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Originally Posted by baddog
It is scary because I figured you were one of the smart guys here, but the fact that you think instinct and emotion are the same thing amazes me.
Do you think the booby has one partner for life because they are "in love" with each other? Do you think salmon swim upstream because they are homesick? Lions battle for power because it is survival of the fittest and the ability to fuck any lioness in the pride. It isn't an emotional thing, it is instinct and survival.
The maternal instinct is just that, an instinct.
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Instinct is your body's way of reacting to an emotional stimulant. They react in unison. When someone comes at you with a knife, your emotion is fear and your instinct is to run. This is no different than the fear a bird has when you get too close to it.
Lets take training an animal for example. When you teach your dog to go to the bathroom outside, that is his emotions at work. Whether it's a fear of being punished or the joy of receiving a reward, his emotional receptors dictate how he reacts. There is no instinct to only poop on a leash when being walked. If an animal such as that only worked off their biological instinct, they would shit wherever they wanted to.
Of course the booby doesn't have one partner for life because they are "in love". Just as we aren't monotonous because of "love". There is no such thing as love. It's just chemicals and neurotransmitters reacting in your body to certain situations. When we buy chocolates or write a poem to a loved one, it's no different from a bird spreading his feathers or bowing his beak in courtship. We are both doing it to satisfy an emotion that was necessary for our survival.
You mention mourning, but that is more of a cultural phenomenon. It's impossible to judge the emotions of other animals in these situations. For instance, early homo sapiens didn't mourn the death of fellow members of their tribe. When we did start having rituals, they evolved culturally over time. This didn't mean that our early ancestors didn't feel sadness, they just didn't express it the way we do. But there are examples of animals mourning their dead. Elephants touch the skulls and tusks of their dead with their trunks and feet.
You are trying to differentiate us because we are self-aware of our emotions. But it doesn't deny the fact that animals have them. They have fear, hunger, trust, respect, joy, and others just like us. We share many of the same chemical makeup and neurotransmitters.
But emotions are beside the point that some of us were making. This is also about pain. These animals are tortured and put in positions where they suffer through constant pain. I guarantee that if your dog came to you whimpering with a broken leg, you wouldn't laugh it off and call it his "instincts". You would take him to a vet and do what you could so that he doesn't have to feel that pain. Heck, you probably would get him some treats too. So why not show the same common decency to another animal?