Anthropocentrism

This pervasive viewpoint that all life revolves around human life is the cause of so much suffering and destruction. Religion often backs this up. Was religious doctrine manipulated to support this convenient perspective? I believe so. Frightened of annihilation, homo sapiens have removed themselves from the circle of existence, remolded the circle into a pyramid and placed themselves at the top. 

This hierarchical thinking is the excuse for factory farming, animal abuse and the destruction of the planet. Everything is here for us, in fact, God himself ordained it so. This hierarchical thinking not only is a green light for abuse of all that is non-human, it creates suffering for humans as well. We consider ourselves loving, reaching towards a life of compassion and harmony, yet we constantly either ignore or justify cruel behavior. Therefore we exist in a state of underlying mental turmoil. Accompanying our daily lives and possibly invading our dreams, conflicting viewpoints clash within us. We fiercely love our pets, yet have no qualms about eating abused pigs.

It seems science is discovering more and more that non-human animals are a lot more aware than we would have thought. I feel I have intuitively always known this, at least it doesn't surprise me and I am sure a lot more discoveries are coming. For example, fish ARE intelligent and from what I understand fruit flies dream.

I wrote a very short piece depicting life from a non-human viewpoint. 

The view of extraterrestrial beings according to one

 Drosophila Melanogaster 

Belief in aliens was common. There were stories of those who had been abducted never to return. I didn't believe it, out there in the darkness was nothingness. Yes, we had enemies who attacked us, eating our young, but we dealt with them, we were powerful.

As I gorged on the delicious flesh. That sweet, enveloping scent. There was no room for any thoughts but satiation and procreation. Then a shadow fell upon the landscape. The blackened banana tilted and seemed to lift. Was that a space ship up ahead? The metal door opened and I fell, fell into darkness.

"Drosophila melanogaster is a species of fly in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly."
 Excerpt from Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila_melanogaster