Without God, Do Humans Have More Intrinsic Value Than Animals? (page 2)

tec

The above is a view with God. Without God, I don't know.

james_woods

What's your simple answer, James?

Humans have more intrinsic value than animals.

SweetBabyCheezits

Humans have more intrinsic value than animals.

How so?

You don't believe in god, right?

Suppose an alien life form appeared on our planet one day - a species that happens to share a tiny amount of our DNA but is more highly evolved psychologically.

Would you grant that species more intrinsic value than humans? And would that be enough to justify them slaughtering your own species for food, clothing, or sport?

EDIT: Again, I'm not settled on this ethical dilemma myself but I do feel it's worth viewing from a different perspective.

Lore

Intrinsic value is a completely useless concept

If some alien a billion lightyears away thinks that copper is the most valuable material in the universe and millions of aliens die every year mining for copper. . . does that make the copper in my walls intrinsicly more valuable?

Maybe, but unless I ever encounter these aliens, who gives a crap?

If the copper has an intrinsic value, meaning it's worth whatever it's worth no matter what anyone anywhere thinks about it, how is that concept useful?

Unless of course I'm misunderstanding what you mean by 'intrinsic value'.

SweetBabyCheezits

James, what would you think if H. habilis or H. erectus still walked the earth? Would they have more or less value than H. sapiens? I'm just curious where the line of demarcation lies if this is such an easy answer?

Is the value of a species directly proportional to how much DNA it shares with us, so that there's a clear gradient?

james_woods

It depends on how much worth the species adds to society. Human society.

That is because I am human - simple as that.

Humans add the most worth - horses, dogs & cattle, some value, but less than that.

Aliens are off topic - the OP said Animals - which means earth non-human species.

Lore

(deleted because it was going horribly off topic)

james_woods

For what it is worth, (and before somebody goes all-out PETA on us) - all animals have some worth and should not be extincted needlessly.

leavingwt

james_woods: If I'm understanding you, you're basically saying that it's obvious that we're more valuable/important than animals. I think your opinion is most definitely the majority opinion. However, I'm interested in the reasoning behind the conclusion.

For some, it's as simple as: "We went to the f***ing moon!"

For others, it's a bit more complex.

Here's an example of one Christian viewpoint:

The Bible is clear that man is made in God's image and is granted dominion (control) over Earth and the animals. And because the Earth is God's, our control is limited to the role of good stewardship: managing, but not exploiting, another's property. Man is of a higher order than animals. Jesus said, "You are of more value than many sparrows "[Luke 12:7]. He demonstrated this when He expelled demons from the men they possessed and sent them into a herd of swine. Since the act caused the pigs to leap to their deaths, I wonder if PETA would have screamed for the murder of Jesus. Oh, wait--that already happened.

As Christians, we must make decisions regarding the care of Earth and its environment out of concern for God's property [1 Corinthians 10:26], but also with the understanding that Creation was given to us to meet our needs [Genesis 1:26—28]. Elevating animals to a degree above mankind is a satanic perversion of the truth: "They gave up the truth about God for a lie, and they worshiped God's creation instead of God." [Romans 1:25 (Contemporary English Version)]

Without God, Do Humans Have More Intrinsic Value Than Animals?

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