Why is human life more important than animal life?

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I think the original question should be slightly changed to: Why is your own life more important that anything elses?

I dont think species has much to do with it in my opinion. To believe you are greater and more important that anything else ensures self interest. The interest to help yourself before anything else, as your own suvival is infinitly more important to you than anything else.

i must aggree, the autism makes you see the world from outside the automatic emotional instinctive point of view

people are mostly automatic, their opinions are based on their "survivability chances within the pack", so is everything else they do.
people will deliberately ignore overpopulation, and still see fellow humans (pack members) as the most important thing on earth.

The notion of importance is a human mental artifact. The question is biased from the git-go. Only a human could entertain the notion that humanity is the most important life type.

If you go by quantity we humans are not all that important. The one-celled living organism on our planet outweigh us at least a thousand to one.

It is not even clear that we are the smartest critters on God's Green Earth. If smarts are measured by reproductive success that ants have us beat. That have been around for 250 million years. We have been around for maybe 250 thousand years.

ruveyn

Sam Harris was on a radio talk show and the host brought up the connection of PETA, Holocaust on a Plate, etc. with atheism and animal-human equivalency. Sam shot back that he agreed the notion of equivalency was absurd, he did so on the grounds that humans have a far greater capacity for suffering ('and if you don't believe me spend some time with a chicken'). Physical pain may be the same but we have emotional/existential anguish that can exceed anything else out there.

That someone has had telepathic intimacy with the emotional side of a chicken is indeed impressive. There must, obviously, be some congruency with mental capacity to permit this.

I probably wouldn't confuse him for a Jainist.

Read what I said again. "Fighting" is not the same thing as "conscripts large numbers of individuals from their society, systematically stockpiles weapons, and intentionally invades the territory of other groups for the purpose of annihilating them, for no other reason than some vague political principle."

Yes, chimpanzees have been seen to kill individuals from other troops in territorial disputes. That is hardly comparable to modern warfare.

It's debatable? Debatable by whom? Even in the cases where animals kill other than for food, it is basically one-for-one, and in response to some circumstance of the moment. That is homicide, not warfare. There is an enormous difference.

I say again, no animal except humans assembles large fighting forces and systematically invades the territories of others for the purpose of annihilating entire populations, with no other motivation that abstract political principles, using technologically advanced weapons that have the ability to kill hundreds or thousands of the "enemy".

Army Ants?

ruveyn

Ethologists.



And I say again: this is because no other species has the ability to do that. Of course humans are the only species that kill hundreds or thousands with technologically advanced weapons. This is because humans are the only technologically advanced species.

I can concede that humans are the only species who go to war. My point is that this is largely irrelevant.

Ants vs Wasps? Ants vs. Humans? Killer Bees?

Yay, reposting for the addressee.

there was a man walking with his lion friend, the man stopped at a statue showing a man standing over a deaftedlion. "See this proves man's dominion over animals." Said the man. "And just who was it that mage the statue?" Asked the lion.

In what language the above quoted material written?

ruveyn

it was froom asops fable

If termites want to eat my house should I let them because they have "rights"?

If a bear wants to eat my baby daughter should I let him?

We rule the world because we are the smartest and meanest creatures.

By the law of the jungle that is all that counts.

Do you think a shark would have moral scruples about killing you?