asaris

Well, they aren't aware of anything, strictly speaking. Of course, they feel pain, and act as if they 'knew' they felt pain, but they don't have the cognitive faculties to actually be aware of feeling pain. Of course, this is based in both philosophical and theological preconceptions, as well as the belief that 'science' has not yet disproved it. There's nothing serious riding on it. The fact that animals feel pain is sufficient to establish for them all the 'rights' that I would want to give them anyway, and my beliefs in God and Christ in no way hinge on humans being somehow unique, either in the universe or on the planet.

Let me try to explain a bit better. It's a hard subject, and it doesn't help that it's not really my area, but I'll give it a shot. The reason humans are able to be aware of things in general is because we have a reflective capacity. So we not only feel pain, we can think 'hey, I'm feeling pain', and so we can either react to it or not react to it. Animals don't have that kind of choice, since they don't have the capacity to reflect on their feelings. It's this second-order sort of phenomenon that I mean to refer to when I'm talking about 'awareness'.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche