Do you agree with Richard Dawkins?

[Adjusted Sanity]

If everyone stopped eating meat...there would be a lot of bacon sitting at the grocery not getting eaten. Don'tcha think?

Ah, but the lack of demand would eventually kill the market for bacon forcing you to raise your own pigs. It would be very expensive, i think.

[Paul the Human]

Dream Killer!!

[Nine]

* Nine begins explaining to the pigs that nobody needs them so we are no longer vaccinating them, feeding them or protecting them.

[Adjusted Sanity]

Dream Killer!!

Chicken is better anyway. Eaisier to take care of, i think. Plus more delicious. Could go for some wings. Yum.

---

* Insanity x begins explaining to the pigs that nobody needs them so we are no longer vaccinating them, feeding them or protecting them.

Theres your solution paul! Steal the unwanted pigs. Your dream lives on!

[jackman]

I am a vegetarian an believe that the moral line is drawn at sentience (consciousness and the ability to suffer). All beings that have sentience are entitled to certain rights and ethical treatment. To discriminate purely on the basis of the fact the we are humans and they are not is akin to speciesm or the unfounded favoring of one species over another due to prejudice for the species that we happen to belong to. We understand these concepts well in the cases of our pets and preferred creatures, usually drawn along social lines, but struggle with the animals we classically view as "food". I do not eat any animal that we have reason to believe is sentient.

I also must say that it's funny to hear otherwise rational folks break out the lame arguments for this one. Especially when they would never accept the same type of arguments from a person arguing religion or some other belief based upon tradition, taste, or prejudice.

The classics are 1) Because that is the natural order of things 2) Because that's what people have always done 3) Because morality is relative and I choose to eat meat because there is no right or wrong 4) Because it tastes good and wouldn't taste good if it weren't "meant" to be eaten.

The answers are simple: 1) Is-Ought gap. Just because something is a certain way doesn't mean it ought to be that way. Our biology is based on survival not ethics and thus is amoral and can't be used as a basis for what we are "meant" to eat. 2) Argument from tradition obvious nonsense 3) But you wouldn't eat a human baby why? If it's relative you could never say someone was wrong for doing so? If we couldn't eat a baby why not? Moral relativism is bankrupt and the refuge of many armchair philosophers who can't put forth a compelling moral theory. 4) That one is obviously stupid and needs no response.

i knew a non-meateater would call out some of the justifications here. they were lame from a scientific perspective but it's the truth, meat is delish! i will clean a rib like nobody's business, you would never know it ever had meat on it. lol.

i plan to donate my body/organs/parts to science anyway, whatever isn't used can be put into the ground without a box, and just absorbed back into the same earth that i come from. so, i feel it's an even swap - i eat animals and some get to eat what's left of me.

[fuckass365]

If the animal isn't intelligent enough to be consciously aware of its existence then what difference does it make? It doesn't even know its alive.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Richard Dawkins can see no good moral reason for eating meat.

So what? Argument from [irrelevant] authority.


I eat meat and feel no need to explain or justify why. Nor do I form my moral values from the opinion of some popularist polemicist.

[TheJackel]

[/b]Richard Dawkins can see no good moral reason for eating meat. He sees it as being akin to sexism or racism.

It seems that evolution tells us that we are nothing more than another animal so it's easy to see where Dawkins is coming from.

I suppose that you need to have a moral position that causing unnecessary pain and suffering is wrong.

Do you agree with Dawkins that on moral grounds, eating meat cannot be justified?

If Dawkins has a problem with hurting things that can feel pain, there is nothing wrong with that morally, ethically, or rationally.. However, morality is rather relative. I for one will eat meat, but I also do not like animals having to suffer.. The problem with the food chain is that much of life must murder itself in-order to survive and reproduce. So no matter what Dawkins says, he's going to have to technically kill something to survive.. That is a natural consequence of life.

And we are animals indeed, but animals capable of higher cognitive thought.. We are amazing animals, but it does come with a price.

[LiberalHearted]

I'm a vegetarian, and have from time to time rescued poor animals from the street and adopted them.

It does cause me alarm when, what is eaten is purposely harmed. Finding out can't be good for the digestion.

I speak from experience, since I've turned vegetarian, my system works better (and I take pain relievers which constipate but do not now.) (TMI, I know) This experience in vegetarianism seems to have corrected many stomach problems of mine which was a true sickness, not supposed to relieve oneself through the mouth.

It has been kinder to me, and from the literature from various animal rescue groups kinder to the animals.

As my Grandpa always said 'everything wants to live'; wisdom I didn't adhere to but now the cycle of 'kindness' reverberates back to me.

[TheJackel]

I'm a vegetarian, and have from time to time rescued poor animals from the street and adopted them.

It does cause me alarm when, what is eaten is purposely harmed. Finding out can't be good for the digestion.

I speak from experience, since I've turned vegetarian, my system works better (and I take pain relievers which constipate but do not now.) (TMI, I know) This experience in vegetarianism seems to have corrected many stomach problems of mine which was a true sickness, not supposed to relieve oneself through the mouth.

It has been kinder to me, and from the literature from various animal rescue groups kinder to the animals.

As my Grandpa always said 'everything wants to live'; wisdom I didn't adhere to but now the cycle of 'kindness' reverberates back to me.

You have to realize that each person is different. I can eat meat without any of those issues.. However, my main diet is mostly fruit.. My house is packed with fruits. Now vegetarianism is your choice, and it is a healthy choice giving that we have evolved from herbivores. But evolution has also made the human species now largely omnivorous.

BTW, my cat came from an old burnt out trailer. I found her while four wheeling back trails. Me and my friends came across this trailer and found her inside what appeared to be the remains of the back bedroom. Took her to the vet, and they told me that she would be put to sleep if I didn't choose to keep her.. Had her now for 16 years.