Tuesday, May 07, 2013
Ignorant "scientist"
BBC science feature this morning deals with lacrimosity. Crying, that is.
The main "scientist" is asking why tear glands, primarily meant to lubricate the delicate surface of the eyes, have developed a secondary purpose of visibly expressing emotions. Humans do it, but our near relatives among apes and monkeys don't do it. Proper question, but he makes a couple of dumb assumptions along the way.
(1) He says humans are the only animals that have empathy. Nonsense. Apparently he's never owned a dog. Lower down on the scale, a clever experiment shows empathy among birds, and an even more clever observation shows something like empathy among bumblebees. Clearly this type of awareness is part of the basic design of animals.
(2) He draws a parallel to the larynx, which is primarily meant as a valve between the airways and the digestive system, but has developed a secondary purpose of expressing emotion. Again he says "only in humans." You don't need clever experiments to spot this one. All land-living vertebrates from amphibians to mammals have a larynx or syrinx, in a wide variety of forms; and they all use it secondarily to make sounds that are emotional signals to other critters.
You'd think a "scientist" would know these things.
Labels: Grand Blueprint
¶ 2:38 AM
