If God isn't real the can athests answer why only we are

Chimps, orangutans, bonobos and gorillas have varying levels of self-awareness and understanding of death; as do orcas, dolphins, and elephants.

However you're right that Homo sapiens are miles ahead of all other living species that we know about; however Neanderthals probably had languages, a basic form of religious ritual, and did understand the concept of death.

The human species, both those living and extinct, generally have a great amount of brain power which consumes a large amount of energy. However the advanced mental capacities of Homo sapiens didn't fully develop until about 70,000 years ago; and even then it wasn't until 12,000 years ago that agricultural civilization developed.

It took an embarrassingly long time for us to get to this point.

>>2662088
Remove your frontal lobe and look at yourself in a mirror.

>>2662088
I thought this was explained by Stephen Pinker, about 20 years ago. He said there is no conscious self, just sophisticated instinctive behaviour. You think you do as you want, you think you make free choices about what you do rather than , like a lion, just kill and eat and shag. Well go outside now, rip your shirt off and run down the street roaring like a lion. You don't do you and you wont. His view was that what stops you is instinctual and our perception of our freedoms is an illusion.

I guess what stops us accepting this is mans other great trait: ego.

>>2662088
Because material conditions necessitated that we evolve that way.

>I'm too ignorant and unintelligent to figure things out
>must be a magical spirit daddy doing all this

Fucking A you're dumb. Why are you addressing atheists and not Hindus?

>>2662310
>figured it out
>gets called ignorant and unintelligent

I'm addressing the the fact that there is something special about man.

>>2662199
It didn't. You have an embarrassingly false worldview, and you can prove it to yourself.

Go to any population calculator you want, enter two people, 70,000 years ago, and any rate of population growth you'd like.

Bonus points for putting in 3 males, 3 females, 4600 years, ending at 7.3 million, and noting that the population grown is the accepted and known population growth for human beings.

>>2662310
What's the difference?

>>2662345
*7.3 billion

>>2662088
>HURR U DONT KNO
>DURR DAT MENS GOD!!!11!!!1

No you moron. Google "god of the gaps", this is non-argument.

>>2662088
Why do you find that so remarkable?

>>2662088
1. Evolution isn't anymore interested in inteligence than it is in, say, having a big, beautiful, feathery ass. Lots of species do just fine without inteligence. Some just need a little. Having anymore brainpower than you could put into surviving and reproduce would usually just be a waste.

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>>2662088

Hey idiot. Remember how all the modern capitalist states had to pass laws preventing monopolies from forming because they always do when you let business evolve naturally? It's almost like ending up with one party dominating a given niche is completely predictable and explicable and that this is one of the dumbest reasons for invoking intelligent design that anyone could ever come up with.

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>>2662088
Answer me this.
Which God? You have to provide evidence for whichever you answer with also.

>>2662088
Why are you posting this exact thread in his and lit you already got your answer so stop your shilling

>>2662345
What the hell are your mental illness rambling about, you fucking idiot?

>>2662345
Yeah, population growth works in a linear fashion, undisturbed by disease or other setbacks; all according to some population calculator you have.

You didn't deserve a second reply to your shitposting.

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>>2662088
>that semen splotch in the corner