Solon,
you write
"Does anyone really think they are more important than their dog, their cat--or going smaller...all the creatures that fight to survive but are stepped on, squashed, and (going smaller) killed by antiseptics..."
yes I do and anyone holding an Anthropocentrist worldview shares this trait
After all, despite still having animal traits, humans ARE capable of CREATIVE acts, of abstraction, of self-reflection, of consciousness. There are no indications that bacteriae or higher animals such as cats are capable of this.
This is probably what I would sense as one of the few spheres where men share the "cosmic" trait - in all of these CREATIVE acts, whether it's a genuine new thought, a new concept, a new plan (for a house or even a business draft) there is the power of our mind. I haven't seen so far the same power at work in the animals around us. So yes, there indeed is a difference to me in the "value" of different forms of life. For example Human life imho is of higher value than insects.
Slaughtering pigs and cursing trees (as you cite) I do not regard as an atrocity, after all the cursed tree takes no harm and pigs are still slaughtered today, so it appears culturally accepted (I won't eat pig meat for dietery reason but I won't have a problem with others enjoying their pork ribs). you are correct that an Antibiotic treatment would be described today but this requires SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE about biology and medicine, unavailable to people 2000 years ago. In fact Penicilin was a relatively new discovery in the midst of last century. Anyway, the New Testatment and its messages to me appear to be a drastic leap from the Old Testatment and its praising of crimes against humanity, such as Genocide against non-believers.
rgrds
CROSSY |
