Tell it to my imaginary friend.

There is no void. There is no such object as nothing. There is only ‘being’, and all else/anything/whatever is undefineable.

I cannot compare ‘all of existence’ to anything (LOL)

#1, keith m ellis, looks like rain! :O) (I guess even talking about the weather is more usefull than comparing, well, this thread to anything relevent)

That is a nice expression of the underlying “we’re not so special” political stance. But you’ve got it exactly backwards, I think. We are in danger of global calamities only because we are so marvelously special. Because we not only adapt to every environment on the planet, but engineer the environment (and even the organisms that live there) to suit ourselves, and so we exist in vast numbers—numbers that are otherwise unheard of for such large mammmals. Because we not only use readily available solar energy, but also energy from minerals stored deep within the earth. Because we have reverse-engineered the stars and recreated their power on Earth (which power may someday be used to obliterate us).

We are so dangerous precisely because we are so exceptional, and false modesty and humbleness (we’re really just a bunch of ‘East African Plains Apes’) is not going to save us.

Steve isn’t explaining why you’re confused. Perhaps if you consider the methods of determination of linguistic family trees will help. Note that the function of a particular string of characters is a clue (among many) to phylogeny but is certainly not determinative by itself and, in fact, may be purely coincidental. This this is often not understood is the problem for many or most folk etymologies. There is a strong parallel here to genetic phylogeny.

Those who are curious and brighter than James might enjoy this book.

1. Biologically, humans and chimpanzees are very, very similar; much more similar than, say, cats and dogs.

2. Most members of the species H. sapiens are capable, with suitable education, of attaining some understanding of such things as science, commerce, religion, poetry, music, and the like. No members of any other species on the planet (including chimpanzees) show any sign of similar capability.

3. Some members (or groups of members) of the species H. sapiens are capable of such feats in these fields as have transformed the lives of millions of other members of that species; for instance, by inventing the telephone or composing Schubert’s songs or writing “Das Kapital” and the Communist Manifesto. (The consequences of such feats may be good or bad or neither.) No members of any other species on the planet (including chimpanzees) show any sign of similar capability.

From these, I conclude that (a) from some viewpoints there is very little difference between humans and some other species such as chimps, and (b) from some other viewpoints that I know of no reason to discount out of hand, there is a very big difference. The difference shows itself in “cultural” phenomena, but it isn’t only a difference in culture; it’s a difference in cultural capabilities. And this difference has consequences that are large even from an “external” viewpoint, in so far as we can attain one, on account of the way that cultural phenomena can have very widespread effects. There probably isn’t anything an individual chimpanzee, or a small group of chimpanzees, could do that would have consequences comparable with those of what Einstein, or Hitler, or the Buddha, did.

So, once again: The question “so is it a big difference or not?” is a pseudo-question with no useful answer; it depends on how you measure it. There are non-bogus versions of the question to which the answer is “no”, and non-bogus versions whose answer is “yes”. I don’t understand how any of this is at all controversial to anyone who hasn’t already made up their mind one way or another on ideological grounds.

Place a cockroach on a table and hit the table. The cockroach runs off.
Remove two legs from the cockroach and hit the table. The cockroach again runs off.
Remove two more legs and hit the table. The cockroach attempts to run off.
Remove the last two legs and hit the table. The cockroach does not run off.
Therefore cockroaches hear using their legs.

DNA comparisons of species may demonstrate a common ancestor. It may simply demonstrate that DNA strands for bipedal locomotion and back hair are the same regardless of species.