The answer to “Are animals interior or superior to humans?” is yes. Both are inferior and superior to the other in different ways.
Mankind is uniquely created in God’s image. We have been gifted with greater reasoning and communicative skills, and were given dominion over the animals (Genesis 1:26). But being God’s image-bearers doesn’t mean we aren’t like animals in some respects. Humans and animals have the same bodily organs and systems. As do humans, many animals learn and use tools and show emotions. Like us, many animals adjust to changes, plan, have memories, communicate with each other, experience emotions, make friends, and show love for one another. Like animals, we eat, sleep, and procreate.
In other respects, animals have God-given abilities and instincts that we don’t possess and that far exceed our own. Bats, virtually blind, are superior to humans in their ability to “see” in total darkness. We don’t think of fish as intelligent, but salmon have powers of navigation that no human comes remotely close to. Studies indicate that an estimated 119 million Pacific salmon return to North America each year using the earth’s magnetic field to navigate vast distances.
Usain Bolt reached the speed of 27.79 mph in the 100-meters. But a cheetah, three seconds after he starts running, doubles that speed. The fastest human swimmer recorded speeds of 5.7 mph, while a black marlin was clocked at 80 mph. The peregrine falcon can dive at speeds up to an incredible 240 mph.
An eagle can spot a rabbit three miles away. Homing pigeons can travel over 1,100 miles and still find their way home to the same tree they were born in. Their Creator has given them iron-rich particles in their beaks that help determine their exact geographic position relative to the Earth’s magnetic field.
In these respects, we are obviously inferior to those animals.
Ask what the biggest animal to ever live was and most people would answer, “It has to be a dinosaur.” But the blue whale is alive today, and it is far bigger than any dinosaur. A blue whale can grow to over 100 feet long and weigh more than 400,000 pounds—about the same as 30 Tyrannosaurus Rex, 40 elephants, or 2,000 average-sized men. (Some sauropod dinosaurs were longer, but not nearly as massive.)
Largely due to the tens of thousands of muscles in their trunks alone, a bush elephant is the strongest land creature in the world. It can lift 13,000 pounds, about its own body weight. But relatively speaking, it’s not even close to the strongest animal. In terms of proportional strength, beetles and ants put us and even elephants to shame. At this writing, the largest weight ever lifted by a human is 1,102 pounds. But a rhinoceros beetle, with a little horn on its head, can lift and carry 850 times its own body weight. If humans carried 850 times their own body weight, that would exceed 316,200 pounds, greater than the weight of most adult blue whales.
The dung beetle pulls 1,141 times its own body weight! The human equivalent of such strength would require us to drag 160,000 pounds. In comparison, we are woefully weak.
Animals demonstrate creativity in hundreds of ways at least comparable to human beings. The “Secret Lives of Animals” documentary series shows a bear creating a bed to sleep in, far up in a tree where a fall would likely be fatal. He skillfully weaves small branches together to sufficiently support his considerable weight. He then puts fresh leave on the bed to make it more comfortable. If we had to sleep in a tree, would most of us be able to make a bed as safe and comfortable?
The extraordinary abilities of animals testify to God’s infinite cleverness and astounding creativity, and call for our worship of the Creator! “Great are the works of the Lord,
studied by all who delight in them” (Psalm 111:2).
