Secular Humanism and Humanity: What are they?

[robvalue]

Ignorant: Valuable... Well, I try my best to never cause any animal to suffer or die. Unfortunately this is an ideal, and sometimes I have to make compromises. But I am rarely in a situation where I need to make an empirical decision about what life is more valuable, I respect it all as far as possible. I don't consider any of it to be expendable. I would have to admit to a sliding scale of bias though that bigger animals and ones more capable of thought carry more weight if I do have to make decisions. I think this is due to a feeling that they are able to suffer more, so should be protected more if decisions must be made. For example, I use flea treatment on my dog. I know this will kill fleas, and I hate that, but I decide to value my dog's health as more important.

But if I sit here and coldly evaluate the life of a dog versus the life of a human say, I don't feel that one is simply more valuable than the other. A human is much more capable of having a large effect on the world, but there's no guarantee that effect would be positive.

So I guess what I'm saying is... Short of some extremely unlikely scenario involving a burning building where I have to make a snap decision based largely on instinct, I don't particularly value human life more than animal life. In fact, I hate the human race as a whole because we are capable of evil on a massive scale, we can and do cause suffering to other animals in ways that "lesser" species simply never could.

But please understand, that is not to say I devalue humans, it's saying that I value animals much more than most people would. Most people see them as in some way lesser and not as important as us. I bring them up to our level, so to speak. I know this is unusual, but that is how I am. I would do my best to stop suffering to any form of life, and I would try and help a human just as much as anyone else.