Animal cruelty

Discussion in 'Ethics, Morality, & Justice' started by razz, Dec 26, 2001.

  1. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    TW Scott:

    No. I simply point out the truth. You just think you're being demonised because you've gone all defensive.

    On the contrary, in the post you chose to ignore, I gave you a list of 6 specific reasons for why eating meat is unethical. They are not rhetoric, but a straight answer to a specific question you asked.

    On the other hand, I am yet to get a straight answer from you on just about anything.

    What criticism? So far, you have made no criticisms of my position. All you have done, essentially, is to whinge about how I am not being fair to you because you don't need any justification for your actions - you should be allowed to do what you want, without some annoying person like me questioning your morals.

    Then point out where I am wrong. I have asked you many questions on points which I would like you to clarify. Instead of answering my questions, as I answer yours, you dismiss them as "rhetoric".

    That is false. I'm sure I've explained this point to you before. Currently, our meat-eating society uses about 3 times the amount of farm land we would need if we all became vegetarian.

    It is a very simple equation, which you obviously refuse to hear. To produce 1 kg of meat requires that we grow about 10 kg of crops for the meat animals. If we just grew crops, we could directly eat all 10 kg. So, contrary to your assertion, meat production is not in any way an efficient use of land.

    I don't expect you will respond to this argument, any more than you have responded to any of the other arguments I have put to you.

    You really are losing all respect.
     
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  3. TW Scott Minister of Technology Registered Senior Member

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    Really and in a vegetarian society where we no longer need animals what will be mankinds response when we need the land they are on? We have never been good at sharing. Ever. So in a few hundred years you perfect world will have just humans, bacteria, molds, fungi, and plants. You see cattle ranching as wasted land I see it as preserving some of nature as it is. Who's right? Well to be quite honest I don't know but it sure as hell is not you.
     
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  5. Communist Hamster Cricetulus griseus leninus Valued Senior Member

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    But those 10kg of crops for cattle are not suitable for human consumption
     
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  7. Hapsburg Hellenistic polytheist Valued Senior Member

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    Morals are far more broad, supposedly transcending mere human understanding, which would imply something beyond the physical, which is utter bullcrap. However, right and wrong differ from person to person, and I have my own sense of right and wrong.

    If I feel pain, who gives a shit? If a rabbit feels pain, who gives a shit? Same principle. Just because it feels pain, it's fucking special? A lot of things feel pain. Pain is simply a fucking part of life. Better they don't feel that pain and become someone's meal than they endure pain and misery thier entire lives and end up a corpse too old and damaged by disease to safely consume.

    I said canines are capable of that. Most animals, unlike some intelligent animals, are merely instinctual, habitual, and don't think of things beyond "eat, drink, defecate, urinate, survive, reproduce."
    And you assume that I eat lots of meat frequently, which I do not.
     
  8. EmptyForceOfChi Banned Banned

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    yeah,

    here we can just about get away with beating somebody up with our fists in self defence,


    loo at our laws they are stupid, i cant even have a gun in my home to protect my family,

    cant even carry a knife or baton or CS gas or mace on the street to defend yourself, even if your a little girl,

    they brought out some slimey gel spray that you could purchase from police station, but it dosent effect the attackers vision in a blinding way atall, its just sticky goo and is not effective, i have tested it, and even that is bieng banned now, and it has only been out 2-3 months,

    you can have a serrated blade under 2-3 inches, but if the police find it on people under 18 they get it taken away from them,

    peace.
     
  9. Zappa Looking around me, in awe. Registered Senior Member

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    If there is no purpose or meaning to life, why respect? For what reasons? Why not just do whatever the hell you want, and not feel guilty about it? Why care about others' pain? It's YOUR life, after all.

    You may feel your "conscience" deep down, but this is a result of certain evolutionary mental developments..right? If you realize this, and it will make your life more pleasurable to ignore them, why not?

    If there is no purpose, I do not see any reason why you should not do what is pleasurable and beneficial to you personally. Life is futile anyway.
     
  10. Avatar smoking revolver Valued Senior Member

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    19,083
    And you call yourself a martial artist? :bugeye:
    There is no need for a knife when you can have a screwdriver, and just carry a small bottle of toilet cleaning acid with you that you bought for erm.... those household purposes.

    A screwdriver in able hands is just as dangerous as a knife and in the USSR days lots of convits who were on police probation carried these around - totally legal and very effective, and police can't say anything.

    Or just carry a gillete in a small case, take it in hand in dangerous places, one unsuspected slice on attackers forehead and it's blood all over his/her face. The cut damages no organs, but is very traumatic, because there's lots of blood before eyes.
    If police asks - just were lucky to have just bought these for your shaver.

    You've studied martial arts history, right? Many of the now traditional martial arts weapons have direct origins in household and farming tools of the far east, because weapons were forbiden by local rulers. Same applies for today - a hammer, heavy umbrella, electric drill on batteries, three nails for each fist, a colour spray to blind, etc. ad infinitum, be creative.

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    Last edited: Mar 15, 2006
  11. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    TW Scott:

    You still haven't responded to the post you ignored above. Do you intend to?

    Your reasoning to reach this conclusion is impenetrable. You will need to make yourself clearer.

    Are you claiming that if humans all became vegetarian, animals would somehow suffer? In what way? And why does it bother you? You've never worried about animal suffering before...

    Well, start a thread on cattle ranching and we can discuss this. What has it got to do with eating meat?

    You could have cattle ranches and still be vegetarian. You don't have to kill your cattle and eat them. Do you?
     
  12. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Communist Hamster:

    I'm sure I've covered this point before.

    You are correct that, at present, some of the agricultural land we use to grow feed for meat animals is not used for human consumption. So, right now, we have three kinds of fields - one kind to grow food for human consumption, one to grow food for animals, and one to house animals. If we all became vegetarian, we could convert the animal fields into fields for growing human crops. So, overall, our land use would be greatly reduced, quite apart from the 10 to 1 ratio I mentioned earlier.
     
  13. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Hapsburg

    No. Ethics is a purely human pursuit. Religious people claim their ethical values come from religion, but I'm not so sure. And for atheists, ethics need not come from any "higher" or supernatural source.

    Yes, such as the fact that you think it is "right" to eat meat, while I think it is "wrong". The point is: some ethical systems are more defensible than others. You think meat-eating is right because you like the taste of meat. I think it is wrong because your pleasure is not the most important thing to consider here.

    But you say you would give a shit if somebody tortured your family. Who cares if they experience a little pain? What is pain? Nothing, according to you. So, why do you care?

    Interesting. Why not?
     
  14. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Zappa:

    Why do you assume that, without religion, there is no purpose or meaning to life?

    I think we give meaning to our lives by how we live them. How we treat our world and other people matters. It is not just my life. Unless I live in a cave, what I do affects other people, and I also have indirect impacts on the world. Since I have to live in the world and interact with people, doesn't it make sense that I should care about how I act?

    Many people spend a lot of their lives pursuing their own pleasure and not caring about any consequences to other people, to their environment or whatever. All I can say is that I care about other people and I care about the planet I live on. Part of that is self-interest for myself and my descendants.

    As for the evolutionary point: If my conscience is the result of evolution, then it seems that having a conscience must have been an advantage for my ancestors in the evolutionary race. Most people today have some kind of conscience, so it seems to me that from an evolutionary point of view, acting morally has an evolutionary advantage over acting immorally. But, even if I am wrong, it does not follow that what is natural is good, as I have already pointed out several times in this thread...
     
  15. Zappa Looking around me, in awe. Registered Senior Member

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    Last edited: Mar 16, 2006
  16. TW Scott Minister of Technology Registered Senior Member

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    When you type something that actually has substance and meaning I will do so. When you understand you are the one on the prosecuting side and have to be the one to prove you point inescapably true, then I will do so. Until then shut up.

    Well if they were suffering I would worry, but they aren't so I'm not.

    Okay you need a simplification of what will happen as we abandon meat? Alright here we go simple so I am sure you can get it:

    Abandon meat = eventual abandoning of all animal by products = total veganism = end of interdependency = loss of respect for animals = eventual lack of concern = destruction of animals to expand farmland for expanding human population = deforestion and destruction of all other animal species.

    Simple enough. Of course everyone else got it the firs time, but hey.

    Actually yes and sell them too if you want to be able to pay your mortgage, bills, and workers. But then again I live in the real world.
     
  17. Hapsburg Hellenistic polytheist Valued Senior Member

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    Ah, but you see morals and ethics as one thing, while I see it as a two-tiered system, and in my interperetation, the top tier (morals, which religious people think come from a "god") if utter crap thought up by religious people in order to control them. The lower tier, simple ethics, differs from person to person, and I have my own views on that.
    As for you reasons: To me, my ownself is very important.


    Because that's my family. The real question is: why would b]you[/b] give a shit, if you are so compassionate about every animal, why not about every human?

    Because not all meat tastes good. Pizza, pasta, fries, those taste better to me, though the occasional chinese orange chicken or hot dog is just as good.
     
  18. Roman Banned Banned

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    I have a very hard time believing animals hurt as much as I do. In fact, I don't believe it at all. First, they're not me, and second, they're not human.
     
  19. Zappa Looking around me, in awe. Registered Senior Member

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    I know buffalos and antelopes and such feel PLEASURE when they die. Their brain releases endorphins as their being strangulated by the lioness or other predator.
     
  20. TW Scott Minister of Technology Registered Senior Member

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    So we should start strangling our cattle, pigs, sheep, calves, and chickens? I love it it is brilliant. They can't complian about that can they?
     
  21. Roman Banned Banned

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    How do you know this? Care to substantiate it?
     
  22. TW Scott Minister of Technology Registered Senior Member

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    All living creature release endorphins when they are strangled. Just a little known fact.
     
  23. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    TW Scott:

    I understand quite clearly that I am fighting for truth and justice here.

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    Do you feel persecuted? Poor old TW...

    No. There are many animals products we get which do not involve harming animals. In fact, in some cases, they actually help animals. For example, take the shearing of sheep.

    Well, obviously, if we decided to abandon all animal products (which I do not advocate).

    ... like we respect them so much now! Hehe, you do make me laugh.

    How are you respecting animals by killing them for your own pleasure?

    We're already doing that. Or haven't you noticed?

    We've already made a good start at that too, but we're still eating meat!

    Do you think people have to be meat farmers? Is there no other employment available?
     

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