Are animals more noble than humans?

[griffon652]

Originally Posted by Matt Marcinkiewicz

We live to survive, eat, and reproduce. We just tend not to realize that.

That is the first thing people have to understand before thinking about this question. Humans are just smarter animals in comparison to all the other animals on this planet. My use of the word "smarter" was intentional. For all our "intelligence" approximately 85% of us are barely above the level of animals. This sounds controversial until you realize that most of humanity is so dumb that they don't understand the statement you made and never will.

And when I say "comprehend" I referring to the depth of that statement. The 85% have no clue that most of their actions that contribute to the above 3 categories are driven more by their emotions, biology and instinct then the so called "intelligence" that we give our species credit for having. If they did, the world would be a much better place to live in. This leads me back to the question the OP asked.

Animals are not noble by human definition. Very few of them have any altruistic capabilities. Conversely, very few of them go out of their way to needlessly make any other living being suffer. Animals are the closest thing to being morally neutral as you can get. On the other hand humans are a perfectly horrible mix of our innate biological desires/instincts that animals possess coupled with a bit of intelligence. We have just enough intelligence as a species to know we are better then animals in terms of capabilities; yet we are too stupid to realize how horrible of a species we are even when judged by our own moral standards.

So animals are not noble by any standard. However, when judged from the moral standard of "causing an untold amount of mass suffering, torture, destruction and pain" for reasons that do not involve the survival of their own species; animals are leagues above humans. Its not even a fair comparison because we are the worst in that category by a wide margin.

[GTOlover]

Originally Posted by orbiter

“Indeed, people speak sometimes about the ‘animal’ cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to animals, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel”

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Man Chimpanzee's are badass....Plus Chimps are pretty much like us and that have evolved to learn they use use tools and can think strategically plus have great memories and can adjust their tactics on the fly shows very high intelligence.


But they can be just as cruel as us or as helpful as us it just all depends since they all have different individual personalities and temperaments.


Another Mammal I think we may have luck working with as in communicating is with pods of Dolphins they are the fun loving Shark killing sometimes human helping and very curious about us creatures.

[fisheye]

When a predator like a fox or raccoon gets into a chicken house they will kill every one until none are moving. Then they will take just one home for food. I would presume they would come back again to take more with them if they could. But the point is that they kill as long as any of the prey are moving; it is what nature taught them. The only exception to this is if there were far too many to kill or they did not spot one hidden and not moving. They are not interested in the time and money the farmer spent on raising that flock.

With the recent looting and rioting humans are almost acting the same way. They sense a 'free' meal or loot and do not want others to beat them to the spoils. So, in many cases, are we not also acting out like our wild animals? We are not thinking of the consequences of the lost jobs and stores; only the immediate gratification. In the long run we are not thinking about the pain and suffering we are causing to others.

So which is more noble? One that does not think and only acts or one that acts and does not think until after the fact?

[msgsing]

Nobility? Take the human equation out of the things that inhabit this world and your pets and other animals would tear each other apart to survive. Nobility is a social construct that only people could imagine.