Why, as a species of animal, do we hold ourselves higher than all others?

Question

It's almost impossible to get a direct answer as to why human beings seem to think they are god's gift (no religious pun intended!) I spoke to one person who told me that if they had to make a decision between saving a child's life and entire species, he would choose the child. Why is this? What does the child bring to the whole of existence and the universe which apparently has a much greater effect than a species has on an entire ecosystem? It's normal for all species to want to survive and propogate their own, and if your son or daughter approached a pride of lions, he or she would surely have their head torn off, but why, seeing as how intelligent we are, do we proceed to treat all others with such disregard and selfishness? EVEN to members of our own species?

So yes, for once I'd like a clear and concise answer (and I refuse to acknowledge any religious referances, so don't even bother,) as to why we deem ourselves so incredibly important above all others.

Answer 1

To me it comes down to being human. That's it. We're human, we're smart, we're dumb, we have a very complex brain and sometimes we're very violent for no reason. You find a pride of lions, they all want to kill you -- especially when they're hungry. You find a group of people, they all have different opinions about who should die and what we should eat.

Being human is unique. We're all remarkable and flawed in our own weird way. To answer your question, not every person would choose the child. I for one would choose to save the species. We all don't think the way you speculate.

Answer 2

For the simple reason that we are instinctively wired to
a) survive at all costs
b) insure the survival of our 'tribe' at all costs except when that conflicts with 'a'.

We think humans are 'better' because we're human and we identify primarily with other humans.

As a cyborg once said 'All other considerations are rescinded'.

P.S. To be honest, if I had a choice of rescuing a random infant that I had never met or a my dog who I've raised from a puppy and has been my close companion for 7 years, I'll rescue my dog. The only difference between a baby and a dog in my estimation, is that the baby will someday talk. So what.

Answer 3

The whole Aristotle pyramid Heirarchy of Being.

Plants, Anmials, Humans are all living things. Plants do not have the intellect to understand animals and anmials do not have the intellect to understand humans. And humans do not have the intellect to understand God. When I say understand = abiltiy to comprehend all.

And also the Social Darwinism theory. Look how cultures react. Marry somebody your own race, caste system, religion, etc. We relate or are conditoned to relate to people like us.

I think majoriy of us would save a child instead of a whole species is because we are more complex beings.

Answer 4

If you are disregarding religion, I can see that, but if you are disregarding the word of God and the spiritual..you cant possible get a valid answer...they are inseparable....we were given dominion..but only a man with God in his heart would treat this with respect...and very few hold this position...and women are much more compassionate...it is self preservation that makes the choice of the child come up..the majority of people are completly ignorant to the facts of nature and the eco system and this has been taught to us by our generations gone by....we are just now realizing how stupid they were...hope it helps

Answer 5

First of all.... WE don't. To assume that our species thinks we're better/higher than all others simply isn't true. Some of our species does and some of us don't. Second of all, how do you know that the child that was saved at the "expense" of
another species won't grow up to be the one who might themselves save another species or the earth for that matter. Would you kill an ant to save your dog? Would you kill a mosquito to save your Dad? (Fathers Day is right around the corner) How many mosquitos would you kill to save your dad? one billion? trillion? ... If there's no hierarchy then your answer should be, "I wouldn't kill ONE mosquito to save my dad".
Does a Deer think of themselves as "higher" than a hippo?
Your question is because, as far as I know, we are the only species that can contemplate such matters.

happy fathers day!

Answer 6

Simple arrogance from dominating the world for so long. We believe our scientists, doctors, and inventors can do anything we feel like doing and nothing can stop us. We live outside the food chain and manipulate ecosystems and species to however we fancy.

Answer 7

B/c the goal of every animal is survival & well-being of their own species.

Mammals made dinosaurs extinct, ancient people made mammoth extinct, now we can make extinct whatever we want.

The only reason that we protect enviroment is to avoid negative impact on ourselves; we protect near-extinct species to save their DNA for potential use in pharmaceutical or other research.

Answer 8

I think Douglass Adams (author of Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy) sums it up nicely:

Man always assumed he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much, the wheel, New York, wars, and so on, and dolphins just mucked about in the water. Conversely, dolphins considered themselves more intelligent for just the same reason.

Answer 9

on a similar time as maximum individuals do no longer even realize it, their attitude in the direction of different species and existence types on earth comes from the inborn theory that we are sentient beings. we are able to think of, we are able to rationalize, we've thoughts and act on those thoughts quite than intuition. we are able to think of and resolve issues in a manner that different creatures won't be able to. simply by opposing thumb affiliation on our palms we are able to creating and manipulating issues to our desire. This in turn reasons human beings to sense improved to different creatures. we've stepped forward our society and shape to the factor that we are able to truly obliterate an residing ingredient we dislike. And, on a similar time as a lot of human beings do have a in charge ethical sense approximately our movements and blatant push aside for different existence types, the underlying fact maintains to be that the human has been the main valuable and clever creature to this factor. the overpowering majority of people on earth have not have been given any regard for the killing of different creatures as a meals source. on a similar time as animals use intuition of survival to acquire meals, human beings will contrive procedures of exploring any and all residing issues interior the international instead meals. we've come to work out ourselves as limitless in our quest to be the improved species and our skill to do merely that. until the time comes whilst destruction of different existence types interior the international incredibly does international harm and impacts the lives of human beings, i'm afraid that human beings will proceed to have a entire push aside for different species. That, of path, is strictly my own opinion. Who is nicely-known with of, according to hazard sometime a exceptionally good creature would eveolve and human beings will make the completed circle and bypass back to being the hunted quite than the hunter!!!!

Answer 10

We have the power to save and destroy. We our the gods of our kingdom! Animals must submit to our will or be destroyed! And therefore we hold ourselves in higher esteem, perhaps irrationally.