Theoryofrelativity said:
I don't have a religion
Humans are not more important than animals but we are superior in intelligence and we have the ability to problem solve and these two facts give us a collective advantage against all other animals.
If you truly believe this are you
a) a vegetarian who believes everyone else should be too;
b) happy to kill other people (or have them killed) and eat them?
If there is no difference in status or importance between people and animals then there should be no rational logical problems in humans eating other humans or hunting them or shooting them for sport (historic culture based on theistic morality cannot of course be cited in this context as you would not believe that such was 'logical').
Therefore either the proposition of humans eating other humans or hunting them or shooting them for sport is reasonable or else your original premise was false.
I believe that any civilised society requires to believe that people are more important than animals. Those that have not have included the Third Reich with the inevitable appalling consequences.
Just because you do not believe in God does not require you to disbelieve everything the Bible says. Much could still be true, although I accept that evolution cannot explain people being different to animals, which is presumably why you
say you believe that they are not.
But do you honestly believe that you are no more important than a cow or a sheep? I somehow doubt that in reality. Are you certain that your naturalistic evolutionary dogma has not caused some distortion of reality and some self delusion here?
I believe that God made people special for special purposes (that could not be done by animals) as below (from Luke 12):
22-24He continued this subject with his disciples. "Don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the ravens, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, carefree in the care of God. And you count far more.
25-28"Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can't even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don't fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?
29-32"What I'm trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don't be afraid of missing out. You're my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.
33-34"Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can't go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
People are more important than animals but not more important than each other (or God!).
The problem in many of our modern societies (especially in the west) is not the theoretical status of animals against human beings but the reality of the status we give to people, believing that some (often we, ourselves in the rich world) are somehow of higher status than others (particularly those in the majority poorer world). We are not usually honest enough to say this with our words but we most certainly show it clearly with our actions (world resource use, pollution, global warming, unfair trade, indebtedness, linked aid, arms sales and other support for immoral regimes and insurgents - the list could go on and on!).
regards,
Gordon.