Does your life intrinsically have any more value than that of any other animal?

You are presuming a symmetry here. All living beings are equivalent in their lives having worth. There is nothing scientific that asserts a basis for that symmetry. Flea, pig. Human, toad. Jellyfish, worm. All equal worth.

That can only come from some value system you are projecting.

It is a valid position for Jains and Buddhists and other practitioners of ahimsa. In the Buddhist context, all sentient beings have Buddha nature, and thus identical potential.

Even there, there is a broken symmetry, as not all beings have equal odds for actualizing that potential.

Which is what I think physics shows. The non equilibrium thermodynamics that lead to life, also lead to incredible complexity and diversity which includes higher animals with capacity for language, kinships, abstraction, the use of tools, etc. I would have a hard time with a false equivalence between all living beings as this would weigh killing 100 worms when I deworm my dog with killing 100 chimpanzees, whales, dolphins, elephants, etc.

So I am good with a model where all living beings have equal value re being protected and valued as part of an ecosystem. Not one that elevates killing a yeast cell with killing a 10 year old girl.

values are personal priorities, there's nothing absolute about them. we choose to value or not value something and by this action we decide what is important or less important. so if we decide to value life than we should treat life with respect. we are full of contradiction, we understand suffering and can feel compassion for all things and then force animals to live in captivity in sometimes horible conditions just so we can kill them and eat them when we see fit. as we become more aware our behavior should reflect that if we choose to value integrity.

@Pikachu It does. We go about our day-to-day lives with the tacit assumption that we are superior to at least some forms of other life. If all lives were of equal value, we would be gently seeing the floor in from of us constantly to save the lives of tiny spiders. We don't do that but we would if we considered all life as intrinsically of the same value.

The choices we make (and the assumptions that we live by) are based on a hierarchy of the relative value of animal life. It's inevitable. Now I do support animal rights and I am against cruelty to animals. However, these animal rights only concern themselves with rodents upwards. That is before we get to other issues; like people care a lot more about cute animals than animals that are ugly. Do you wanna sponsor a hyena or save a baby panda?

So the idea that our lives are intrinsically the same as animals is a non-starter. We value some animals more than others.

Also, are you in favour of equalisation in prison sentences for cats and humans?

It's complicated init? Like sentience matters. Also, I'm an omnivore and consume meat. I have respect for veganism but I don't think it unnatural for humans to kill and consume animals.

Being deliberately cruel to animals, just because? That is where I draw the line.

If that be the case you should hand yourself over for each and every case of insect murder you've commited since you were a kid.

We step on insects every day.

I would say no at base value with no variable thrown in. A life is a life. With a variable thrown in then both me and the creature have our responsibilities whether they be moral or instinctual.

According to God's Word, I'm more valuable than any animal. For, according to His Word, I'm not an animal.

No

Your illustrations speak aloud about your post's subject.
You put Efforts in your finds!
Sustain! Blessings.

You sound like an incredible empath 😊

I would hope that it does.

To you. 🤨