Re: PETA documentary last night
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I wouldn't have to think about it. In the situation you describe where I instinctively stretch my arms out to save a life, I wouldn't even see the human being.
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From my example it seemed pretty clear that the choice was between the pet you love and an unknown stranger. I thought it was obvious in the example you saw them both fall in so you would "see the human being".
Hmmm, I wonder if Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and/or your Dad would answer the question the same way?
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Part of this answer comes from personal experience regarding my dog and the attachment I feel to her. She was attacked by a large pitbull mix last year. I consider myself a real pussy. I've never been in a real fight, but my instinct was to jump on top of the pit and put my fingers in it's mouth. Pure instinct.
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Sorry about your dog and the pitbull (and perhaps your fingers not knowing the outcome) but this isn't related to my original question.
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But maybe this isn't an act of love for a life force. How would I react if someone tried to steal my car? Maybe I would be stupid enough to put my fingers in their mouth. Instinct. I would say such an act is unthinkable, but I would have said the same thing regarding my dog if you asked me before that incident.
Getting back to this whole PETA thing...
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My question in the earlier post directly relates to the "PETA thing". Essentially it is in asking is a single human life more sacred and/or important than a single animal's life, even when you have an attachment to the particular animal and the human is a stranger? In the example you are in position to chose to save one life but not the other. You have to chose. But it's a lot easier than Sophie's Choice.
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How many of us consumers wouldn't be willing to pay just a little bit more for a pound of animal flesh if we could be certain the animal wasn't "tortured" in that short period of time it had while waiting for us to eat it? And, sure, "torture" means different things to different people. But, by your definition, would you pay 50 cents more per pound to avoid the "torture" of the animal you eat? I'm pretty sure the loungers would. Not so sure about the golfers.
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Some loungers (e.g., my friend John Cole) golf so perhaps you should have said "country club, frat guy types". Kidding aside I don't have a problem with people using improved and more humane techniques in breeding animals for food and so on.
But I could never take PETA's extreme position. After all, if we didn't butcher cattle surely predators would without our protection (e.g. fences in grazing areas).
~ Rick
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