Animals and Humans

[Skittatles]

What makes us better then animals...?

Is it our intelligence? Is it 'God'? Or is it simply because we have guns, and they don't? When we compare ourselves to animals... are we really any better then them?

This is by no means an argument against eating them. That's just plain natural. But where did this idea, what we are somehow superior arise, and from what foundations?

Some will tell you it's our ability to not just survive... but thrive. Look at our booming populations, and it makes even rabbits uncanny skill of multiplying insignificant. Yet... where is the balance? The nature?

Where is the instinct? The hunt, the chase, the fight-or-flight, the kill or be killed... where is Survival of the Fittest in our world?

I guess what I'm trying to say is, as humans, where do we stand in the natural order? Or have we just created our own chain?

[Wootz]

I honestly think that a lot of people end up trying to justify a lot of the things they do through rationalization. Thing is about animals, they can't argue back. So whether taking out all your aggressions on a bunch of hapless puppies is an amoral act or not (I could be doing the same to small children), the puppies can't give you their input on the matter, so you don't have to argue anything, since the only person you need to convince is yourself.

[Charlieace]

it's a large combination of things.

we discovered fire, that gave us a boost. our body seemed to adapt well and we discovered we could kill other animals not only for food, but for shelter (bones can be support) and clothing.

then of course advanced shelter and we discovered mathmatics, time, and advanced communication such as Latin and English.
then guns.

We slowly adapted and found advanced means of getting tasks completed.

[The7thGuest]

I guess what I'm trying to say is, as humans, where do we stand in the natural order? Or have we just created our own chain?

We've dominated, that's exaclty where we should be, we have logic, reason, I know some people might argue that animals have brains too and you can teach them all sorts of little tricks like flushing a toilet, the base argument is this, they can't do the math, or even math.

We have the ability to take complex scenarios and deduce a logical answer to the problem, until I see an animal studying to be an engineer, I'm going to be convinced that we should be on top. Whether God wills it or humans have forced it, we invented the whole damn chain, we've even been the cause of knocking out a few links in the chain.

[Dredric1]

if one animal kills another there is no big deal

but if the same happens with humans there is a big deal

so i guess its the code of ethics
and the search for peace
and we have religion
i believe that GOD created us

[SevenSins]

It's kind of a society placed thing, we are better because everyone says we are. When in my opinion, everything is equal. An animal has just as much of a right to live as we do, it has a family, and it feels, I think it's the same as killing a person. If it's an IQ thing, why don't we kill all the stupid people? Because we told ourselves that killing people is wrong but killing animals is alright.

[The7thGuest]

It's kind of a society placed thing, we are better because everyone says we are. When in my opinion, everything is equal. An animal has just as much of a right to live as we do, it has a family, and it feels, I think it's the same as killing a person. If it's an IQ thing, why don't we kill all the stupid people? Because we told ourselves that killing people is wrong but killing animals is alright.

Have you ever seen a family reunion of animals having a sunday lunch and a few drinks while the kids play? With that same logic we might as well leave all of them to die, they don't give us medicine, why should we help them?

Have you ever met anyone without any logic at all? I know quite a few stupid people, but they all have logic and reasoning (at least to some extend), apart from that our bodies need protein, I guess we could settle for eating the roadkill after we sentence whoever killed the animal to death? Or replace diets with pills?

When it comes to killing things for the pleasure and not the need of protein, by all means I agree, that's wrong, torturing a dog in your backyard is just wrong, buying meat from a butchery, not so wrong.

[PFMB]

I would have to agree with the7thguest on this matter. Humans ARE better than any other animal. If not only for the fact that we can decide that we are better, but for the simple truth that a human's being is worth more than an animals. Humans feel complex emotions, and are capable of much more in a life span. When it comes to survival, there is no reason a human should not use another animal as a means to survive. As the7thguest said, using is ethically correct in my eyes, abusing is a different story.

EDIT: Whoops, Just realized that this was a 20 day bump. This subject got me all fired up, and I didn't notice, sorry.

[MrNeutral]

I would have to say its our opposable thumbs but somewhere out there in an alternate universe we're being hunted by some other animals who are having the same discussion we are

lol arn't alternate dimensions awesome

[DamegedSpy]

D: Nooooo! Let the thread die!