Killing The 400 Pound Silverback Gorilla

By now everyone has heard of the 3 year old boy that managed to climb his way into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati zoo. Fearing for the boy's life, zoo officials made the decision to shoot and kill the 400-pound silverback gorilla named Harambe. I'm not here to discuss whose fault it was or even if it was necessary, everyone else is doing that. What I am more interested in is people's reaction to it.

Several questions occurred to me. Why is it that people's first reaction was not exaltation at saving a child's life, but outrage over killing an animal? Why is there more outrage about the death of Harambe the gorilla and Cecil the lion than millions of babies being aborted, or Christian's dying in Syria? Yes, it's unfortunate that the incident happened at all, or that an endangered species had to be put down, but what does it say about us?

We live in a world where people increasingly care more about animal life than human life. Of course this is nothing new. Clement of Alexandria in the second century chastised the Romans for saving and protecting young birds and other creatures while abandoning their own children. All this is the result of a pagan worldview where animal life is elevated with, and many cases above, human life:

The end result is human life becomes devalued, and so do things like compassion
Genesis 1:26 says, "“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” The pagan worldview strips mankind of his position and authority, making him no better than the animals, and ultimately cheapens his life. In actuality, humans are a special creation that was made to have dominion over the earth. Humans are so special in fact, that God sent His only son to die for them. This is the only worldview that elevates human