To the Editor,
Re: Humans not the centre of everything, Letters, Sept. 1.
I have followed with great interest the bushfire ignited by my recent letter decrying the waste of time and money spent on animal-rights activism in the teeth of humanitarian crises.
The emotional arguments and ad hominem attacks from some respondents would earn them a solid F in debating class, but Ron Heusen raises some interesting points that merit a response.
All the reasons the Roman Empire fell can be traced to the abandonment of morality, and concomitant productivity, for the pursuit of consumerism and hedonism.
The comparison with the current state of Western civilization is, of course, unavoidable, as is the conclusion that the West is decadent, declining and soon to fall.
Indeed it is. However, the assertion that humans are no more valuable than animals implies that humans are intrinsically no different from animals, which is historically and scientifically insupportable, as well as self-evidently untrue.
Rather than fade into the ‘natural’ background, we would do well to take up our proper position as stewards over God’s creation, managing its resources, including lesser living creatures, with justice, mercy and grace, always mindful that we will be held accountable for the manner in which we have treated that which has been entrusted to us.
That way we would never be forced to choose between humane treatment of animals, and feeding hungry kids.
But we are forced to choose, regularly, and the hungry kids have to come first because they’re more important.
Ruth Bard
Nanaimo