One of the problems with modern society is our tendency to give everything in our world human qualities. It might be the animals we own or the various items we own. The dog appears cute to us. We expect the machine to act the way we think it should. We think both have feelings like we do.

The problem is neither does. Nor does the birds in the woods, the cow in the pasture, or that landscape we see looking out into the distance. Each one of these things has it's own properties and they are distinctively unhuman. No creature has the ability to understand time the way constructed by humans, nor do they understand pain and pleasure the same way.

To be sure the animal can feel pain and the lack therefore of pain. Yet, it isn't happy or sad. The animal might make us feel happy or sad, or the landscape might evoke powerful emotions in ourselves, but that should not be confused with it's working self. Our emotions should be a source of our conscience, but it should not overwhelm our sense action.

The thing that spoils many a good animal is excessive love and lack of a respect for its animal character. The same thing could be said about our environment. We should aggressively be trying to understand our natural world, but at the same time keeping our distance. Those who don't understand and don't try to understand should not be pass judgment much less trying to act solely on their feelings.

Respect for nature and all of god's creatures cute and ugly ultimately means we have to try to understand the natural world and take it for what it really is. We must realize we don't know all the answers. Yet, that is no excuse for humanizing the world and projecting our feelings on a complex natural world that has no respect for human feelings.