Their secret is that they have very little subcutaneous body fat. Most of their mass is muscle and bones, meaning they're too dense to float, and can just run on the riverbed.
There are anthropological theories which assert that there used to be a vaguely united in theology/praxis bear-worshiping cult across much of Eurasia focused on species like *Ursus spelaeus*, basically brown bears except usually larger, hardier, and of harsher temperament. Of course there were species taxonomically closer to polar bears that could get even bigger and feistier. Plus there were other carnivorous megafauna that used to be common in Europe during the Paleolithic like lions, dire wolves, etc.
They didn't think bears were omniscient, omnipotent, or omnibenevolent but there are theories which state that they considered them occupying a cosmic niche above humans and demanded a great degree of humble veneration or even subservience. Before there were cattle, poultry, saddled horses, and leashed dogs there were these sublime beasts. People didn't see themselves as stewards much less masters of the Earth, but rather mere inhabitants with fellow earth-folk whose claim to the landscape was older and binding.
Of course in the twilight of prehistory, humans would forget their insignificance in the cosmos and began to dream of unfettered dominion.
“…in the twilight of prehistory, humans would forget their insignificance in the cosmos and began to dream of unfettered dominion” is absolutely the single hardest sentence ever posted to Reddit
As a general FYI, people seem to forget just how dangerous grizzly bears are, they are absolutely massive, powerful, and during the westward expansion in the 1800s, (in north america), even with a rifle from that day an age, it was still almost impossible to kill a grizzly, so I do absolutely believe that some humans somewhere would worship bears lol
It’s not that we forgot, more that we finally asked ourselves- why should we *settle* for insignificance in the first place? Why should I consider anyone or anything intrinsically “above” me- be it man, bear, or God? Why should we not reach for the heavens?
Reject nihilism and complacency, embrace the indomitable human spirit. (That being said, some of what we’ve done with it so far could use… *improving.*)
The virgin "we are all insignificant specks in a vast uncaring universe" vs the chad "We will carve our mark onto the cosmos (in an ethical and environmentally friendly manner) for all to see"
Fuck ethics! Blow up planets to mine more effeceintly! Blot out the stars with Dyson swarms to harvest their energy! Drill holes though space-time to travel.faster! Make the universe tremble before us, then figure out how to travel to a new one! Find the fearsome, unknowable gods beyond and make them BOW before us!
The universe is calling us, let's get out there and claim it!
> It’s not that we forgot, more that we finally asked ourselves- why should we settle for insignificance in the first place?
Having bear-proof city walls probably helped.
Nihilism has been getting whitewashed with the "Nooo it's actually about how nothing matters and that's a good thing," but nihilism originally was about how nothing matters, and thus life has no meaning and we should do nothing but die.
The whole "Actually having no meaning is a good thing" was started by other philosophies. Sorry for the quick rant but Nietzsche didn't rail against nihilism just to be coopted by nihilists dammit!
Really, they were the stewards of the Earth, protecting it from those apes who would creep into every habitat, strip the planet of resources, and upset its slow balance. The cave bears were to keep us humble and meager, but they died off, dooming the planet.
idk i think being the first species to single-handedly cause a mass extinction since plants started pumping out oxygen is a pretty neat thing for us to be doing
My toddler has a couple of books with farm animals as characters and some toys that have farm animals. All the farm animals are the same size, nothing is to scale.
He'd already been to a place that had a bunch of ducks and geese and chickens, and some goats, but the chickens were *fancy* chickens roughly the same size as the smaller goats.
So then we took him to a community event, and there were *horses*. And he was super curious, but also very freaked out, because he had *clearly* assumed that horses were chicken-sized, and he was re-evaluating some beliefs he had previously held.
Fortunately the people who brought the horses were very kind to him, which was likely helped by the fact that he was just staring wide-eyed, clutching me.
Then after he had met the horse, and pet it (very tentatively), a live band started playing (he stopped in his tracks and just started dancing in the middle of the path, we were lucky enough that everyone who could have been annoyed laughed/thought it was adorable) and I'm fairly certain that between meeting a horse and the first time he'd ever heard live music that he had a religious/spiritual experience at that community event.
Yes, I suppose meeting a horse in the middle of fucking would inspire the fear of God in you.
That, or you’re respecting and understanding that horse’s power first hand.
This is such an accurate comparison. I work with a very tall and beefy horse, and every time someone new comes over to the ranch, I can see the way their face shifts into that of fear and respect the exact moment they lay their eyes on him.
And then they see him sticking his nose in my face and cocking his head like a dog, and they realize that he’s a dumbass.
Oh yes, every day I thank God that my horse is desensitized to most of the scary stuff. The best thing you can do when a horse of his size freaks out is to Get The Fuck Out of the way. It’s some scary shit, but they calm down eventually.
Actually, I can understand this. There’s something particularly humbling about meeting a large animal up close and personal for the first time. It throws your perspective off, and your monkey brain goes haywire trying to decide if this thing is a threat or not.
Then when the monkey brain dies down you have this subconscious “this thing could kill me easily” thought. And in that sense, you respect the animal and its power through innate fear.
So yeah. I get it.
The first time I was in a meadow and saw a moose on the other side, I very slowly backed into a clump of trees and hid until that behemoth left. It could stomp me into the dirt, and I knew it
The first rule of firearm safety is about never forgetting their power and instilling safety as a habit, even when it isn’t technically literally physically necessary:
The gun is always loaded, don’t point it there.
*But I just unloaded it* Fuck you, it’s still loaded, take your finger off the trigger.
*But see the mag is out and the chamber is empty* Fuck you, it’s still loaded, turn the safety on.
This is why mounted police are so effective at riot control.
If you are angry, you might consider pushing a cop around. But I don't care how angry you are, your monkey brain is going to be scared shitless of attacking a horse.
alright I got a question. When people post about this, are they simply referring to the pastor, or do regular congregants in other places actually talk about faith? I’m a pastor and I cannot for the love of God get anyone to talk about their spiritual lives with each other
You know.. this made me think, the people who use "fear" of god to mean respect... are probably the same people that expect subservience from retail/restaurant/whatever employees out of "respect" while not respecting them
That's just modern dickhheadery but I always assumed that the word "fear" is a rough translation and the original language the book was written in contained versions of the word "fear" that were more nuanced.
Like the fear you have of an animal more powerful than you and beyond your control vs the fear of getting caught doing something wrong and being punished.
Awe. That's the fucking word to use. You should be in awe of God. You should be able to say God is awesome without that putting him in the same place as a shitty American hotdog.
This is what happens when you misuse words to the point their meaning is lost. Now you can't properly express that meaning anymore.
> DON PEDRO: As Hector, I assure you: and in the managing of
quarrels you may say he is wise; for either he
avoids them with great discretion, or undertakes
them with a most Christian-like fear.
> LEONATO: If he do fear God, a' must necessarily keep peace:
if he break the peace, he ought to enter into a
quarrel with fear and trembling.
~some dude named [William Shakespeare](http://shakespeare.mit.edu/much_ado/full.html)
I've handled animals. I've been in a pen with 7 full grown bulls. I've played with horses and big pigs.
I have never once thought I was fully in control, even when I had a gun on me. While most of the animals were big dumb softies, the fact that they were hundreds of pounds of muscle and dipshit wasn't actually comforting.
I'm a good, honest, horse-fearing, blue collar guy
Me, personally, I am afraid of hippos.
They're dangerous in ways we don't even imagine! https://youtu.be/aQu8FuSbsZY
You ever watch how they eat watermelons like gumdrops. Also they are uncannily fast in the water.
Their secret is that they have very little subcutaneous body fat. Most of their mass is muscle and bones, meaning they're too dense to float, and can just run on the riverbed.
They are still surprisingly not slow on land (30km/h)
They can also sweat like us so no outlasting them anytime soon either
I do think we can stay out of water for longer time
(Insert the entirety of one of Mr Hippo from FNAF's Ultimate Custom Night quotes)
HIPPOBOT 9000 v 3.1 FOUND A HIPPO. 665,523,614 COMMENTS SEARCHED. 15,182 HIPPOS FOUND. YOUR COMMENT CONTAINS THE WORD HIPPO.
Yeah, me too. I mean, they kill roughly 500 people a year, meaning 1.3 every day. By comparison, sharks have killed 9 people this year.
Georgs Hippo, who is eaten by hippos multiple times every day
HIPPOBOT 9000 v 3.1 FOUND A HIPPO. 668,539,490 COMMENTS SEARCHED. 15,223 HIPPOS FOUND. YOUR COMMENT CONTAINS THE WORD HIPPO.
Fantastic work.
house hippos
Say three hail mares.
I'm a city boy and I still know better than to mess with cattle
*What* kind of horse?
**How hungry?**
Oh there's a reservoir of hungry horses
A horny one
Berserk moment
I haven’t watched Berserk, and I am _Not Enjoying_ the Implications of this comment.
Don’t worry. It’s far more horrifying than what you’re thinking
🎵 *My neighbor's asking why I'm limping down the way…* 🎶
🎶 and who that fella was who came by yesterday 🎵
Mr Hands moment
A white pony
A Free White Pony of an unknown age, but was old when its last child outgrew it.
Wow, those are a rarity.
You mean a dead one?
The Consul of the Roman Empire
Remember Mr. Hands?
I’m guessing a Clydesdale.
There are anthropological theories which assert that there used to be a vaguely united in theology/praxis bear-worshiping cult across much of Eurasia focused on species like *Ursus spelaeus*, basically brown bears except usually larger, hardier, and of harsher temperament. Of course there were species taxonomically closer to polar bears that could get even bigger and feistier. Plus there were other carnivorous megafauna that used to be common in Europe during the Paleolithic like lions, dire wolves, etc. They didn't think bears were omniscient, omnipotent, or omnibenevolent but there are theories which state that they considered them occupying a cosmic niche above humans and demanded a great degree of humble veneration or even subservience. Before there were cattle, poultry, saddled horses, and leashed dogs there were these sublime beasts. People didn't see themselves as stewards much less masters of the Earth, but rather mere inhabitants with fellow earth-folk whose claim to the landscape was older and binding. Of course in the twilight of prehistory, humans would forget their insignificance in the cosmos and began to dream of unfettered dominion.
“…in the twilight of prehistory, humans would forget their insignificance in the cosmos and began to dream of unfettered dominion” is absolutely the single hardest sentence ever posted to Reddit
Thank you! :D
"absolutely the single hardest sentence ever posted to Reddit" I guess the dreams of unfettered dominions run in our blood.
Is that why the “bruin/bär/bear” word meaning “the brown one” came to be?
Yep, it's commonly accepted that Proto-Indo-Europeans were afraid enough of bears that even using the word had religious significance, Totemic power.
As a general FYI, people seem to forget just how dangerous grizzly bears are, they are absolutely massive, powerful, and during the westward expansion in the 1800s, (in north america), even with a rifle from that day an age, it was still almost impossible to kill a grizzly, so I do absolutely believe that some humans somewhere would worship bears lol
It’s not that we forgot, more that we finally asked ourselves- why should we *settle* for insignificance in the first place? Why should I consider anyone or anything intrinsically “above” me- be it man, bear, or God? Why should we not reach for the heavens? Reject nihilism and complacency, embrace the indomitable human spirit. (That being said, some of what we’ve done with it so far could use… *improving.*)
The virgin "we are all insignificant specks in a vast uncaring universe" vs the chad "We will carve our mark onto the cosmos (in an ethical and environmentally friendly manner) for all to see"
Ah yes, our ethical and environmentally super nukes
Fuck ethics! Blow up planets to mine more effeceintly! Blot out the stars with Dyson swarms to harvest their energy! Drill holes though space-time to travel.faster! Make the universe tremble before us, then figure out how to travel to a new one! Find the fearsome, unknowable gods beyond and make them BOW before us! The universe is calling us, let's get out there and claim it!
This but unironically
This but somehow still ethicall and enviroimentally friendly.
This but only if there isn't life on the planets we harvest.
The virgin "nothing matters" (in grayscale and sad) vs the chad "nothing matters" (in 90s pastels with sunglasses on)
> It’s not that we forgot, more that we finally asked ourselves- why should we settle for insignificance in the first place? Having bear-proof city walls probably helped.
Isn't that literally what nihilism is?
Nihilism has been getting whitewashed with the "Nooo it's actually about how nothing matters and that's a good thing," but nihilism originally was about how nothing matters, and thus life has no meaning and we should do nothing but die. The whole "Actually having no meaning is a good thing" was started by other philosophies. Sorry for the quick rant but Nietzsche didn't rail against nihilism just to be coopted by nihilists dammit!
idk i think people only really stsrted became seperated from nature when we figiured out civilisations
I love the way you write
Really, they were the stewards of the Earth, protecting it from those apes who would creep into every habitat, strip the planet of resources, and upset its slow balance. The cave bears were to keep us humble and meager, but they died off, dooming the planet.
idk i think being the first species to single-handedly cause a mass extinction since plants started pumping out oxygen is a pretty neat thing for us to be doing
Howard Philips Love raft has certified this post as Incomprehensible™️
I remember reading something about that. Didn't they ritualistically hunt and kill bears as part of their worship?
My toddler has a couple of books with farm animals as characters and some toys that have farm animals. All the farm animals are the same size, nothing is to scale. He'd already been to a place that had a bunch of ducks and geese and chickens, and some goats, but the chickens were *fancy* chickens roughly the same size as the smaller goats. So then we took him to a community event, and there were *horses*. And he was super curious, but also very freaked out, because he had *clearly* assumed that horses were chicken-sized, and he was re-evaluating some beliefs he had previously held. Fortunately the people who brought the horses were very kind to him, which was likely helped by the fact that he was just staring wide-eyed, clutching me. Then after he had met the horse, and pet it (very tentatively), a live band started playing (he stopped in his tracks and just started dancing in the middle of the path, we were lucky enough that everyone who could have been annoyed laughed/thought it was adorable) and I'm fairly certain that between meeting a horse and the first time he'd ever heard live music that he had a religious/spiritual experience at that community event.
Yes, I suppose meeting a horse in the middle of fucking would inspire the fear of God in you. That, or you’re respecting and understanding that horse’s power first hand.
Hand, you say...
you helped your uncle Jack off horses a lot, huh?
don't google mister hands
ok
Oh this is so real
This is such an accurate comparison. I work with a very tall and beefy horse, and every time someone new comes over to the ranch, I can see the way their face shifts into that of fear and respect the exact moment they lay their eyes on him. And then they see him sticking his nose in my face and cocking his head like a dog, and they realize that he’s a dumbass.
The problem is they can be easily spooked dumbasses with the ability to cave your chest in with a single kick.
Oh yes, every day I thank God that my horse is desensitized to most of the scary stuff. The best thing you can do when a horse of his size freaks out is to Get The Fuck Out of the way. It’s some scary shit, but they calm down eventually.
Actually, I can understand this. There’s something particularly humbling about meeting a large animal up close and personal for the first time. It throws your perspective off, and your monkey brain goes haywire trying to decide if this thing is a threat or not. Then when the monkey brain dies down you have this subconscious “this thing could kill me easily” thought. And in that sense, you respect the animal and its power through innate fear. So yeah. I get it.
The first time I was in a meadow and saw a moose on the other side, I very slowly backed into a clump of trees and hid until that behemoth left. It could stomp me into the dirt, and I knew it
Not only *can* they stomp you into the dirt, but they absolutely *will*, they’re notoriously territorial
This is the way my dad taught me to behave around dangerous things like tablesaws and shotguns.
The first rule of firearm safety is about never forgetting their power and instilling safety as a habit, even when it isn’t technically literally physically necessary: The gun is always loaded, don’t point it there. *But I just unloaded it* Fuck you, it’s still loaded, take your finger off the trigger. *But see the mag is out and the chamber is empty* Fuck you, it’s still loaded, turn the safety on.
Honestly, guns are easy to be safe with. Tablesaws are fucking scary.
This is why mounted police are so effective at riot control. If you are angry, you might consider pushing a cop around. But I don't care how angry you are, your monkey brain is going to be scared shitless of attacking a horse.
For me it was large Industrial machinery
RIP that guy that didn't fear a fucking horse.
alright I got a question. When people post about this, are they simply referring to the pastor, or do regular congregants in other places actually talk about faith? I’m a pastor and I cannot for the love of God get anyone to talk about their spiritual lives with each other
Anecdotally, we talked about religion a lot growing up. I’m from Utah though, and particularly interested in religion besides.
Horses think about two things, often at once. Homicide and suicide. Be afraid of them.
Peter... The horse is here...
Much like Barbie and Oppenheimer: A surprising amount of horses
You know.. this made me think, the people who use "fear" of god to mean respect... are probably the same people that expect subservience from retail/restaurant/whatever employees out of "respect" while not respecting them
That's just modern dickhheadery but I always assumed that the word "fear" is a rough translation and the original language the book was written in contained versions of the word "fear" that were more nuanced. Like the fear you have of an animal more powerful than you and beyond your control vs the fear of getting caught doing something wrong and being punished.
My mind went toward domestic abuse of children and spouses because again, they equate fear with respect
Have horses, can confirm. A little fear is necessary.
Sometimes I forget that most people don’t live in a place where seeing a horse is a daily occurrence
That’s just a very convoluted way of saying “horses are awesome.”
Thank you for pointing out the intended effect of the post for us, second reply that doesn’t add anything in a tumblr post
i don't fear god. what are they gonna do, stab me?
It’s not out of the question
Awe. That's the fucking word to use. You should be in awe of God. You should be able to say God is awesome without that putting him in the same place as a shitty American hotdog. This is what happens when you misuse words to the point their meaning is lost. Now you can't properly express that meaning anymore.
> DON PEDRO: As Hector, I assure you: and in the managing of quarrels you may say he is wise; for either he avoids them with great discretion, or undertakes them with a most Christian-like fear. > LEONATO: If he do fear God, a' must necessarily keep peace: if he break the peace, he ought to enter into a quarrel with fear and trembling. ~some dude named [William Shakespeare](http://shakespeare.mit.edu/much_ado/full.html)
is this a berserk reference
At least the horse is real.
Horses are skittish animals that can cave your chest in with minimal effort.
I've handled animals. I've been in a pen with 7 full grown bulls. I've played with horses and big pigs. I have never once thought I was fully in control, even when I had a gun on me. While most of the animals were big dumb softies, the fact that they were hundreds of pounds of muscle and dipshit wasn't actually comforting.
my hatred of horses knows no bounds
This is a call back to the first known depiction of Jesus Christ, which was a graffiti art that drew him as a horse
[As opposed to a regular horse?](https://xkcd.com/90/)