It is my believe that all forms of life have an inherent right to
exist, but I do not follow, as some, in the hierarchy of value. All creatures
have a purpose in the environment whether I understand or even know what that
purpose is and I have strong beliefs that each has a definite role.
Some forms
of life may seem ‘scary’ and I have a strong fear of these and don’t always
live according to the ‘right to exist’ ethic.
For example, I have killed the
spiders crawling in my bathroom or set out bait to kill the sweet ants in my
kitchen—with this said it leads me to a retraction: I tend to put a value on certain life forms that are invading
my personal space therefore I do follow a hierarchy of value when it comes to
my fears or needs.
Acknowledging this hierarchy of value put on life, does this
mean I will review my beliefs and not kill a snake that is threatening me
outside of my personal space? No. I feel that I have a right to
self-preservation, but my lack of knowledge as to actually what creatures
(snakes?) are threatening my well-being may be a cause of unnecessary harm.
Possibly with more knowledge of my surrounding environment and its inhabitants
I can learn to co-exist without so much fear and diminish my need to put a
hierarchy of value on life. I definitely don’t want to do harm to any life and
have actually tried to remove the ‘daddy-long-leg’ from my sink and place it
outside and remove the spider from my car antenna by swiping it to the ground.
Sometimes my fear overcomes, though, and I jump to step on the spider that
crawls across my floor without trying to remove it first.
I consider myself a conservationist, though I have not been
my whole life. In younger years I was more of a preservationist; believing that
nature should be left minimally disturbed, providing only basic human influence
by way of living with instead of destroying for comfort or wants.
Now that I
have several decades behind me I see the conservation ethic is the more
appropriate approach. By balancing resource use with its availability we can
grow and develop within the environment while continually being conscious of
and maintaining a balanced living environment for all life.
The preservation
ethic goes hand in hand with a biocentric view on nature and life. With all
life forms having a right to exist it is important to maintain the balance
while allowing room for growth. This would be then expected that humans, with
the ability to think and reason, should take continuous steps to ensure this
balanced environment as other forms of life can not utilize this skill.
This
could be as simple as leaving space for nature to exist undisturbed such as
preserves and national parks and living within nature without disturbing the
environment or natural habitats by invasion and overbuilding. Population is a
major concern for with too much growth too fast will cause a need for survival
of the fittest.
Being raised in a religious family, I believe in a Supreme
Being as having created nature and all life forms. I have come to believe that
evolution and creation are intertwined and as I stated in the beginning
paragraph, every life form has a purpose and has survived or evolved as was
intended from the origins of life on earth.
Population will eventually be
controlled by natural events such as disasters and disease. (Was Katrina
possibly meant as a cleansing tool? Aren’t new forms of viruses evolving to
resist drug each new drug?)
I will continue to learn and grow within my environment and
strive to do what my beliefs lead me to as far as conserving and respecting all
life and the environment. A more compassionate and conscientious attitude to do
more is my responsibility as a thinking, reasoning being coexisting with
other species.
