The current
"religious right" backlash against environmental efforts is a
disgrace to Christianity. We were given a gift and it is
our obligation to be good stewards of this world and all in it.
If we are faithful in these matters, only then can we hope for
greater gifts.
We in The Celtic Christian Church
strongly encourage you to love this world, for God so loved the
world as to send Christ to save us from our own sins--and the
results of those sins which we can see in our own hearts and souls,
and in the world around us. Only by embracing that same love
can we enter into this salvation.
Greed is a deadly sin. The
greed which exploits the resources of this planet is having a deadly
effect on many living creatures as well as the Earth itself.
Greed is tied to a lust for power,
which is gained by exploitation. These are serious matters for
all Christians about which we need to pray and consider what we each
can do for the good of all.
As a Catholic Church Community we join with
all
Catholic Churches calling for respect for our environment.
The following clip is Pope Benedict XVI
stressing that
there can be no peace without respect for the
environment.
Did you know? Bonobos are
humankind's closest relatives, along with chimpanzees, yet most
people don't even know that bonobos exist!
(Info from
Wikipedia)
Taxonomy
The scientific name for
the Bonobo is Pan paniscus. While no official publication on
the bonobo genome is publicly available, an initial analysis by the
National Human Genome Research Instituteconfirmed that the bonobo genome diverges
about 0.4 % from the chimpanzee genome. In addition, the group
around
Svante Pääbo of the
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology is actually sequencing
the genome of a female bonobo from the Leipzig zoo.[16]
Initial genetic studies characterised the
DNA
of chimpanzees (Common Chimpanzee and Bonobo,
collectively) as being as much as 98% (99.4 in one study) identical
to that of
Homo sapiens.[17]
Later studies showed that chimpanzees are more
closely related to humans than to
gorillas.[18]
The most recent genetic analyses (published in
2006) of chimpanzee and human genetic similarity come from whole
genome comparisons and have shown that the
differences between the two species are more complex, both in extent
and character, than the historical 98% figure suggests.[19]
In the seminal
Nature paper reporting on initial
genome comparisons, researchers identified thirty-five million
single-nucleotide changes, five million
insertion or deletion events, and a number of
chromosomal rearrangements which
constituted the genetic differences between chimpanzees and humans,
covering 98% of the same genes.[20]
While many of these analyses
have been performed on the Common Chimpanzee rather than the Bonobo,
the differences between the two chimpanzee species are unlikely to
be substantial enough to affect the Pan-Homo
comparative data significantly.
There still is controversy,
however. Scientists such as
Jared Diamond in
The Third Chimpanzee, and
Morris Goodman[21]
of
Wayne State University
in
Detroit argue
that the Bonobo and Common Chimpanzee are so closely related to
humans that their
genus
name also should be classified with the human
genus Homo: Homo paniscus, Homo sylvestris, or
Homo arboreus. An alternative philosophy suggests that the
term Homo sapiens is the
misnomer
rather, and that humans should be reclassified as Pan sapiens,
though this would violate the
Rule of Priority as Homo was named
before Pan (1758 for the former, 1816 for the latter). In
either case, a name change of the genus would have implications on
the
taxonomy of other species closely related
to humans, including
Australopithecus.
Ideas such as this are considered far outside the mainstream. The
current line between Homo and non-Homo species is
drawn about 2 million years ago, and chimpanzee and human ancestry
converges only about 7 million years ago, nearly three times
earlier.
Recent DNA evidence suggests
the Bonobo and Common Chimpanzee species effectively separated from
each other less than one million years ago.[22][23]
The chimpanzee line split from the
last common ancestor shared with
humans
approximately six to seven million years ago.
Because no species other than Homo sapiens has survived from
the human line of that branching, both Pan species are the
closest living relatives of humans and
cladistically
are equally close to humans.
Physical
characteristics
The Bonobo is sometimes
considered to be more
gracile than the Common Chimpanzee, and
females are somewhat smaller than males. Its head is smaller than
that of the Common Chimpanzee with less prominent brow ridges above
the eyes. It has a black face with pink lips, small ears, wide
nostrils, and long hair on its head that forms a part. Females have
slightly more prominent breasts, in contrast to the flat breasts of
other female apes, although not so prominent as those of humans. The
Bonobo also has a slim upper body, narrow shoulders, thin neck, and
long legs when compared to the Common Chimpanzee. The Bonobo
walks upright
approximately 25% of the time during ground locomotion. Its
quadrupedal ground locomotion generally is characterized by forelimb
'palm walking'[citation
needed], similar to
orangutans and in contrast to the
predominant use of knuckles as characteristic of gorillas and the
Common Chimpanzees. These physical characteristics and its posture
give the Bonobo an appearance more closely resembling that of humans
than that of the Common Chimpanzee (see:
bipedal Bonobos). The
Bonobo also has highly individuated facial features, as humans do,
so that one individual may look significantly different from
another, a characteristic adapted for visual facial recognition in
social interaction.
Frans de Waal,
one of the world's most respected and popular
primatologists, states that the Bonobo is
capable of
altruism,
compassion,
empathy, kindness, patience, and
sensitivity. How peaceful Bonobos are has
been disputed by some, but in general scientists agree with these
assessments and the fact remains that thus far there are no
confirmed observations of lethal aggression among Bonobos, either in
the wild or in captivity.[neutrality
is
disputed]
Observations in the wild
indicate that the males among the related Common Chimpanzee
communities are extraordinarily hostile to males from outside of the
community. Parties of males 'patrol' for the unfortunate
neighbouring males who might be traveling alone, and attack those
single males, often killing them. This does not appear to be the
behavior of the Bonobo males or females in their own communities,
where they seem to prefer sexual contact over violent confrontation
with outsiders. In fact, the Japanese scientists who have spent the
most time working with wild Bonobos describe the species as
extraordinarily peaceful, and De Waal has documented how Bonobos may
often resolve conflicts with sexual contact (hence the "make love -
not war" characterization for the species). Conflict is still
possible between rival groups of Bonobos however: the Congolese
researcher Mola Ihomi has reported confrontations between bands of
Bonobos which result in physical violence, sometimes resulting in
serious injuries from bite wounds. Bonobos live in different areas
from the more aggressive Common Chimpanzee.[29]
Neither of the species swims, their respective ranges being
separated by the great Congo River with Bonobos living south of the
river and Chimpanzees living north of the river. It has been
hypothesized that Bonobos are able to live a more peaceful lifestyle
in part because of an abundance of nutritious vegetation in their
natural habitat, allowing them to travel and forage in large
parties.
The popular image of the Bonobo
as a peaceful ape does not always apply to captive populations.
Accounts exist of Bonobos confined in zoos mutilating one another
and engaging in bullying. These incidents may be due to the practice
in zoos of separating mothers and sons, which is contrary to their
social organization in the wild. Bonobo society is dominated by
females, and severing the lifelong alliance between mothers and
their male offspring may make them vulnerable to female aggression.
De Waal has warned of the danger of romanticizing Bonobos: "All
animals are competitive by nature and cooperative only under
specific circumstances" as well as writing that "when first writing
about their behavior, I spoke of 'sex for peace' precisely because
bonobos had plenty of conflicts. There would obviously be no need
for peacemaking if they lived in perfect harmony". The immature
state of Bonobo research in the wild, compared to that of the Common
Chimpanzee means that lethal aggression between Bonobos could still
be discovered.
Hohmann and Surbeck
published in 2008 that Bonobos sometimes do hunt monkey species.
Having observed a group of Bonobos in
Salonga National Park,
they witnessed five incidents in five years in which Bonobos preyed
on monkeys. Their research indicates it was deliberate hunting in
which a group of Bonobos would coordinate their actions – contrary
to their normal hunting behaviour which is quite solitary and less
purposeful. On three occasions the hunt was successful and infant
monkeys were captured. But of course hunting is related to feeding
more than to aggression, and these observations cannot be used to
attribute a dark side to the bonobo as some have done.[neutrality
is
disputed]
Social behavior
Most studies indicate that
females have a higher social status in Bonobo society, though some
field work suggests that Bonobo troops are led by an
alpha male (though females in this
scenario are not subordinate to all adult males as is the case with
Chimpanzees).[30]
Aggressive encounters between
males and females are rare, and males are tolerant of infants and
juveniles. A male's status is derived from the status of his mother.
The mother-son bond often stays strong and continues throughout
life. While social hierarchies do exist, rank does not play so
prominent a role as it does in other primate societies.
Bonobo
party size tends to be variable since the
groups exhibit a
fission-fusion pattern. A
community of approximately one hundred will split into small groups
during the day while looking for food, and then come back together
to sleep. They sleep in trees in nests that they construct.
Bonobos are capable of
passing the
mirror-recognition test for self-awareness.
They communicate primarily through vocal
means, although the meanings of their vocalizations are not
currently known. However, most humans do understand their facial
expressions[17]
and some of their natural hand gestures, such as their invitation to
play. Two Bonobos at the
Great Ape Trust,
Kanzi
and
Panbanisha, have been taught how to
communicate using a keyboard labeled with
lexigrams (geometric symbols) and they can
respond to spoken sentences. Kanzi's vocabulary consists of more
than 500 English words[38]
and he has comprehension of around 3,000 spoken English words.[39]
Some, such as
philosopher and
bioethicist
Peter Singer, argue that these results
qualify them for the "rights to survival and life",
rights that humans theoretically accord to
all
persons.
There are instances in which
non-human primates have been reported to have expressed joy. One
study analyzed and recorded sounds made by human babies and Bonobos
when they were tickled.[40]
It found although the Bonobo's laugh was a higher frequency, the
laugh followed a similar spectrographic pattern to human babies.[40]
If you are cleaning house... consider
Freecycle.org where you
can list the goods you no longer need and others who may benefit from
having them will read your listing and respond. Whether it is
clothing or household items, or car parts or even old metal
which is often taken for scrap. Freecycle recycles goods rather than tossing them
into garbage. It takes a minute to list items and can even
save you the bother of finding a place to discard things.
If there is not a group in your area, consider beginning one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
British Petroleum Disaster
BEING DONE BY
THE CELTIC CHRISTIAN CHURCH
FOR THE BENEFIT OF AMERICAN WILDLIFE AND
OTHERS HARMED BY THE
BRITISH PETROLEUM
OIL DISASTER IN THE GULF.
PLEASE CONSIDER HELPING
THE AFFECTED ANIMALS WHO ARE DYING
WILDLIFE Donation Amounts
The Celtic Christian Church is a
registered as a Church in the
the Celtic
Christian Church
