I’ve often heard this phrase spoken with a hint of superiority and moral disdain: “Don’t be like the animal.”
It’s usually uttered in religious or moral conversations, meant to shame certain behaviors as base, instinctual, or lacking in spiritual refinement. The implication is clear animals are lesser. They lack reason, restraint, and religion. And we, as humans especially religious humans are supposed to be above them. But the more I reflect on it, the more I find myself asking: What, really, is so wrong with being an animal?
The Assumption of Superiority
The belief that humans are superior to animals is deeply rooted in many religious traditions. In Abrahamic scriptures, man is given dominion over the earth and all creatures. In other traditions, humans are seen as unique beings possessing a soul, reason, or enlightenment that sets them apart. Religion, then, becomes the imagined dividing line. It’s the thing that supposedly “elevates” us from the instinctual to the divine. Without it, we are no better than animals—or so the saying goes. But this assumption deserves a second look.
Animals Do Not Wield Ideology
It’s true some animals engage in violence. Chimpanzees, our closest relatives, have been observed waging territorial raids, even killing rivals from other groups. Lions and hyenas fight over hunting grounds. Wolves may drive out or kill competitors.
Nature is not without its brutal moments. But here’s the key distinction: animal violence is not ideological. It is not moralized, ritualized, or justified by belief.
Animals fight for survival for food, safety, territory, and reproduction not for abstract ideals. Humans, on the other hand, have a tendency to turn ideas into weapons. We fight not just for territory, but for truth.
We go to war not just to survive, but to conquer in the name of God, country, or sacred texts. We burn, torture, and destroy not out of necessity, but because we believe we are right or worse, chosen. When animals kill, they do not preach about it. They do not write manifestos.
They do not pass hatred down through generations. They do not claim their violence is righteous. That is uniquely human.
The Myth of Moral Superiority
Religion does not automatically make one moral nor does the absence of religion make one immoral. In fact, many animals display behaviors that align with our most cherished values.
Elephants grieve their dead. Dolphins cooperate in hunting and protect the injured. Wolves care for the elderly and sick in their packs. Bonobos resolve conflict through affection rather than dominance.
Crows use tools. Dogs show loyalty. Cats form attachments. Altruism, compassion, and intelligence exist across the animal kingdom not as commandments, but as instinctual expressions of life. If anything, animals live in greater balance with their environment than we do. They take what they need and leave the rest.
They do not exploit. They do not pollute. They do not hoard or destroy for status. So again, what makes us better?
The Danger of Denying Our Animal Nature
By denying that we are animals, we create a false hierarchy with humans on top and everything else beneath us.
This opens the door to domination, exploitation, and destruction not just of animals, but of one another. The myth of superiority feeds ego. It separates. It justifies cruelty.
Ironically, by rejecting our animality, we risk rejecting our humanity too. Because what we call “human values” often emerge from our evolutionary roots empathy, cooperation, care for the young, group survival. These are not divine gifts.
They are biological necessities, shaped over millennia. We are animals. Social ones. And it is this shared evolutionary heritage our need for connection and interdependence that forms the basis of our morality.
Embracing Our Place in the Web of Life
What if, instead of distancing ourselves from animals, we learned from them? What if being “like the animal” meant being more attuned to our instincts, more present in our bodies, more honest with our needs?
What if we accepted that we are not above nature, but a part of it? Humanists, secularists, and freethinkers often find a deep sense of reverence not in the divine, but in the real the living world around us, the interconnectedness of ecosystems, the intelligence of creatures we once dismissed as “lesser.”
There is beauty, wisdom, and grace in animal life qualities we desperately need to remember in an age of technological distraction and moral confusion.
So no there is nothing inherently wrong with being an animal. What’s dangerous is believing that religion automatically makes you better than one. Let us walk gently. Let us be honest. Let us be humble enough to learn from all forms of life.
In the end, the question isn’t whether we are better than animals. The question is: Are we wise enough to be worthy of being human?
