Why do we humans like to exalt ourselves above all other animals as if we are better?

Hubris.

We can talk, while they can’t.
We can think abstractly, while they seemingly can’t.
We have law, education, medication, blah blah blah, while they don’t.
We know what to do morally according to us, while they don’t.
We have clothes, while they don’t.
We can learn new things, while they mostly can’t.
We can change and conquer the nature, while they can’t.
And finally, we think we are superior, while they don’t.

“our intellectual abilities in most ways are vastly greater than most other animals”

If other animals had the intelligence, they would do the same thing. I can see it in the way the dogs interact with one another that there’s a caste system among them

Because we can ask questions like the one you just did.

Because we have opposable thumbs.

No rational reason, other than ego. Because of humans “advanced” intellectual capabilities we ass-ume we are somehow the most special and advanced of life forms. I disagree.
It’s luck of evolution and al life forms are created equally, from the same building blocks of life. Human ego does not like the ultimate truth that we are no more special than a rose bush or a sea turtle or a house mouse.

Ego rules, but when we come right down to it, life forms are just life forms and our form is one of the least unique and specialized.
I think Jumping Spiders and Tree Frogs and Octupus are way more interesting than hominids. lol

I guess it’s easy to kill everything, but yeah, catch a fly and then make it understand you’re superior to it. You’ll never be able to. If we were that awesome, we could make animals understand things in ways that don’t include rudimentary methods which they only abide by because they need to eat, anyway.

Contraception, table manners & pwning on xbox live

Because we have shotguns, harpoons, bulldozers, scalpels, airplanes and can put our butts in space. Take that Mr. Baboon!

Because our heads too high and our minds too slow.

Humans don’t need to excel in nature, we adapt and alter the environment to suit our own needs.

The primary instinct of any member of any species is to survive to ensure the continuation of that species. Because humans are capable of abstract thought, we consciously assign ourselves to the top of the hierarchy of importance. If you observe members of other species in the wild you will see that they each assign to their own kind in their own way the top position. The main difference is that we are able, by virtue of more sophisticated thinking and the ability to manipulate our environment, to dominate.

If we stop thinking of ourselves as worthy to exist, the species will die out. “Hubris” and “ego” in this context are basically just euphemisms for our survival instinct.

I think we should die out, time to start over.
A return to the garden, minus man.
Our species has done nothing but decimate and dominate the earth and all other living things.
Personally, I kinda hope that a renegade black hole will just swallow us whole. lol

Naw, @Coloma a black hole would swallow the entire earth, not just the human species. It needs to be something more specific, more selective in its’ destructive capabilities. A disease maybe, or a rapture.