Hi Russ. I agree with most of what you wrote, except the bit about equating intellect with spirituality. I agree with you completely that animals are mostly "pre-programmed" to behave the way they do, what we call "instinct", and that humans far surpass animals in intelligence, but I think that the main difference between animals and humans is that we have a conscience, the ability to judge what is right and wrong, and animals don't have that conscience.

As animals don't have a conscience, they can't be judged on what is right and wrong. They are therefore essentially sinless emotional beings (can feel pain, loneliness, happiness, fear), and as sinless beings will be reconciled to God, whereas humans are emotional sinful beings because we have the ability to choose between right and wrong and humans brought sin into the world. Animals are subject to the sin of humans and the sin humans brought into this world, which corrupted the natural world - including animals, but not through fault of their own. According to the Bible, all animals will be at peace with each other in heaven, unlike on earth which is subject to sin.

I think to base value of life on intellect can lead down unwanted avenues i.e. the more intelligent a person, the more they are valuable. The more capable a person, the more valuable their contribution, and so forth. These are attitudes that justify abortion etc.Humans have differing intellectual abilities, but intelligence and conscience don't go hand in hand. Very simple people can be good people and highly intelligent people can be very corrupt.

I need to be careful how I put it also, though, because while I believe all sentient creatures have a soul, there is a time when the fetus isn't sentient, which someone could take to mean it's okay to kill it.

Maybe a better way to put it is that all sentient beings have a soul, but only humans have a conscience, and only humans are accountable to God for behaviour and treatment of other living creatures and the natural world. God judges humans, but doesn't judge animals.

I agree completely with you that while humans are most valuable to God, all creatures are still valuable. Kind of like in our families where the human members are "more" valuable, but we love our pets too <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />