Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Kamal Boullata: Love and respect of all forms of life is rooted in the believe that the life of all human beings is equally secret everywhere. As long as there are people in our world who continue to be indifferent to human suffering outside the immediate environment and who consider the lives of other people less valuable than theirs, I would not blame any victim of such attitudes to consider the value of human beings on top of all other forms of life.

by Kamal Boullata

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Kigge Hvid: Yes. Hi, Silke. Actually my answer would be yes. And I think the reason why we have the right to believe that is the fact that humans have, are capable of taking responsibility. They are capable of acting and they are capable of planning. So, the only species on the world actually capable of doing something about it are human beings, and I think that we should do a lot of work to actually protect them and enable them to take action. So, on the other hand, you could say a fish could be as valuable as a human being, yeah? Sometimes it is and I guess it is basically, but this is about responsibility. Who are able to take responsibility of developing our work? Humans are and we will then have to hope and work for that they will take responsibility, also serving the better good of the whole planet and the whole universe. So, I find, I am sorry, but I find humans to be more valuable than fish.

by Kigge Hvid

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Kurt Weidemann: Every life has to be respected no matter if it is the life of a worm, a bird or a human being. Certainly human life is not to be positioned so high that nature is suppressed or that other forms of life are eliminated which have a right for existence as well. Certainly the human consciousness is a higher level of development than the life of a worm.

by Kurt Weidemann

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Lesego Rampolokeng: Human beings mistakenly believe themselves to be well shaped. Human beings very incorrectly have assumed positions of power over all our living creatures on this planet and it’s the most unfortunate thing to see. I don’t think any form of human life is greater than any other. I think the end -- I think the antelope, the giraffe love their lives and have every right to do so just like any old human creature might. I don’t think that merely because human beings are in a position to create weapons that lead to the destruction of all life on this planet that they then should be in a position to stand above all other creatures and rule over them. I don’t care if the Bible says something about men, underline that men having dominion over all other creatures. I don’t think that merely because the Bible says that that is then necessarily true. I believe that every single breathing creature on this planet and every single unbreathing creature on the face of this planet has every right to exist and be important and celebrated as any other human being. It is not right. It’s not right to believe that human animals are to be above other animals, other streams, other rivers, other forests. I don’t think that to be correct. Not only does every single creature on the face of the planet have the right to be, but every single creature in the universe has the right to be center to its own existence.

by Lesego Rampolokeng

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Leung Ping-Kwan: The question of addiction, also I have a problem with this question. Of course, the first part of the question, we can easily see that the question is no, it's not that simple. It’s not that we felt that there will be no more suffering. Yes, the question can be such a way that you can only answer no, it’s not that simple. But then, for the second part that also the question really wants you to go into one direction, like it is possible that addiction is not really about drugs but about relationships. I think we can look at this from people’s perspective. Addiction could be something from the inner desire, not necessarily about relationship of human beings formed with one another. Addiction could be with objects, with fetish kind of addiction to other different kinds of things. I think it’s more so from a kind of internal need than something from the inner -- I called it Yin, not Yang, just starting from the human relationship. I mean it could be about human relationship, too, but it is not just about human relationship. I think the addiction is the big issue. It’s something that will worth looking into, there could be all different kinds of reasons for that and it has, I think, blame more to the deep down psychology of a human being with a thinking conscience.

by Leung Ping-Kwan

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Lijun Fang: It is probably right from the point of view of a human being, i. For example, man may have to kill a dog or a cow in order to foster his baby. Even the person only want to either enjoy life or survive, it certainly works in this way. But, when we consider it from a mouse's position, it can also be proper to kill a man so ask to bring up the offsprings. Accordingly, human's life is more valuable than life of other life forms from the point of view of a human being. Indeed, men have various standpoints which are complicated: sometimes they care about people's lives, while sometimes benefit is the most important thing. When man regard for his own advantage, human beings are usually not as valuable as animals.

by Lijun Fang

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Lillian Holt: Yes, well, this is an area I suppose where we have to question one's rights. Do we have the right to do this? I don't think that we have the right to consider human beings as more valuable than other life forms. I think that all sentient beings or feeling beings are equally valuable in the eyes of creation. Otherwise, why would they be there? And I think that we do the greatest disservice when we see somebody behave like animal. I don't think that animals would behave like human beings sometimes. So I wonder who is the higher developed form and why we value the human life above all –- I’m not saying we shouldn’t value human life I'm just saying we should value all life, all life that lives and breathes, all sentient beings. I think most have something similar. So I think that's why a lot of cruelty to animals comes from these people that don’t think they're as quite hard as high in the order of the hierarchy. I think that hierarchal thinking gets us in problems, not just between animals and other human forms, but between human beings, too. It's all interrelated as to who's more valuable. Do we have the right to consider human beings as more valuable than other forms?

by Lillian Holt

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Livingstone Maluleke: Yes, I think this is the right theory. People have got the right to consider human beings as having -- as being more valuable to other life forms, in the sense that human being takes the responsibility of management. Human beings, even in the Bible, were given the responsibility of managing other aspects of human -- who have got human problems as well. So, it is important that we consider human beings as being more valuable to other life forms.

by Livingstone Maluleke

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Mae-Wan Ho: I won’t talk about rights in this context, but I would talk about wisdom. Is it wise to consider human life, human beings as more valuable than other life forms and according to our new way of understanding the universe in quantum physics, we have an entangled universe and what does that mean? That means that our very being is actually deeply entangled, inseparable from the being of every other organism in the universe, and in that sense, if we hurt other beings we are ultimately hurting ourselves. If we really take that seriously, we will realize that we cannot, it is not wise to value the lives of human beings more than any other lives.

by Mae-Wan Ho

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Mahsa Shekarloo:

by Mahsa Shekarloo

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Martin Almada: According to the humanistic conception both human beings and other living organisms, animals and plants, are equally important. If we study well the composition of our planet we can learn to appreciate how wonderfully life is interlinked. There are millions of life chains invisible to the human eye. But each of them has made life on our planet possible. Every insect, every reptile is important to make life on earth possible. It becomes obvious when the balance is lost: when birds and insects get killed by pesticides or native trees are cut down by people or by deforstation. Another dramatic example is the destruction of conches and shellfish on a beach by petroleum and industrial waste. For this reason various ecologists from South America try to draw our atention to this problem and fight for the equality of all living organisms.

by Martin Almada

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Masami Saionji: No, I do not think that we have such a right, because I believe that all lives are equally precious. Therefore, one must not violate other life. I think it was wrong, that human beings encroached on the habitat of animals and plants, and acted there at their own pleasure. In past times people believed that they had such a right and persisted in this belief. As a result, the many kinds of problems emerged in the 21st century. That is, we (all human beings in this century) become the consequences of the self-centered acts in the past history of mankind. Therefore, we must change our action, that is, we should take care of animals and environments. If all of us come to appreciate the necessities of animals and environments and their harmony around the world, I think that such an egoistic idea must not emerge.

by Masami Saionji

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Masuma Bibi Russel: Every form of life is important. It complement each other. You cannot live if it’s only human being, there is not animal, there is not plant, there is not -- we cannot live. So I think it’s necessary to have every form of life. And, which is important to live in this world to complement each other, how could we live without plant, without animal, without other thing. So, I think it’s -- we shouldn’t consider this human being is the more valuable than other form. Every form of life is important. Every form of life deserve to live. Every form of life is important. We need that; we cannot live without each other. We need every form of life. I don’t know which one makes more valuable, everyone is like complement to each other.

by Masuma Bibi Russel

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Mayank Mehta: The answer is, of course, no. The truth is that's not the way human beings behave, so where do we go from there? It’s interesting actually to look at many aspects of this. First aspect is, why is it the way it is? Part of the answer can be found in ourselves, as you’re speaking about the previous question that all of us has a very strong desire for self-preservation with the eyes of the life. Even to make sure we don’t perish as individuals. And those individuals gathered together to make sure that, collectively, you make that us, and our cousins, and distant cousins, and our cities survive which is by in large fine too. But, when that gets into strange situations, one way being feeling threaten by the life forms, be them human or non-human. And they preserve that they oppose minutest of threat to us and our desire of self-preservation gets so out of control that we start destroying them. That’s one thing, and the other condition under which we start to destroy the life is when it is simply convenient. It is convenient to wear certain kind of leather or it is convenient to eat a certain kind of meat, because we are used to it, simple, and we haven’t thought about it. It’s good to know that are many religions, of course, in the world where that is not the case and there are some religions or cultures where it is suctioned. So, it is being done in some part of the world where people are less destructive of other thing and some other parts people are more destructive. So, the solution out of this, is to study those cultures and religions and figure out why are they less destructive compared to others? And can we import some ideas or thoughts from the less destructive cultures to more destructive cultures without, of course, assigning of any value judgment. Simply as an algorithm that is [inaudible] and we bring it and see if it works elsewhere too.

by Mayank Mehta

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Michael E. Tigar: Well, no, I don't think so, but I think that as humans we have a responsibility to all other species because first place, we are the only ones who are able to conceive and build systems of social regulations and systems to bring justice - justice not only to other human creatures but to all species on the planet. And second, because we as humans have the power - the power to affect the well being of all species that are living on the planet. So, how do we do that? How do we exercise our responsibility towards other species, even though we might believe, as I happen to, that we're entitled to eat some of them for our own sustenance? You may not agree with that but whether you agree with it or disagree that, we share this responsibility toward the planet as a whole; to use it responsibly. And it is, in fact, the irresponsible assumption that humans are entitled to take what they want, when they want it, directed by large political and corporate interests that has endangered the planet that we're now living on. So, regardless of our view about shadings of answer to that question, we share this responsibility.

by Michael E. Tigar

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Michael Laitman: First of all, we must realize that the general system of nature is built as a pyramid. At its base there lies the still level: the whole universe, all of the petrifactions, the stars and planets that are in it. This is the lowest part of the pyramid. After that there comes the vegetative part on earth, even higher—the animate part on Earth, and the top of the pyramid is the speaking level, man—not the animate part, not our body, but the speaking or human level in us. Therefore, of course man's life is more important than all other forms and levels of nature—not because we egoistically want this to be so, but because we include all the other forms of the pyramid in us. If we will have the correct attitude towards nature, then we will correct ourselves as well as all of nature as a whole. All of the global natural disasters and problems—the tsunamis, draughts, the harm we inflict on nature, the ecological catastrophes that come down upon us—in the end this is no more than a phenomenon that man projects upon nature. This is why obviously, man's life and his role in nature is the most important one. We will discover that we, with our egoistic attitude towards ourselves and nature, evoke all the disasters and misfortunes, just as in human society, so in all other levels of nature: the animate, vegetative and even the still level. If we will change ourselves, then by this we will also undoubtedly change all of nature as a whole. This is why we need to understand that the ecological disasters that are breaking out in the world today and the new ones that we will still see, depend exclusively on man's attitude toward the world. They do not happen because nature has suddenly come out of balance. Rather, we evoke the disbalance in nature with our thoughts.

by Michael Laitman

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Michael P. Totten: Certainly, we know we have drug problems, but I want to give you a personal story. I grew up in a very violent household with my father from the time that I can remember since being seven years old would beat my brother and myself and my mother, and it left me and my mother and brother in a state of terror constantly. What was remarkable was my father didn’t drink, didn’t do drugs, he was an outstanding citizen, a policeman in the community. But every time I felt he was coming to the room, I was in absolute state of anxiety. Well, it now turns out on research there are literally millions of examples of this, and scientists have been able to study that literally what happens biochemically is that certain neurotransmitters which are normally released to give you a sense of calmness in everyday life, those neurotransmitters actually shrink and cease from being emitted because we’re in a constant state of worry, and of the world giving us neurotransmitters that are keeping us in a state of alertness and awareness out of fear of threat or violence. So, I have spent my entire of life with a lack of certain chemicals in my body, and an excess of certain chemicals in my body, that makes me alert every waking moment of my life, worrying about some form of disaster coming about, as has my brother. So, I look upon drugs, those which are neurochemical drugs internally, that have caused external interactions with others in ways that don’t make it easy for me to say what kinds of drugs should we use and what drugs shouldn’t we use. Certainly, if I found a drug that was--[Audio ends].

by Michael P. Totten

Sep 9, 2006 11:40:00 AM cite

Mohammed Arkoun: We have to pay a lot of attention, to always pay attention to all forms of life. The hierarchy of forms of life can be a matter, but it should be threaten with infinitely many precautions in order to avoid given the man a privilege that he unfortunately gave himself in relation to other forms of life in the nature; and in relation to animals. We have animals for example that are very close to us and are capable of suffering like us, capable of feeling like us, but the desire for power precisely makes that the man probably haven't sufficiently defined a cautious and measured relation with a humanist perspective and a perspective of understanding to the other forms of life. The man despises other men like him, destroys other men like him, slaughters other men like him; therefore there is a deep matter that occurs here. Even within human beings which we qualified as equal to each other in rights and dignity, there are hierarchies we can note, and in which we are living and scandalous, unbearable and intolerable hierarchies settled in the life of men themselves. It simply means that the way we think today has not reached this level of humanism and liberalization despite all the progress recorded.

by Mohammed Arkoun