intelligences, though.

Psychopathy doesn't appear to manifest until at least near adulthood in most cases. Youngsters can be raised as healthy members of a social group before any antisocial behavior is detected.

This can and does happen in some cetacean species. The only study that I can recall offhand concerns dolphins. It followed a group in their everyday lives. One episode showed a young adult male being violently driven out of the pod. He had been born into the group.

Being evicted from the pod is a death dentence. It indicates that an individual's behavior is so unacceptable by dolphin standards that it will most likely not be welcomed by any other group. A lone dolphin doesn't survive for long.

So, is this a case of psychopathy being dealt with amongst dolphins? While the particular offense by the young male wasn't documented, it warranted the dolphin equivalent of the death penalty. There was no evidence that the young male had killed another of the species but he did show a proclivity for violence, especially against females. Just from this example, it seems that intra-species violence by psychopaths has a self-regulating effect on their numbers.

How is this different from humans and common chimps? In both species, violence is tolerated. In humans, to the extreme. It's even encouraged and glorified. Fighting is taught in peer groups of human children. Boxing matches and other violent sports, trophy hunting and even the extreme polarization we see in today's politics are adult examples of acceptable violence in humans.

No wonder there are so many human psychopaths. We don't have a weeding out process like the dolphins do when young adults show psycopathic tendencies; and human intelligence is high enough to include a characteristic that isn't included with dolphin intelligence, cunning.

Human psychopaths, with their ability to mimic good behavior, can simultaneously deflect suspicion from themselves and draw closer to their intended victims. No wonder, too, that they fascinate us. In a morbid sort of way, of course.

Humans are animals so we're good and bad. Mostly good.

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So evil, in the religious-sense, doesn't exist in humans?

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It's difficult for me to think in religious terms because I don't have the religion "gene." Very little about religion makes sense to me.

That said, evil (your religious word) or psychopathy (my scientific word) most certainly afflicts humanity. As I mentioned in another post, only 1-4% percent of humans are psychopaths but they account for 25% of male prisoners in the US.

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All evil acts can be explained by chemical imbalances in the brain?

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No. Because psychopathy is innate, it means that some people are born with that defect. Some psychopaths never act on their proclivities, some do when a life event triggers their destructive behavior and still others show psychopathic behavior at an early age. It's rare to see an older adult manifest psychopathic behavior as did Stephen Paddock in the Las Vegas mass shooting.

Murder is a legal term. Chimps dont murder.

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Murder is a legal term. Chimps dont murder.

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Okay, but they can kill with malice aforethought. True, they won't be prosecuted.

Do you think evil/psychopathy is hereditary?

Has the evil/psychopathic gene been identified in the genetic code?

Would you be in favor of gene therapy as a means to potentially end evil/psychopathy?

George Carlin suggested it should be legal to kill one person a year, but it can't be a family member.

It would solve the population concerns.

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I forgot a I made this thread...I can't even remember if I were drunk or not

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This explains quite a bit, actually.

You did all the discussing. I was just picking your brain with a bunch of questions.

I ask a lot of questions; guess you can tell.

Maybe CC will be able to recall his state-of-mind, that led to the creation of this thread?

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Humans aren't animals

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They're worse.