Man vs. Wild (or something like that)

"Do people possess some inherent qualities that might make their lives have greater moral significance than the lives of other animals?"

My English professor wrote this on the board today in class. It was over some of the reading we were supposed to do but me being without a book to read it from, didn't complete the assignment. We were instructed to journal about it, once again, no book so no homework was done. The professor wanted us to break down the question to something simpler; to her it was too wordy. People interjected thoughts and she crossed stuff off and we eventually came to this question:

"Do people possess qualities that give them greater moral significance than animals?"

I sat and thought about and had wondered why I was thinking about it because the answer was so simple. "We're God's children; animals are not." After this the professor broke us into groups. In my group were 3 guys and me. I enjoyed the group. They were pretty cool guys. One of them had shot an arrow through his arm (yes through, he said he had to pull it out on his own) so we had talked about that for a little bit. Then we got down to what we actually were supposed to be doing.

Everyone in the group agreed that there is no way animals and humans are on the same scale. We said that their world and our world are 2 totally different things. Animals have no technology, no set of rules, and no morals. As humans we have everything they don't. However, if we were forced to live in their world; we wouldn't last very long. Our species has made the most adaptations out of any other because we have the intelligence to do so. We KNOW what is right and wrong.

Getting a little off subject, one of the guys said something about Adam and Eve. We talked about how we're all related somehow. Everyone in the world has descended from them. One guy said he thought we came from fish and was shot down abruptly. Another guy started talking, "See thats one thing I don't get," he looked up and lowered his voice, "where did black people come from?" A good question. One I can't answer.

Back to the animals against people discussion, something was said about death. Humans know what death is, animals don't. We know. They don't have the emotional feelings we do. If their parents die how do they react? Oh well. If our parents die we're upset, we're sad, well most of us, and much more emotional than animals are.

Also, sex was brought up. Animals just do it to reproduce. This is true for humans as well. However, sex is much more intimate for the married human couple. Well, should be married couple. Animals do not get married; cannot get married. They lack the understanding that we don't.

Overall good discussion. I enjoyed it and led me to think about things and dig a little deeper to things I just take for granted. Now all I need is a book...