Replies

Sentience and self-awareness is a matter of degree

That is an assumption not in evidence. Are you saying an person of IQ 180 has some greater moral authority than a person of IQ 120?

If no, then your linear scale is disproven and you have to seriously reconsider your belief system that God can torture whomsoever he pleases because of "property rights."

That is an assumption not in evidence. Are you saying an person of IQ 180 has some greater moral authority than a person of IQ 120? If no, then your linear scale is disproven and you have to seriously reconsider your belief system that God can torture whomsoever he pleases because of "property rights."

No, I'm saying that a species which has a greater degree of sentience has greater moral authority than a species which has a lesser degree of sentience. Particularly when the lesser species is the property of the greater species (Any exceptions do not disprove the rule, but rather prove it... you have the moral authority to grind a smart pig into spam, but not an infant or severly-retarded human).

If you do not believe this, then I must ask you again to answer my question (curiously unanswered... hmmm....):

God is considerably above us -- moreso than we are above, say, Bambi. Should the Human hunting of Animals, for enjoyment, be outlawed -- even on Private Property?

I loved this movie, but I found the alien angle completely implausible. But the more I think about it, I'm coming around to the idea that there is another level to this movie.
What if the invaders are not aliens, but are demons instead? We don't see any alien technology, just lights in the sky, occult symbols in cornfields, and creatures with hatred for man. If you accept that God exists, then you also have to accept that demons exist as well.
I think that modern man has an aversion to believing that this kind of evil exists, and would rather believe that aliens capable of developing star spanning technology would come millions of light years to our back-water planet for the sole purpose of killing humans.
Replace "aliens" with "demons", and the movie takes on a terrifying new light. Imagine that God gave everyone on earth signs to survive a demonic attack, and the only people that survived were those that listened/believed.