National Geographic often carries stories that explicitly or implicitly seek to undermine human exceptionalism.
It has now published another story claim that animals are people too.
This time, it is dogs. From, “Dogs Are Even More Like Us Than We Thought,” in the National Geographic:
Dogs can read facial expressions, communicate jealousy, display empathy, and even watch TV, studies have shown. They’ve picked up these people-like traits during their evolution from wolves to domesticated pet, which occurred between 11,000 and 16,000 years ago, experts say.
Dogs did not “evolve.” Evolution presupposes randomness and purposelessness.
That isn’t what happened with dogs. They were intelligently designed by us to serve our companionship and various utility needs.
Thus, whatever human-like attributes we want to read into them are due to us–not natural selection. Animals are changed by their association with humans. That is one of the exceptional things about us.
Indeed, dogs may be humans’ greatest invention. That’s a very good thing. They are intense producers of pure love and joy.