What makes a human life more important than a plant or an animal life?

I understand the hidden economics of medicine....but there used to be a time when people became doctors to help, not for money....then came the greed of insurance companies and frivolous lawsuits forcing doctors to have to profit just to live a certain way...I know several doctors that are almost as poor as me thanks to greed at various other fields

Insurance is legalized racketeering you pay and pay and pay for protection you'll likely never use...then if you do end up needing it they squirm around trying to find ways out of paying...then they raise your rates or drop your policy....

I think this makes an interesting point (to bring this back towards the original topic). Many of the things humans have done throughout our short history have been implemented with good intentions, but inevitably the the best altruistic motives can (and usually) do become corrupted. But the point is that we continually strive, as a race, to reach beyond what we are. We strive generation by generation to better ourselves, to prove that we are more than animals. I think that is one of the defining points of what makes us superior to animals, who (through no fault of their own) simply don't exist on that sort of level.

I'd say that purely for physical reasons humanity is superior (our evolutionary path designed us to have superior reasoning and motor abilities).

SeanChing wrote: I disagree. If we're just as "greedy, mean, and animalistic as any animal", why have we developed medicine, transportation, care homes, and welfare? Such things would be inefficient and truly unecessary in a purely survivalist world - how animals view things. Have animals ever made medicine to heal the weak, or have they organized shelter and food supplies to the needy? No. Because they can't communicate or empathize to the level of superior human empathy and communication.

We developed these things to improve our own health or that of our families (for the survival of the species). There are some who actually do care about others, but I stand by my statement. Many people are in it for themselves and nobody else. How else do you explain corprate greed, startvation, poverty, slavery, dumpster babies, war, etc.?

Different species have different strength and ours is our ability to invent things. That does not make us better, just different. Ants build cities too. Prairie dogs build homes with kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. Elephants care for their elderly. And Coyotes and Badgers team up to catch food. There are millions of species out there and we know very little about them. Naming the human race supreme is a bit premature.

I have heard about this, and I've never said that animals don't do these types of things ever. They do....just inconsistently. Usually, too, you'll find that animals will do these things purely for survival or sex....not for advanced feelings of empathy that humans have.

I doubt the lioness was caring for the antelope for sex or survival. The consitency, ehh, I couldn't say, I don't monitor the animal world, but I would say humans are just as inconsistent. We could have a lovely, peace filled world but we don't.

Right you are! Animals are amazing - don't get me wrong. But are they "lesser creatures" than human beings. They prove that to themselves.

I guess that depends on how you view it.

Well, are we humans really that great? We have one fatal flaw: we destroy our own habitat. And not just our own. Humankind and its agressive spread have marked a major extinction level event on our planets timeline. We have killed off more species than every other species before.
I still don't think we humans are superior. We are instinct-driven creatures, like any animal. You can see it in everyday lives of everyday people, and it's funny, through how much work some people go, just to get laid or paid.
To quote a DUMB movie: "The ability to speak does not make you intelligent."

It isn't from my perspective, but the reality of the physical world means survival is conflicted. Its surprising how many people get messed up by Sharks over here, and its about survival for the Shark. Even when animals play at killing something, it is training for the real thing and valid on some level for their survival. That is about where I draw the line and try to elevate all other life to the same level as myself beyond that ie; avoiding a butterfly in my way as I drive down the road (if its safe), and the more obvious ones of slowing down for birds on the road etc. Its almost like I rationalize it on the spiritual level that by being physically incarnated everything signs a document accepting that survival is going to be conflicted, and then you die - but that is very different from viewing them as material resources which can be abused IMO.

Adder wrote: Even when animals play at killing something, it is training for the real thing and valid on some level for their survival.

Dolphins do "various" things just for pleasure Having fun is not a pure human treat - but as i've read, music is. at least for monkeys. They hate music. But they love alcohol. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmnzIhbX2bg now you look at that drunken monkey, ant tell me it isn't worth anything, i dare you. Jk.

eeeek I dont like Monkeys!!!! You bet animals can have fun. It helps for me to think of animals as having a human sentience, but it being dramatically shaped by the animal physical's body - its capacities and raw emotions.

SeanChing wrote:

Rickie The Grey wrote: What makes human life more important than plant and animal life? Who here believes this is true? I don't. Now if you are asking if I value human life more then animals and plants on a priority survival basis then yes.

You don't have to be in a survival situation to see that, really, all of you truly believe that human life is more important than plant and animal life. Just look at regular, healthy society.

If you truly believed that humans, animals, and plant life were on the same "level" of importance, then why not eat a human being? You don't have to be starving or in a survival situation. Just eat a human being. Oh, wait, you can't? Why not?

It is because you truly believe human life is more important than plant and animal life. You can't bear to equate a human body to that of an animal body or plant form. If you truly believed we are all equal, then substituting human instead of animal or plants for food wouldn't be an issue at all.


Now, you might say, "If you ate a human, you would go to jail! That's why you don't do it."
But you can go to jail for eating certain animals as well. If you ate your dog, cat, horse, fish, etc., you would be arrested for animal abuse/neglect (to say the least) - going to jail just as if you were to eat a human being.

I'm sure that, if necessary, people would most nearly always eat their cats, dogs, horses, fish, etc., before even considering to harm and eat a human being.


Main point: We all do think human life is more important than animal or plant life. We just might not understand it or admit it.[/quo


Do lions eat lions? Do rabbits eat rabbits. Do apples eat apples. As a matter of survival we don't eat our own kind. That doesn't mean we are superion, just survivors.

:laugh: Those drunk monkeys are soooo cute! Looks like they're having a great time. Easy booze, easy food, sunny beach. Lucky :evil:

Oh, and did you know that Crows are known to use our traffic lights to open nuts? They time it so they throw the nuts down before traffic gos and then eat it up when the light is red again. They also slide down snowy hills for fun.

Yay! Crows are amazing. They can solve complex problems just by looking at them. I once saw a crow bending a piece of wire into a hook, to reach a bucket of food that was suspended in a tube.
And here is one that befriended a kitten http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JiJzqXxgxo