Humans stand above and apart from the animal world, which “we enter as lords of the earth bearing strange powers of terror and mercy alike.” - Matthew Scully
And who exactly is this person who thinks he knows what's best or true?
Now the original point was to make clear that humans and animals are not on the same level and that animals are for humans to use.
Well, that's useful. Lemme just file that in the folder marked DUH. A lot of animals are not on the same level as other animals. A snail is not on the same level as a cow. A dog is not on the same level as an elephant. A lemur is not on the same level as an octopus. To say that animals are not on the same level as humans is like saying the sky is blue.
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Originally Posted by Masa Look despite what you're trying to tell me humans and animals are incomparable. Animals can't tell right from wrong, humans have free will, Animals act on instinct. Animals, with few exceptions, notably cetaceans and simians, do not have a sense of self as do humans, humans have the ability to conceptualize, animals do not as evidenced time and time again. Humans have sex for pleasure, animals do not with the exception of dolphins and Pygmy chimpanzees. This has been proven time and time again. Animals don't murder out of lust or greed, but in defense of young and territory, and on instinct alone, not premeditation. The differences go on and on.
You may think that you can be born as an animal, well I don't, I believe animals don't have a soul.
At least not the kind of soul that humans have. We aren't just brain, heart and body. |
Damnit, I wrote a whole long analysis on this and it got lost due to the stupid computer being a piece of crap. Damn university computers. Anyway, right and wrong are human concepts, and are opinions at that. Sure, some "rights" and some "wrongs" are universal, that is the majority of people agree on them, but they're still opinions. And the fact that animals behave on instinct may be true, but humans do, as well. The sum of our experiences are what our instincts are based on; if someone feels nervous when approaching an old, rickety house (which looks haunted, to give you the visual), they're instincts tell them to turn away. People act on instincts every much as animals do. Also, the fact that animals kill only on instinct is actually an arguement in favor of humans being inferior compared to other animals. Why? Animals don't kill for money, for greed, for ideas. They kill because they need to. Humans don't kill other humans because they need to; they choose to do it, and we always view it as gruesome and wrong. Animals kill because they need to, whereas a person can choose to torture and kill other people for the sheer pleasure of it. And this is supposed to make us better than animals?
Free will is an illusion. It's another human concept people came up with, and applying it to animals is again not going to prove or disprove anything. You cannot put human characteristics or concepts on animals and use it as justification for why humans are better than other animals.
More than just dolphins and that race of chimps have sex for pleasure. It's documented throughout the animal kingdom. There was one instance of a video that was on some animals funniest videos or some such show. Anyway, there was a lion in a cage, and it was rubbing itself on the bars in order to "get off." He sprayed all over the camera and the cameraman. You can't tell me that wasn't a lion that was "choking the chicken" to procreate.
Souls are another concept people came up with to distinguish themselves from other animals. It is arrogant conceit to assume animals do not have souls, or that people do. You do not know that animals don't have souls. Just because you strongly believe you have a soul does not make it so.