Flatty, maybe you could experiment: get two aquariums, fill both with the same species of fishes, then torture fishes in one aquarium (like beat the shit out of them every day and even pluck out their fins), and if those fishes that you tortured fear you when you come close then they can feel pain.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
