ZOMG! A SPIDER! Get it, get it, GET IT!

[Chez Daja]

what gives us the right to judge whether a creature deserves to live or die

Are you a vegetarian or a vegan? If not, don't you think that's hugely hypocritical of you? Two different things, yes. Cows, sheep, chickens and other animals are killed for meat, but they're still killed because humans choose to kill them.
You may not think of it as a strong arguement, but I think it's totally valid, if you really want to get into that.

i am sure we as the human race won't like it when a superior race comes and starts deciding if we live or not and squash us because they find us disgusting.

When is this going to happen? If there are aliens out there who want to harvest our world for resource, then maybe. But it looks highly unlikely to happen in my lifetime. If it does, then I will accept that this is the revenge of the spiders.

They don't know that we can beat them but as a general rule anything bigger than themselves they either find us as a threat and become agitated and defend themselves or as a predator and run.

Of course. That is tied in with instinct and is completely natural. I'm not saying spiders deserve to die. I'm saying that I personally do not like them because they make me uncomfortable. Me killing a couple of spiders isn't going to cause an extinction. It's horrible yes, but 95% of the spiders I find, I will put back outside. It's only when I have no access to a window or door that I will kill them.
But please note that I am an avid animal lover. Spiders are the only thing that I dislike immensly in terms of creatures.

See, if all people thought exactly like me, all that destruction that went into making the rich richer would never have happened, hence making the world a better place to live in.

You're talking about animal extinction, yes? How would thinking like you make the world a better place to live in? Even if we still had species that are now extinct, we'd still have war and terminal disease. We just wouldn't have the resources to deal with those things more effectively because we most likely wouldn't have all the brilliant technology we have today.

Sure, I don't like the extinction of animals. But sometimes, it just can't be helped. We can't go back in time and erase our improvement for human life and we can't turn into greenpeace over night. It simply cannot be done.
Again, me killing a couple of spiders isn't going to cause extinction -- most people don't even actually kill them; they put them outside. I cannot undo what mankind has done. I think we should leave extinction out of this, considering that us, as individual people on an Internet forum could have no say as to why species have gone extinct. I think this will have to remain an undisclosed topic, or at least, moved to a new topic, where we won't be derailing the thread.

SO, since I derailed this a little more... I disgress and will get back on the actual topic at hand.

In that web, the spider will trap disease spreading insects such as flies and mosquitoes.

Fair enough, spider catches fly. Fly dies, becoming drastically less annoying.

Without them, you'll get AIDS. So if you already don't have AIDS, you should thank your fellow spider. If you do have AIDS, it's because you keep killing them. I'm telling you, that arachnophobia is a killer.

No. I should thank the fact that science has proved that flies and mosquitoes do not pass AID's around as it is physically impossible for them to transmit the disease.
I also think it's pretty silly of you to assume that just because people kill spiders means they will indefinately develop a disease from a fly. You know how rare that is in Western countries, right? Spiders have saved me from absolutely nothing, therefore, I don't have to be thankful to my "fellow spider." They are still a nasty, disgusting creature in my eyes. If you disagree, that's fine -- it's not a big deal whatsoever. It's not like I want spiders to die, I just don't like them being in my house, and therefore, take them outside.
Agreeing to disagree is one of the beauties of being a human.

Furthermore, diseases transmitted from flies and mosquitoes are proven to be minimal (except of course for things such as malaria, which isn't a problem where most of us live -- and cannot be stopped simply by a few extra webspinners.)

Flies are dirty, yeah. I don't like them, but I dislike spiders more. As much as you disagree with that, it's my right -- and my natural reaction to the creatures.

This was quite an enjoyable discussion, if not a bit morbid.