Creation myths are driving forces in our effort to separate ourselves from animals, the book of genesis is one of many creation stories that depict humans as higher than the other animals. "Let us make man in our image and let him rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the air" chapter 1-26. The bible clearly says that we as humans are dominant over the other animals in the world. The scientific creation myth, evolution, divides us into kingdoms, families, genus's and species. While humans are put under the kingdom of "animal" we are put into our own genus and our species in an effort to separate us from animals. Humans may not need their own genus because our genetic material is very similar to other chimps, which would put us in the same genus. Science and religion use different evidence to separate us from animals.
Rene Decartes is another reason why we don't see ourselves as animals. His main philosophy revolved around our minds. He believed that we are our minds that live in our bodies. The quote "I think, therefore I am" shows how significant the mind was to him. No other animal views itself as just a mind, non-human animals accept their bodies, contrary to what Decartes believes. His ideas have made the rest of society ignore their bodies, we emphasize education over fitness and value intelligence over strength, this separates us from other animals because other animals need their bodies to survive and accept that they need them.
Humans tend to think we're on the top of the food chain because we haven't experienced any food chain outside of farms and civilization, in the wild we're fairly low on the food chain because we've domesticated ourselves and can't survive well in the wild. We don't know that we're not on top of the food chain because most of our time is spent only with humans, any other animals are usually birds or pets that we name and humanize. Because we don't spend time with non-human animals we can't relate to animals and we deny our relation to animals.
If humans accept that they're animals they can make their lives better in a number of ways. People will be able to appreciate and take care of their physical bodies like animals do. People will also be able to realize that thinking isn't the most important thing and that thinking isn't what defines people. We will also become more dependent on ourselves, animals don't believe in any outside influences to help them and solve their problems on their own. Humans perceive the world as a collection of systems full of abstract ideas, things like economies, government, and religion which aren't real. Animals only accept what they can see, feel touch, smell etc. as real, they see the world for what it really is and they don't get caught up in ideas that the rest of the world believes in.
I think that we are animals, it wouldn't make sense for humans to just evolve out of what we were, no matter how many upgrades you put in a computer it'll still be a computer, in the same way that we've evolved to seemingly become above animals. Once we come to terms with humans being animals we can live more natural and happier lives. We can learn a lot from animals and how they live, and we can use what we know about animals to live better lives.
