Lifespan of squirrel indicates no value to life?

[Iamme]

I just lost this post, at Dictionary .com (aaaaaargh!!!!)

A lady wants me to come screw a soffit board back up to her rafters because this is how the squirrels get in. She is also afraid it will bring down the electrical wires it is resting on, and fall/arc onto the propane tank below and create some catastrphe like a scene from the movie "Meet the Parents".:D

Anyway, she went on to say that many squirrels only live a year because they get some mange-like disease caused by mites. (Wolves get something similar.) Anyway...a little ol mite, can do in the squirrel. It's hair falls off and this exposes the squirrel to the elements. All because of some mite.

This got me thinking about how insignificant...how little value there seems to be for life. Humans aren't immune from such scenarios either, where some seemingly insignificant creature, insect or bacteria can do us in. This could be anything from a bee-sting to a flesh eating bacteria. Something that in itself, needs to survive, by surviving on it's host, to the point that it kills the host.

We were created to have dominion over all the creatures of the earth? The evidence shows me that life just 'is', and that creatures that seem to be higher up the totem pole from other creatures, do not have any dominion whatsoever. It makes me wonder what the sense is of these creatures even existing is? It certainly doesn't seem to be for the worth of their own being? Either that, or it's a case where all creatures, small and great, exist and manage to do so by procreating. Those that live lesser spans produce more, so the species survives. But on an individual basis, there is no value to life....so it seems to me.

[Andonyx]

Originally posted by Iamme


We were created to have dominion over all the creatures of the earth? The evidence shows me that life just 'is', and that creatures that seem to be higher up the totem pole from other creatures, do not have any dominion whatsoever. It makes me wonder what the sense is of these creatures even existing is? It certainly doesn't seem to be for the worth of their own being? Either that, or it's a case where all creatures, small and great, exist and manage to do so by procreating. Those that live lesser spans produce more, so the species survives. But on an individual basis, there is no value to life....so it seems to me.

From a purely biological standpoint, you're probably correct.

While each species matters, usually a great deal to its native eco-system, the life of one individual matters not. If it did, then surely the species would be too fragile to survive, because genetically speaking it would have put all its eggs in one basket.

Thus the inconsequentiality of one member of a species is also the strength of the species in that it it can easily replace the lost link, or redistribute the burden of survival among its other members.

It sounds rude and crass to say it, but in a world of 6 billion people, how much are we really gonna miss a few, or a few thousand here and there?

And you can imagine the situation for say rodents or insects is even bleaker for a budding furry Ayn Rand, because with numbers in the hundreds of billions to possibly trillions for things like termites, each termite is about as vital to the race as a drop of water is to a river.

[c4ts]

A squirrel can give value to its own life. What's preventing a squirrel from living a great and fulfilling life, even if it's only for a year?

[hgc]

Originally posted by Iamme
...

We were created to have dominion over all the creatures of the earth? ...I wouldn't say we were created with that purpose (or not created at all, so to speak), but rather we happen to have dominion over mostly all the creatures by dint of our ability to alter the environment and to kill anything we want. So there is a responsibility there.

Of course life 'in the wild' is a lot riskier and shorter than for creatures under human care, and hence pet dogs and cats (besides being largely human creations) and other pet 'wild' animals live, on average, much longer than they would in their natural milieu. It's not like it's a matter of low value to life, because nature does't assign 'value' in the same way we do. Humans do also value life in wildly inconsistent ways.

[bjornart]

Originally posted by Iamme
I just lost this post, at Dictionary .com (aaaaaargh!!!!)

A lady wants me to come screw a soffit board back up to her rafters because this is how the squirrels get in. She is also afraid it will bring down the electrical wires it is resting on, and fall/arc onto the propane tank below and create some catastrphe like a scene from the movie "Meet the Parents".:D

Anyway, she went on to say that many squirrels only live a year because they get some mange-like disease caused by mites. (Wolves get something similar.) Anyway...a little ol mite, can do in the squirrel. It's hair falls off and this exposes the squirrel to the elements. All because of some mite.

This got me thinking about how insignificant...how little value there seems to be for life. Humans aren't immune from such scenarios either, where some seemingly insignificant creature, insect or bacteria can do us in. This could be anything from a bee-sting to a flesh eating bacteria. Something that in itself, needs to survive, by surviving on it's host, to the point that it kills the host.

We were created to have dominion over all the creatures of the earth? The evidence shows me that life just 'is', and that creatures that seem to be higher up the totem pole from other creatures, do not have any dominion whatsoever. It makes me wonder what the sense is of these creatures even existing is? It certainly doesn't seem to be for the worth of their own being? Either that, or it's a case where all creatures, small and great, exist and manage to do so by procreating. Those that live lesser spans produce more, so the species survives. But on an individual basis, there is no value to life....so it seems to me.

The bible, as always, has your answer. :D

Ecclesiastes 3:
18 I also thought, "As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"
22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

[c4ts]

The Bible says everything is meaningless. Now it all makes sense!

[Yahweh]

Originally posted by Iamme
We were created to have dominion over all the creatures of the earth?
Only to the human(self)-centric elitist...

[pupdog]

Arf, of course it depends on your point of view. From the Escherischia coli perspective, humans were created to provide a warm, cozy place to eat and reproduce.