I agree with you that I think there is some fundamental truth with humans not being any different than animals, or really plants, etc for that matter. That life is a stubborn, collective, anti-entropic force fighting - for a bit at least - against the cold eventuality of the universe. And in that picture it’s difficult to place humans as logically superior to or separate from any other force of life.
On the other hand, I have a hard time squaring that with practical morality. If all life is equally valuable, we all commit the crime of murder just to eat and survive. That does not feel quite right. And if we say that life is maybe not so valuable, then does it mean the crime of murder itself is not wrong? I think that also doesn’t feel right.
So maybe it’s not that all life is equally valuable, but rather life is valuable. Equality is a human construction, after all - unchecked nature is much more vicious in dealing with inequality in the margins. Life consumes life, that is how it is. It is a cycle that doesn’t quite repeat, and there is no destruction of life in sustenance, only transformation.
And maybe that is what happens when one species - or a million - dies out. Perhaps that is nature’s brutal callousness in action, and as such is a perfectly natural thing to happen. I don’t think I quite like that either.
Every time I have a deep think on the way things are, I’m reminded of the Buddhists, who I think found at least some truth in it all: “life is suffering”. I’m not sure there’s much more to it than that.
On the other hand, I have a hard time squaring that with practical morality. If all life is equally valuable, we all commit the crime of murder just to eat and survive. That does not feel quite right. And if we say that life is maybe not so valuable, then does it mean the crime of murder itself is not wrong? I think that also doesn’t feel right.
So maybe it’s not that all life is equally valuable, but rather life is valuable. Equality is a human construction, after all - unchecked nature is much more vicious in dealing with inequality in the margins. Life consumes life, that is how it is. It is a cycle that doesn’t quite repeat, and there is no destruction of life in sustenance, only transformation.
And maybe that is what happens when one species - or a million - dies out. Perhaps that is nature’s brutal callousness in action, and as such is a perfectly natural thing to happen. I don’t think I quite like that either.
Every time I have a deep think on the way things are, I’m reminded of the Buddhists, who I think found at least some truth in it all: “life is suffering”. I’m not sure there’s much more to it than that.