“I only made the comment to contest the “green” notion that somehow human beings are an alien disruptive force in an other wise pristine natural order and should be extirpated.
Thanks for the polite discourse too. I do believe humans are certainly a disruptive force (amongst many types of forces they exhibit), but not an alien one. And I don’t espouse that the natural order is wise and pristine at all. In fact, I’ve been known to say that if God does exist, he’s a real bastard for creating such an inhumane world that thrives on one organism killing another (and the organisms doing the killing thriving as well). A devil couldn’t have done a better job of creating this world. (Okay, no lightning strikes so I’ll proceed). But not putting Man’s actions in a separate class above and beyond the rest of nature is like saying man is made of matter, therefore he is just like the rest of the universe. I believe we should differentiate ourselves and hold ourselves to the highest standards. That would be my emphasis, not cloaking us as just another part of of the natural order. We are certainly not. We are unique (at least until the machines take over).
I agree with much of what you said. I too have often had the wish that G-d had made the world differently, not one in which everything was killing and eating everything else. Given that we indeed live in such a world, we simply do the best we can.
As far as man being unique in the universe, well, let me simply say that the universe is a vast place with many surprises for us yet to discover.