Welcome to Gaia! ::

I ask you... what exactly do you mean by equal? There are a lot of things this word can imply. In the context of the current argument, I've been using equal primarily to mean neither superior or inferior. By assigning superior/inferior to something, you are placing a value judgement upon it, which is entirely subjective. Guess that's why I believe everything, plant, animal, human, inorganic, inanimate, to be equal. They're all equally valuable as they all serve a purpose.

Equally important for what purpose? And whose? Well, I won't go into whose, it's running around in more circles.
Gaia Online: Self explanatory, look at all the "Meh wants mad Nitemare Scarves!" people.
The Sims: 8 pixelized people run around a pixelized world created by you to do things that you or Maxis tells them to do. But why?
One can choose to dl a "nuke" (Yes, SimNukes exist), buy the nuke, and make 3 -room fires, or one can go through the carrer chain, or whatever. The point remains that everything is open-ended. The only concrete thing is that sinks and showers increase Hygene, etc. etc.
A circle of life: We are born, eat re-processed soil in the form of fruits, veggies, etc. and die and become said fruits, veggies, etc.
Unless you were Spock, you usually weren't shot into the outer atmosphere, you were buried (and assuming we didn't do funerals, you just turned into fertilizer).
Why? : Because that's the way things are. We cannot explain them other than the fact that we exist in a "Endless Waltz" (Anime Pun/Reference Intended) where people, things, and artistic movements are born, die, and recycled for new things to be born.
We exist to exist. So that other things may exist as well. Exist with the same importance, give or take wether or not you're the next Einstein or a hard-point pen.
And to get a kick out of it, sometimes. But that's opinion.