"We are aware of our mortality-"
He said that no other species have that awareness. And that there would be no need for philosophy, religion, art, anything, if we weren't mortal. Hmm.
Also that it has to be more than mere intelligence, because even if there are two beings- one being the stupidest human being alive and another the most intelligent animal alive- even if the latter outsmarts the other- one stays human and the other animal.
Another interesting point in the class was when we were talking about the new way of indicating time with B.C.E. & C.E. vs. the old way of B.C. and A.D., to avoid offending anybody, to secularize completely, yadda yadda. A student made a comment: "But isn't that the same thing?" And at the professor's response, I was the only one who laughed... : "Well, we all know what happened" Oy. Do we... how I wish we all knew.
