Human Vs. Animal Life

[Twig]

If animals didn't want to get shot' date=' they'd get smart and shoot us.

[/quote']

 

Animals are not as smart as us. Maybe someday, in the future, animals might evolve to have brains like ours.

[Amethyst Phoenix]

At first glance, humans are more important.

 

However, to sustain our species, certain animals must be kept alive and cared for to prevent the whole environment going to hell thing. Factor in other things, like pets, and animal life is important to us.

 

Thus, animals are important to us as a direct cause of our lives being important to us.

 

 

 

Furthermore, since selfishness was brought up, I don't really see selfish motives as evil or bad.

 

Helping others, and working as part of a community is all done because it benefits everyone. Thus, it helps us as individuals more to keep, say a farmer, alive so that we can reap the benefits of his harvest year after year, rather than killing him and getting only 1 year's harvest.

 

Even pure motives have selfishness at heart: giving to others makes YOU feel better too. If it made YOU feel terrible to give to charity, you wouldn't do it. You don't commit crimes because you lose valuable members of society that contribute to making YOUR life better. You also don't commit them because it would make YOU feel terrible about committing a bad deed. Thus, every selfless act is also a selfish act at the same time.

 

People that kill others for the quick, apparent benefit of their things are simply too stupid to realize the error of their actions. Oh, and here's another reason why we're kind to each other. YOU don't get punished if you don't commit evil acts and/or break the law.

 

The motive of self-preservation causes us to preserve everyone else for our own benefits.

 

 

People that are so ridiculously greedy that they only care for themselves and neglect others aren't caring for themselves. In fact, they're hurting themselves. People that only care for others limit themselves out of guilt that others may be worse off. They hurt themselves via these self imposed limitations, and hurt the community by squelching their own potentials, and thus reducing their contribution to society. This is why governments like soviet russia's fail so miserably.

 

 

 

So, in other words, we care about others because we care about ourselves. Veering too much in one direction causes chaos for both parties. Think of Absolute Selfishness as cold, and Absolute Selflessness as hot. When you go to one extreme in either hot or cold, what happens? You get the same result: a burn. Thus, the best path is a moderate one, in which we are allowed to excel, but we do not completely neglect the lesser in our society. However, we veer too much towards the proverbial hot via carrying the lesser completely. They must work to better themselves if they wish for a larger piece of the pie.

 

 

Since the ecosystem would collapse if we were taken out of the equation, and the ecosystem would also collapse if any other animals were to go extinct (we forget that we're just another animal. Being at the top has blinded us to this fact), the ONLY correct answer is that they are equally important, for you cannot have one without another.

[Lazer Yoshi]

I would save the child, because I would therefore be saving my own species.

But it doesn't mean the animal is not important. Some animals have different roles in our human ways. Animals such as dogs, cats, and hamsters are treated as companions. Animals like cows, chickens, and pigs are treated as food.

However, it doesn't mean the animals meant to be eaten should be treated badly, which is what some food chains do. If you're going to eat the animal, at least give it a good life.

I love to eat meat, but there's a certain point where things go too far.

[Death Metal]

Most life is equal.

 

Some animals hold more value than others though, which makes their lives more important than our because we rely on them to live.

[~Shore]

You generally should side with your own species.

 

All life is equal, but each species must prioritize itself in the same way that we will prioritize the lives of our friends and family over the lives of people we do not know. You must kill to survive, but that doesn't make killing right. In a purely moral world, there would be no killing, but the way our world is set up, you have to protect your own species first.

 

Sorry to piss you off and ride the fence, but imo: all life is equally important, but logically the well being of your own species should take priority.

[Womi]

The "normal" animals are more important than the human, imo.

[Scyire]

I need food.

 

I value animals because of this.

[DARKPLANT RISING]

All types of life value themselves more than others.

 

A Lion is running across the plains, hungry, not being able to eat for days on end. A kid zebra is running away from it, but the Lion grabs it and captures the screaming victim.

"I shall eat you!" he screams.

"Please don't! I have my dad and mom and sisters and brothers! Please don't kill me!"

Suddenly, the Lion felt tears brimming in his eyes. Sighing, he lowered the Zebra down, and it ran away on top speed. The Lion saw the Zebra child being greeted by its brothers and parents. Then they galloped away, leaving the Lion, who seemed somehow more than alone.

 

Is this possible?

[Grunt Issun]

i would look into the future before i save one. thus saving the animal, A baby could later become a killing machine of war, but animals have no war, and altough they are wild there more peacful then alot of humans

---

You generally should side with your own species.

 

All life is equal' date=' but each species must prioritize itself in the same way that we will prioritize the lives of our friends and family over the lives of people we do not know. You must kill to survive, but that doesn't make killing right. In a purely moral world, there would be no killing, but the way our world is set up, you have to protect your own species first.

 

[/quote']

 

I disagree, I respect your own personal opinion but if you do save your own species, that baby could grow up into a killer, which is techincly unatural for a human, as humans are supposed to die at a certian time, but if a killer kills them, it defies fate. however animals like lions are natural killers. god created them as preditors, so it wouldnt be right to save an unatural killer that kills out of anger and stuff like that, over a natural killer, that kills for food and life, but not out of anger

---

If animals didn't want to get shot' date=' they'd get smart and shoot us.

[/quote']

 

that is a horrible point of view:(

 

animals, dont have war, because they have advanced further then that.

 

If they shot us then they would be horrible killers like 25% of the humans in america

---

At first glance' date=' humans are more important.

 

However, to sustain our species, certain animals must be kept alive and cared for to prevent the whole environment going to hell thing. Factor in other things, like pets, and animal life is important to us.

 

Thus, animals are important to us as a direct cause of our lives being important to us.

 

 

 

Furthermore, since selfishness was brought up, I don't really see selfish motives as evil or bad.

 

Helping others, and working as part of a community is all done because it benefits everyone. Thus, it helps us as individuals more to keep, say a farmer, alive so that we can reap the benefits of his harvest year after year, rather than killing him and getting only 1 year's harvest.

 

Even pure motives have selfishness at heart: giving to others makes YOU feel better too. If it made YOU feel terrible to give to charity, you wouldn't do it. You don't commit crimes because you lose valuable members of society that contribute to making YOUR life better. You also don't commit them because it would make YOU feel terrible about committing a bad deed. Thus, every selfless act is also a selfish act at the same time.

 

People that kill others for the quick, apparent benefit of their things are simply too stupid to realize the error of their actions. Oh, and here's another reason why we're kind to each other. YOU don't get punished if you don't commit evil acts and/or break the law.

 

The motive of self-preservation causes us to preserve everyone else for our own benefits.

 

 

People that are so ridiculously greedy that they only care for themselves and neglect others aren't caring for themselves. In fact, they're hurting themselves. People that only care for others limit themselves out of guilt that others may be worse off. They hurt themselves via these self imposed limitations, and hurt the community by squelching their own potentials, and thus reducing their contribution to society. This is why governments like soviet russia's fail so miserably.

 

 

 

So, in other words, we care about others because we care about ourselves. Veering too much in one direction causes chaos for both parties. Think of Absolute Selfishness as cold, and Absolute Selflessness as hot. When you go to one extreme in either hot or cold, what happens? You get the same result: a burn. Thus, the best path is a moderate one, in which we are allowed to excel, but we do not completely neglect the lesser in our society. However, we veer too much towards the proverbial hot via carrying the lesser completely. They must work to better themselves if they wish for a larger piece of the pie.

 

 

Since the ecosystem would collapse if we were taken out of the equation, and the ecosystem would also collapse if any other animals were to go extinct (we forget that we're just another animal. Being at the top has blinded us to this fact), the ONLY correct answer is that they are equally important, for you cannot have one without another.

[/quote']

 

thank you for realizing that:)

[Admiral Tim]

Well' date=' I think its selfish to care about an animal only becuase its endangered. Alot of endangered species are endangered becuase of us. It might be unlikely, but what wopuld we do if the cow went extinct? Would we look back and just be like oh, we probably shouldn't of eaten so many cows.

[b']And with the human child or adult animal thing, I know its very........douchey of me to do this, but if you just jumbled every species of animal there is (not including insects) and all the possible types of humans that the child could be born into, which would you value more?[/b]

 

lol we breed cows for there meat. it's become more of a symbiotic relationship, and to let you know insects have no pain receipting nerves, there for you can value them less as there are so many of them.

[Spirit of DMG]

I prefer to be a vegetarian due to the numerous health benefits.

 

But Human Life > Animal Life' date=' IMO.

 

Animals can't make big buildings for people to live in.

 

Or can they...?

[/quote']

 

No, they can't. But, they don't need to. They either find a place that already exists, or, they build the bare necessities of buildings they need.

Bears find and hibernate in caves, birds build nests.

Animals to not build complex structures, because A) They don't have the intelligence B) They don't need it.

 

Animals can't make big buildings for people to live in.

 

Or can they...?

 

Yeah' date=' but these buildings and man created stuff really, well I can't think up a word for it, but they tear away at our earth, and cause people to turn against each other. (protests and complaints...) We are smarter than animals, but animals know how to value and utilize nature more. We do have intelligence, but look at the way we use it.

 

[b']But heres a more specific question.[/b] Would you value the life of an unborn child more, or the life of an adult animal?

 

Intelligence? Have you looked around your town recently? Or watched the news? Honestly, I'd say human beings as a whole are semi-intelligent. If that. Yes, we have the mental capacity to understand more, build more complex tools and such, and ask deep questions, but, does that alone make us intelligent. No. True intelligence is not asking "Could I?" True intelligence is asking "Should I?" Nature is intelligent. Nature knows when to stop.

 

They Baby is more valuable >:3

You can sell them at really high prices.

 

You' date=' sire, are disgusting. You'd allow a member of your own species to be born, simply for your own financial gain? Human beings are, in general, disgusting. I'd say about 60% of humans are in jail. For their own [i']human[/i] nature.

 

Most humans do value their life over animals' date=' however I don't. I haven't eaten meat for years.

 

[b']I think abortion is alright as long as it will be better for the child because the mother might be too young or ill to cope with being pregnant or the parents might be too poor to give the baby a decent life.[/b]

 

I'm not going to answer the question because apparently I 'can't ride the fence' anyway why did you leave insects out, that is technically racist.

 

It's free to put him/her up for adoption. They don't care about age, or health.

 

I don't really see selfish motives as evil or bad.

 

I do. I don't care that you do it' date=' I care about why. You gave several examples of selflessness being selfishness, think about this: Do these people really do it for the reasons you said, or did they generally do it because its the right thing to do. This is a questionn even children's TV shows bring up. one example is [i']Ben 10[/i] in the movie Ben 10: Race Against Time Near the end, Azmuth asked Ben, saying he was selfish: "Did you save them because it's the right thing to do, or for the thrill of being a hero?"

---

 

As for the real topic here, Animal Life versus Human life, I'd say:

Animal Life>Human Life

 

Although I would save my best friend before an animal I had never met before in my life, I'd save my dog before I'd save a human I'd never met before in my life.

 

One more thing: I notice that when an animal kills another animal, its either for food, mates, or territory.

 

Humans are the only animal in the world who'd literally kill for $20, revenge, oil (despite having plenty plugged up in your own backyard, and knowing about it) or in several cases, just because you can.

 

Thus, I'd say animal life holds greater value. Although humans are technically more intelligent, they are also truly disgusting. Animals are fine with having only the bare necessities, where humans kill for comfort, or in many cases, just because they can.

[CinnamonStar]

Well since in most of the discussions like that people use one or just a few really pungent examples I'm going to do that too.:)

 

One more thing: I notice that when an animal kills another animal' date=' its either for food, mates, or territory.

[/quote']

 

Not exactly. My brother deals a lot with animals, however not just the cute "nice" ones like cats and dogs but mostly leeches, insects and the likes. I remember when he had a colony of flour bugs, one day one of them was born with a physical defect and guess what? They ate him up like that, DEVORED him until there was no piece left.

I was disgusted and cried for hours because I wanted to take the little bug and "adopt" him separated from the others, however they gave him no single chance to live.>_>

On one side, yes I'm aware that it was just a natural instinct for them to kill "disabled" peers, they didn't have a choice and biologically seen it was probably a good idea too. However it just struck me that on one side there are things like that and then on the other side there are humans and charity organizations who try to help disabled people.=/ Just like there are people who lead wars and others who dedicate their lives to save people. And animals who do torture their good before eating it but also others who don't attack for no reason.

 

You see, it's just a minor example and there are plenty of examples for both humans and animals.

 

Just saying, it's really hard to try to classify an entire species and judge whether it's good or bad. Yes some humans lead wars, kill others because they're psychos or whatever, but there are also other non-cruel humans who actually try to help others, any species. And the fact that millions of people are quite heavy supporters of PETA and other organizations kinda blurries the picture of people that are just cruel and want to destroy everything. You know, not all humans are war-machines, I'm pretty sure there are many who haven't killed anyone for anything other than food, necessity or whatever.

 

Personally I can't answer the question. Just by natural instinct I'd say my own species but it's still hard to tell.

I'd save an animal in danger and a human in danger as well, however I wouldn't hesitate to mercilessly kill ANYONE who tries to harm me and then I don't care if it's a human, animal or alien.

 

Generally I'd say, don't try to value anyone more than someone else. I hope this question will never directly come up in that way, the best thing is still to try to make life worthy for everyone. We all deserve to be in this world even though I hate this place but I think we should try to make the best of it and preserve the balance of everything.

[Tentacruel]

I'm gonna have to agree with Dark on this.