Secular Humanism and Humanity: What are they?

[Ignorant]

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Unusual or not, I am just curious about how you see things.

Particularly the part about "[You] don't particularly value human life more than animal life." I am curious about a great many things if this is truly what you believe.

Disclaimer: the following question is not a "set up". There is no "priest in the bushes" waiting to pop up with a "gotcha!". I just want to know how your above thought applies to several important areas:

On what basis then, is there a "moral" distinction between owning animals for the sake of work (e.g. dogs, horses, oxen, cattle, etc.) and owning humans for the sake of work? This is not to say that I think such a distinction is impossible on your view, I just want to know how you derive that distinction. If a human is not inherently more valuable/dignified/whatever than the other animals, what is different about the injustice of slavery and the legitimate ownership of animals?