The admonition to "be human" is all well and good, but I'm fairly sure that we all don't mean the same thing when we say it. This is one of those simple, everyday phrases that flow over our lips ever so lightly, but are nevertheless exceptionally hard to grasp and hard to wrap our heads around. So just what am I talking about? Fair enough question.
For those who may have missed it or those who still aren't sure, let me say it again: I do not believe that human beings are "just" animals, or just animals who can talk or ... fill in any blank you like. Having said that, I also would hasten to add that I don't consider human beings better than any other living creature on Earth, I don't consider us "special" in any meaning of the word (even the negative ones), I don't think we are any more than what we are: humans, a very different species that is just as embedded in Nature as are dogs or cats or amoebas. So why all the fuss?
It's very simple really: since we are different, since we have abilities and capabilities that other living creatures do not have, such as awareness of our self-awareness, refined, complex, and subtle language capabilities (e.g., tenses, the ability to question), and since we have created such an subject as morals and morality (in simplest terms, knowing the different between good and bad), in order to warrant the distinction of being called "human", we are required, obligated, condemned (?) to exhibit precisely those characteristics that make us different from other living creatures.
I don't know about you, but I never expected Charley the Chimp or Flipper the Dolphin or Fido the Dog to find a cure for cancer or paint a Mona Lisa or write the Great American (or any other) Novel. I also never expected any of them to preach the Sermon on the Mount or understand and advocate living in accordance with the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule (in any of its variations) or to prove the existence of the Higgs boson. And I also don't know about you, but I don't think any less of any of them for not being able to do that. It's not their thing, and it need not be their thing. They have other, equally important and significant, roles to play in Creation or Nature or Reality or whatever else you may want to call it. When we take a step back from our subject, we quickly realize that in this wonderfully diverse chaos we call The World, there are a lot of roles to be played and a lot of functions to be fulfilled, and no single species or entity can do any more than what it -- individually and collectively -- is able to do.
And it there that we find the rub. You see, the chimps and dolphins and dogs and whatever else do everything they need do. They fulfill their own reason for being. They play their parts in the Grand Scheme of Things and make their contributions to the balance of the Universe. For my part, I'm convince that they can't do otherwise, but that doesn't lessen their contribution to that balance one little bit. They are what they, they are true to their nature and they do their part to ensure that things are as they are. For that, we should be eternally grateful.
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