In a bizarre case that has been going on for nearly three years, a photographer who was in Indonesia had his camera swiped by a monkey and the monkey took a few photos. One of those photos became extremely popular. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sued the photographer claiming that the copyright on the monkey selfie belonged to the monkey and not the human who owned the camera. This silly case has reached pretty high in our court system... embarrassingly and humorously high. But the court once again unanimously ruled that non-humans cannot own copyrights.
PETA took up this case to "expand legal rights for non-humans." In the original settlement of this non-sequitur case the photographer named David John Slater donated a fourth of the revenue from the photo to a monkey charity. I'm not making this up. You can read about it here and elsewhere.
This whole story is funny at best and annoying at worst, right? We all know that monkeys and other animals don't have the same rights as humans. But why do we know this? By what standard do we make this statement?
Evolutionarily we are simply further developed or differently developed animals so what gives us the right to have rights other animals don't have? Does might make right? Just because I'm evolutionarily more advanced do I have power and prestige that a monkey doesn't?
Outside of the statements made by most religions including statements made in the Bible I see no objective reason that I can claim copyright privilege over a monkey. Speciesism anyone? (Speciesism is a very real claim made by some extreme animal rights activist)
The Bible is very clear that humans are different from animals.
"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'
So God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.
God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Genesis 1:26-28
God tells us objectively that there is a different majesty and authority given to humans that is not present in animals. Animals are amazing and diverse and at times very intelligent but they are not humans. Only humans were created in His likeness. Men and women, boys and girls of all shapes, sizes, colors and personalities were created in God's image. Every person on earth has the imago dei, the image of God, printed on them.
The Bible also speaks of treating animals well.
"The righteous man cares for the needs of his animal,
but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel." Proverbs 12:10
The Bible says the way we treat animals has a lot to say about our character, so we must treat them well. But treating animals well and caring for them does not include equating them with humans.
What's the problem with equating animals with humans? Won't animals be helped by this?
Animal rights may be elevated but human rights will be threatened. Reasoning that goes outside of God's thinking in regards to humans and animals will nearly always tend toward blatant sin. Equating people with animals hardly is about speciesism but rather racism that results in Japanese-Americans on trains to internment camps, Jews herded to concentration camps, Native Americans moved on trails of tears and Africans chained in sugar plantations. If we don't recognize the imago dei that exists only in human beings and in all human beings we will error on counting certain colors of people as 3/5 of a person or judging what ability levels we want to treat as superior.
The monkey selfie trial is silly, but let's check our thinking with it. If there is no objective truth that we use for our reasoning in this silly test we set our selves up for failure. We must be able to answer the question, "why is it this way?" with an objective answer. For the Christian the objective answer is, "because the Bible tells me so."
All people are a unique and treasured creation. Look for the imago dei in every human being you encounter today.
No comments:
Post a Comment