J. Budziszewski explains why we are not just animals in Science and Culture.
Every other day, yet another would-be demystifier claims that if we compare other primates with humans, we will see that we are “just animals.” This tempting idea is a delusion.
If being animals means that we aren’t incorporeal intelligences but embodied beings, then of course we are animals. We have mass and take up space. We eat, digest, and dispose of waste. We are born from our parents’ carnal union, and we have children by joining with spouses of the opposite sex. All these and many other things connected with embodiment are true.
Some people are disgusted by these facts. An online book reviewer writes,
The fact that I’m a squishy bag of water freaks me out constantly: Thinking about how fragile and necessarily ad hoc my respiratory and circulatory systems are, contemplating the various fluids and other things my body excretes, and of course, sex. Corporeal existence is weird and sometimes very inconvenient.
