Friday, September 18, 2009

Homo ignis...

Does any species but the human race make fire? Even if we grant some species can make tools, does any other species make a tool comparable to fire? I know of a beetle which shoots super-heated acrid gas to repel enemies, but that is more like herculean farting than manufacturing fire for some purpose. The Greeks might be right: maybe an essential difference lies in man's Promethean abilities.

I find it interesting that "Prometheus" is taken as a secular patron saint, and secularism by and large goes out of its way to "dethrone" humanity as some "unique species" (a redundant term, btw) in the cosmos. And yet it may be our Promethean savvy which makes us unique!

Thoughts?

1 comment:

San said...

Thoughts?

Hmm. Still thinking.