Why is human life valued?

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What do mean by conscience? If you mean that humans have empathy and can tell right from wrong, then it's also true that animals have that too. Research has proven it.

Also, I'm not sure that you know what instinct is. It simply means a behaviour that doesn't need to be learned. In that sense, while some behaviours in animals are instinctive, others are learned. A dog shaking off water from it's wet fur is instinctive, a lioness knowing how to hunt is not instinctive and is actually learned behaviour. Some behaviours in humans are also instinctive. For example, it's been argued that language is an instinct because a young child can pick up the language of it's parents without much learning. Sexual activity in humans is instinctive because people know how to have sex regardless of whether they've been educated about what it is.

So to summarize, animals have empathy for members of their own social groups and therefore a morality which parallels the morality and conscience of humans. Both animals and humans have both learned and instinctive. Oh, and it's likely that animals also have minds and therefore consciousness, so your statement that they don't is actually not true in that regard either:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_consciousness

So, we are not really that different from animals in any of the things you've mentioned. The only difference is that animals have varying levels of intelligence. We may be the smartest species, followed by dolphins and cetaceans and then other primates.

Last edited by Jono on 24 Feb 2014, 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Because we are Humans, and we want to survive.

People don't let animals maul them to death because animals are their equals, well except for people like the grizzly man.

Most people think, I don't wanna die, so you are instead. It doesn't really matter if it is being said about a human either, though we are more likely to spare a humans life than an animals, yet more prone to kill humans in a fit of rage than animals.

Unless you want to live, you are very welcome to let a mountain lion eat you alive if you so wish.

Yes, we are social animals. We have evolved some level of empathy because it helped us to survive. Like any other social animal.

Now with our larger brains and as civilization advances we train ourselves to expand our empathy to larger and larger constructs. Family to tribe to fellow believers to nations to world to other life. Though maybe the warranty won't cover us that far.

Okay I will take lions as an example and compare them to humans, just to narrow things down some.
A lion society is made up of adult members who are very strong, way stronger than humans. If an unarmed human were to fight an adult lion or lioness in perfect health without any injuries, the human would lose hands down. So what does the human do to even up the balance some, compensate for this deficit in strength? He uses his mind to invent some sort of weapon, the most obvious is the gun. Lions and countless other animals of various species have been killed with guns by humans. Other animals have witnessed this. Name one animal who has figured out a way to outsmart the human, to compensate for the deficit the animal now has thanks to the human inventing a weapon such as a gun. The animals have found no such compensation, if they had, it would be all out war between them and the humans and they might actually be winning or your would, at the very least, see the humans attempting to get along with them better and more respect. So in this respect, until you show me an animal that has figured out a way to outdo the human and dominate him, we are very different. It's because of our minds, our consciousness.
Under the right conditions BOOM humans can accomplish anything through technology. Invention through the mind. It's because our CNS evolved at a greater rate than our bodies.
Another difference is lion justice. Male lions will all fight each other and the one that manages to harm them all physically and psychologically will be the winner and rule the pride. Male lions will kill their challengers, other lions will not say to the strongest male, "Sir, you have the right to remain silent anything you say will be held against you in a court of law." The other male lions bow down, unless one feels like they can win a fight. It's unlikely since they just saw the male kill an opponent. No lion faces a trial or goes to jail even though, technically, he is guilty of murder. He is just allowed to rule the others lions and lionesses.
So if you look closely there are profound, stunning differences between humans and animals. Humans are much more psychological and they are so much more conscious of suffering than any animal. Animals mostly just live their lives, humans fight and they use their mental powers more than physical so the fight is often on a much grander scale whenever they see something they don't like.
What animal has altered the surface of the planet as much as humans? So what if humans haven't always done it, they have always had the potential. Other species have only shown they can be conquered by humans and I am not saying that because I dislike animals. It's just observation.
Animals do not have their own printing press
No written language.
No power grid.
No broadcasting ability.
Grounded animals stay grounded, for example, a chimpanzee cannot fly unless he swings from branch to branch. Even then he is not truly flying. Humans fly in gliders, helicopters and planes.
We can also swim underwater while land animals, for the most part cannot. A fish cannot live on land. They haven't figured out how to make up for the fact they cannot breathe without water.
So you see, the list of differences goes on and on. They are vast and numerous.

Lions can't fight their way through life. They have limited stamina and hunt animals that are faster than them. If they don't coordinate an ambush they don't eat so they have to use cunning and cooperate. Similarly a long time ago our ape-like common ancestor gained some advantage from operating in groups. It's a survival advantage that we are programmed to lean toward. Long before we had guns or fire.

We were cooperating with others long before we had the brains we do today.

No one is saying lions are not capable of hunting they developed the ability to create such strategies as carnivores. And what do humans do? Hunt with guns. It's not he same as the lionesses by a long shot. They must run after their prey and jump on it. Sometimes these are huge animals. A human would most likely die of injuries hunting the way lionesses do.
So you see, same outcome, vastly different means.
Can one lioness suddenly stop running, turn to the other lionesses following her and say, "you know what? I am so sick and tired of this chase. Last time I almost got kicked in the head by a hoof. We should brainstorm and find a way to get them without this!"
Only in Disney.

I think you are being a little too literal. Humans didn't fall from space in 1850 with rifles at the ready.

I'm talking about human potential based on their personal history of evolution. We have seen the outcome. Name me one species with a similar outcome.
Maybe ants or termites but still not quite there. I haven't seen them hosting their own version of the Olympics. Yet.
Hey, everyone is on their own evolutionary journey so who knows. It will be quite a while before they reach that state though.

I'm just noting that we are social animals, just like the other social animals, but with bigger brains. That's where our empathy comes from.

We certainly have all sorts of potential. I don't think the ants, termites or lions can match the holocaust yet.

This is what I have been saying all along, Simon
The CNS has evolved rather than the muscles?

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