Are humans somehow better than other animals?

[Matt88]

animals are for eating, and use by humans.

 

[Æsahættr]

animals are for eating, and use by humans.

If animals were put here, I presume you mean by God, to serve humans, then why do plenty of animals have some degree of intelligence?

 

[Master Vigil]

Yes, natural is the wrong word if it's context is not clearly defined. If we accept natural to mean; "existing in nature"; then of course it is definitely the wrong word to use. But if we accept natural to mean; "acting in sync with nature outside of the human culture, and the effects thereof"; then it is completely acceptable.

 

[Valjean]

animals are for eating, and use by humans.

Where did you come up with such a bizarre idea? Animals were here for millions of years before humans even appeared.

 

[Yerda]

It often seems to me that humans are the most dysfunctional of the Great Apes.

In what respect?

I just see pure living, not worries about anything...

I'd recommend looking harder. Many animals exhibit fear and anxiety on a regular basis.

No "animal" ever destroyed countries, murdered thousands, and invented lethal religion.

Some species of ant have been known to kill everything in their path when moving home.

All the traits we commonly consider 'good' or 'bad' in humans appear to have precursors elsewhere in the animal kingdom.

 

[Atheist_Dave]

In what respect?

I'd recommend looking harder. Many animals exhibit fear and anxiety on a regular basis.

Read my post again, I was refering to my dog, that's all, and you knew that very well. Obviously I cannot possibly contemplate what happens in the entire animal kingdom, I was only talking about one particular creature I happen to know. I would appreciate less of the attacks thanks, and read my posts properly before jumping on it. (Looking back, maybe my post was rather ambiguous, apologies.)


As for the ants, touche, I had overlooked our little friends. Indeed they can be destructive, I saw a documentary where they attacked a termite colony, funny thing is, they only killed a few, enough to feed them for a while.

As for the "Animals are for eating" comment by another poster. I do not really see where you get that idea from, we are relatively young compared to most other animals.

 

[Yerda]

Read my post again, I was refering to my dog, that's all, and you knew that very well. Obviously I cannot possibly contemplate what happens in the entire animal kingdom, I was only talking about one particular creature I happen to know.

Fair enough. My bad. I'm not sure why you've taken my post as an attack though.

 

[Atheist_Dave]

No worries, I'm probably over sensitive, peace brother

 

[1nharmony]

Recently I have observed how similar we are to other mammals on this planet, our nature is the same and we are subject to the same forces of nature that bring death & life, etc. The only real difference between us and any other animal mammal or otherwise is our level on conciousness, most religions AFAIK have little to say about the value of the lives of other animals and their reason for being here or if the go to their own heaven or hell. So if the oly difference between us and them is our level of conciousness which could convincingly be attributed simply to the structure and workings of our brain, why do we so often put such a lower value on the life of an animal than that of our own.

Short answer: No, we're not any better.

Long answer (explanation): On my mail route there is the cutest dog named "Chico". Over the past few months, Chico has become conditioned to recognize me and to expect a little doggie snack when I arrive. This conditioning has been arrived at by simple repetition of the act of feeding Chico a dog biscuit each day that I deliver.
Also on my mail route is a wonderfully dear woman who appreciates her mail carrier (me) greatly and is in the habit of providing monetary "treats" on practically every holiday (even St. Patricks Day!). I realized today that, just like Pavlov's dog, I have been conditioned to expect a "treat" at this address by the mere repetitiveness of her activity.
Me and Chico -- two of a kind.

 

[Golyadkin]

http://www.ernestcline.com/dmd

this is hilarious

 

[Tigress]

What bizarre and speciesist ideas!

There's no reason to believe our "level of consciousness" isn't exactly the same as any other mammal.

You seem to be basing your concept of "betterness" on intelligence and contributions to society. I'll ignore cranial capacity, as many large animals have greater capacities than hominids and I assume you meant to tie it in to intelligence.

If goodness is based on intelligence then bright people are better than dim ones. I think most people would dispute this.
Intelligence gives us flexibility and the ability do dominate other animals and exploit our environment creatively, but other animals have other abilities that enable them to do similar things. Some animals are faster, some have better senses of smell, sight or hearing. All animals except hominids seem able to establish a place for themselves in the life-web and exploit it indefinitely. You could make the case that any of these superior qualities would make a species "better" than humans.

Your mention of "contributions to society." This strikes me as an incredibly arrogant and species-centered concept.
It is not another animal's job to contribute to society. They do not exist to serve us. They might, in fact, well condemn us for not contributing to their societies. We are, in fact, destroying many of their societies with our campaign of environmental and habitat destruction.

It is the "job" of an organism to play its part in the maintenance of the global life-web that keeps our planet alive and healthy.
A deer must have a forest. A forest must have proper soil. Proper soil must have a fungal network. A fungal network must have a healthy bacterial community, &c, &c, &c. Organisms are intricately woven into their environments. Life depends on each doing its job. Those that do their jobs are "better" than those that do not.

Hominids do not do their jobs. They have removed themselves from the ecological life-web and become parasitic. They destroy the ozone shield, pollute the atmosphere and water. They change the climate, sterilize the soils, desertify the land.

We are in the midst of a catastrophic collapse of the planetary ecology. (The last such collapse was 65,000,000 years ago). This planetary die-off is due entirely to the efforts of a single species.

My thoughts exactly. :clap