(August 25, 2010 at 8:05 pm)lrh9 Wrote: This is the extension of atheism and vegetarianism thread. Someone said that since some organisms feel pain it is wrong to kill and eat them.
It's as simple as that.
No, I never said that. Short of any significant reasons to inflict pain on those organisms, however, yes, it would be wrong, in my view, because our current systems of meat production do inflict pain. That is, whatever promotes the greatest fulfilment of individuals' interests, whether they're human or any other species, is the right thing to do. My views on painless killing are much more complex, and I probably wouldn't be against the painless killing of chickens, say.
As for morality, I probably subscribe to some form of moral non-cognitivism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-cognitivism
Nonetheless, I feel that moral discourse is necessary and, to some extent, rational, because we need some way of deciding between conflicting interests, both moral and non-moral.
'We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.' H.L. Mencken
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
