Originally posted by RJHindsNo, if someone else wants to kill trees then they can go ahead but fruit and vegetables can be harvested without killing the plant.
Are you one of those "tree huggers".
Does fear mean an animal has a conscience? Or does it only mean that animal is trying to survive because it is genetically coded to do so?
Originally posted by AThousandYoungi have a simpler rule. whatever you eat, it was its destiny to be eaten by you, just as it is your destiny to be eaten by other creatures when the time comes.
Don't eat anything with a nervous system, especially a complex nervous system. That's the best rule I've come up with. I don't follow this rule, but it's the most logical one I can think of.
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-Removed-I am a vegetarian by choice. I turned vegetarian since about 50 years of age. Before that, from age 16, I ate every non-vegetarian item I wanted to eat. I come from a traditional Hindu family not given to eating non-vegetarian food. I was asked by a distantly related aunt to taste a mutton Patti when I was about 16. Thereafter, progress was rapid. I ate even a piece of beef from Muslim colleague's tiffin box, at age 23. I found beef to be stringy and leathery. I did not eat beef ever afterwards, both because of the poor taste and the feeling that I had done something very wrong.
I started on alcoholic drinks also, on or about age 24.
I started smoking on age 28. Gave up smoking at age 33 on health reasons.
When I was about 50, I thought I had just about enough of non vegetarian eating. I saw one day a van carrying chicken to be slaughtered in Mumbai (aka Bombay ). The birds were shivering in the van, due to the rain driving right through the wire- screened sides of the van. I had a thought these poor birds will be slaughtered in the morning and will be eaten by people like me slavering over their pieces and getting a big gastronomic kick. I thought I must stop being the cause of any further death of an animal. Just there about, I stopped my alcohol intake also.
I thank my genes , my upbringing and God for what I did.
Originally posted by JS357The usual argument is that we should sympathize with anything that can experience pain and suffering. Its called empathy. Therefore the rule may not necessarily apply to the animal or plant kingdoms as defined in biology, but rather to those animals that clearly can experience suffering vs those living things that do not appear to.
...but not animals, spiritually speaking?
Of course this gets very complicated if you try to find the exact dividing line. I think that you will find that even a single cell reacts to stress, but whether this can be considered 'experiencing suffering' would be debatable.
Of course once we decide that minimizing suffering is important, we come to the thorny issue of carnivores. I am yet to hear a vegetarian give a good argument for not killing off carnivores in order to minimize the suffering of their prey.
Originally posted by twhitehead
The usual argument is that we should sympathize with anything that can experience pain and suffering. Its called empathy. Therefore the rule may not necessarily apply to the animal or plant kingdoms as defined in biology, but rather to those animals that clearly can experience suffering vs those living things that do not appear to.
Of course this gets ...[text shortened]... good argument for not killing off carnivores in order to minimize the suffering of their prey.
Of course once we decide that minimizing suffering is important, we come to the thorny issue of carnivores. I am yet to hear a vegetarian give a good argument for not killing off carnivores in order to minimize the suffering of their prey.
This raises the possibility that like cats, we could be obligate carnivores, unable to live just on plants.
Would we be obligated to go extinct, if we were obligate carnivores?
Are vegetarians OK with having a cat as a pet?
Originally posted by tomtom232I once chopped down a tree just to watch it fall. :'(
Many plants(fruits) depend on being eaten as part of their self-preservation.
The real crime is using toilets instead of squatting and plopping it out in some soil!
Also, I would be loathe, spiritually, to kill any plant that does not plan on being eaten. I don't chop down trees and don't use weed killing chemicals in my yard.
Originally posted by AThousandYoungAh yes, the nervous system rule. If it has a nerve, it should not be eaten or injured.
Don't eat anything with a nervous system, especially a complex nervous system. That's the best rule I've come up with. I don't follow this rule, but it's the most logical one I can think of.
Of course, the only reason you say this is because you yourself experience pain and a cognition via a nervous system. This is why YOU, and those like you, value it.
Just think if plants had the ability to eat us. They would probably say something similar regarding our inability to produce a root system. 😀
Originally posted by JS357It's ok to eat whatever you want as long as it is dead and isn't human. Unless you're starving to death, then it's ok to eat dirt.
...but not animals, spiritually speaking?
This is not a rhetorical question.
Obviously this question is directed toward any who think it is not OK to eat animals.
Some animals are barely distinguishable from some plants. It there a distinction we should look for? Someone said not to eat anything that has a face. That seems self-centered. I'm not being ...[text shortened]... t appeal to scriptural or other authority, or warnings of punishment. They don't work for me.
Everything is made out of dirt. So eat some dirt. Add water, if any is available, heat to boiling, to kill germs less they eat you, a little seasoning for flavor and away you go.
Make it spiritual so you won't feel any guilt.
Originally posted by josephwwould you like some salt with your dirt?
It's ok to eat whatever you want as long as it is dead and isn't human. Unless you're starving to death, then it's ok to eat dirt.
Everything is made out of dirt. So eat some dirt. Add water, if any is available, heat to boiling, to kill germs less they eat you, a little seasoning for flavor and away you go.
Make it spiritual so you won't feel any guilt.
ah well, there is always used food.
Originally posted by AThousandYoungFunny.
I once read a story about a man on a raft in the ocean. He was on a circular current so he would never see land again. He started cutting pieces of himself off and eating them. The best line from the story:
"If you are what you eat I haven't changed a bit!"
Wouldn't it be easier to starve to death than to eat one's self? What did he do, start with his fingers and toes?
Originally posted by AThousandYoungSo how do you like yourself, medium or well done?
I once read a story about a man on a raft in the ocean. He was on a circular current so he would never see land again. He started cutting pieces of himself off and eating them. The best line from the story:
"If you are what you eat I haven't changed a bit!"
Originally posted by DasaWhy are those things supposed to be important to me when the very creatures
An animal is a sentient being.
It feels pain and become fearful.
It bleeds and cares for its young.
If you have to ask this question then -------! and fool.
we are talking about don't care about those rules? Lions eat other animals, and
so do quite a few others creatures, some animals eat just plants so why is it
that the animal kingdom doesn't care and we are told we are being told to care?
I believe the name calling is useless it only shows some contempt for another
just because they don't share your concerns and values.
Kelly