contradictory point of view

[tbach24]

today a discussion came up in one of my classes (we were reading some poem about fishing) about the morality of fishing. other people in my class have retarded points of view, so it's not worth thinking/discussing their ideas. mine on the other hand interested me.

i think that it is horrible that people kill other animals, fish, etc., yet acknowledge that it is necessary/inevitable, therefore i accept it. i also acknowledge that other animals do it to each other, but they don't have the brain power that we do, so they're not as important.

thoughts?

[New001]

Horrible? I don't know. I don't do it, and I don't understand what's fun about sport hunting (especially when the hunter has all kinds of high tech gear. Is shooting a dear at 300 yards with a high powered rifle with a scope actually fun? It's almost comical to me. To each his own, I guess.)

I don't understand your final point. I don't think brain power has anything to do with it; animals killing other animals almost always has to do with food, self-defense, territory, or other "valid" reasons (maybe "surivival" is a better word). Do you find a lion killing a zebra to be as horrible as a human killing a cow? Can you elaborate?

[tbach24]

My final point was meant to seperate the lion killing the zebra from the human killing the cow. Lions do it because they don't really know otherwise, whereas humans have the capacity to know what they're doing. I hope that clarifies a little.

[Nielsio]

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i think that it is horrible that people kill other animals, fish, etc.

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Why

[atrifix]

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today a discussion came up in one of my classes (we were reading some poem about fishing) about the morality of fishing. other people in my class have retarded points of view, so it's not worth thinking/discussing their ideas. mine on the other hand interested me.

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If you really want to be frank about it, it's not worth discussing this idea. But I'm glad your thoughts are interesting to you.

[Copernicus]

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My final point was meant to seperate the lion killing the zebra from the human killing the cow. Lions do it because they don't really know otherwise, whereas humans have the capacity to know what they're doing. I hope that clarifies a little.

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Why do you think the lion doesnt know what hes doing?

[Taraz]

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My final point was meant to seperate the lion killing the zebra from the human killing the cow. Lions do it because they don't really know otherwise, whereas humans have the capacity to know what they're doing. I hope that clarifies a little.

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So if lions knew that eating the zebra would end the zebra's life he should instead abstain and starve to death?

[MidGe]

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So if lions knew that eating the zebra would end the zebra's life he should instead abstain and starve to death?

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No, they should choose a vegan lifestyle! /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[guesswest]

I'm a vegetarian, for ethical reasons. Which isn't to say I think eskimos shouldn't eat fish, and certainly not that lions shouldn't eat zebras - just that it's trivially easy for me to eat a balanced diet in the west without eating meat and so I can't justify the killing of animals. I only view the consumption of meat as a bad thing personally because it's completely unnecessary, the same as killing animals to make fur coats. If there's any survival necessity involved it becomes a different matter entirely.

The one argument against against ethical vegetarianism that I think is the most retarded is that animals are bred for slaughter, ie they wouldn't be there if we didn't eat meat, so it doesn't matter. By the same logic there'd be no ethical problem breeding human babies for consumption, fuel etc.

I'm not a preachy vegetarian, and there are many reasonable arguments against vegetarianism out there, but surely anyone with a rational mind has to recognize that particular one is BS.

[JoshuaD]

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today a discussion came up in one of my classes (we were reading some poem about fishing) about the morality of fishing. other people in my class have retarded points of view, so it's not worth thinking/discussing their ideas. mine on the other hand interested me.

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Does this not bother anyone else?

[atrifix]

I'm just disappointed that he didn't follow that with anything worth discussing.

[HLMencken]

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thoughts?

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So your "interesting" thought is that people are smarter than animals. And if lions were smarter, they wouldn't eat zebras, apparently. You, sir, are a genius. Thank you for sharing.

[guesswest]

In fairness to the OP I don't think he was suggesting that lions wouldn't eat zebras if they were smarter, more like we can't say/tell anything either way because they're not sufficiently smart for it to be a 'decision'.

I'm nonetheless unconvinced that his point is valid - I don't think it's at all clear just how sentient lions are, and there are scores of other factors to consider too. I'd like some clarification from the OP on this one, and some defence of his argument.

[Metric]

Personlly, I think you have an overdeveloped sense of "horrible." There are certainly some horrible things out there, but lumping recreational fishing in with them can't be easy on your psyche.