Re: Humans, what's our value?
Posted by maxmccauley on 12-22-2007 in Are humans the most valuable organisms on the planet?In response to the Original Post:
I read this response again more carefully and came across something that struck me. You said that humans do not show more of an affinity towards members of their own species than towards dogs/cats or other household pets. I don't think this could be further from the truth. You use the example of a beloved pet dying and the sadness derived from it but don't really give it a fair comparison under similar circumstances. What about when a mother loses a child? Uou don't believe the tragedy there outweighs the feeling the same woman would have if her pet dog died? What if kennel with 3000 cats exploded, you think that would get the same coverage as September 11th did or inspire the same emotion?
The emotional investment humans place in members of their own species outweighs what they place in pets and it isn't even close. I love my dog, she is a great companion and I will be very, very sad when she passes away. But the pain from that wouldn't even be comparable to one of my parents, brother, girlfriend, friend losing their life. I don't believe I am in the minority here, either.
In response to: Humans, what's our value?
For many of us, we feel as though all humans are created equally but often at times people, in my opinion, have a double standard for the philosophy that it does not apply to anything outside the human race. I take a much broader stance on the philosophy, that humans are not necessarily anything more divine or valuable than any other organism.
I came across this argument while debating with a pro-life advocate, just for the sake of doing so, and my question was, if you're pro-life, why do you feel it's okay to kill animals? And the response was that humans are regarded differently, they are inherently more valuable. This isn't an argument on pro-life, so lets not make it one. Back to the point...
What's your position? What makes humans more valuable just because we have thumbs and better critical thinking skills? Humans are capable of showing the same and sometimes even more emotion for a pet that has passed away. So at least we can't say that we have a striking affinity for our own race more than any other species, that's simply not true. So without the emotional tid bit out of the way, what's so compelling about us that makes us "valuable." We eat, excrete, breathe, have a way of communicating like any other organism. You could argue we're at the top of the food chain and that alone makes us valuable, well I'll tell you what, the dinosaurs were at the top too and they mysteriously fell off the chain, where was natural selection to recognize their value or superiority?