Comments on: If Life That Feels No Pain Can Be Killed, Then Abortion Is No Big Deal

By: Sanjeev

Sanjeev — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:19:37 +0000

Thanks Manisha for your comments.
I am trying to convert a meat eater into vegetarian lifestyle by appealing to his love for the earth and the environment. My conviction is that one of the biggest reasons for the destruction of the environment is the fact that human beings consume flesh. People should not eat meat because they are not meant to eat meat and because they are contributing in the worst possible way to the destruction of the environment. The ecological balance is being destroyed and that is why no meat please.
I am writing my articles to elaborate on the above and they should be available on the blog quite soon.

By: Manisha Chaudhury

Manisha Chaudhury — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:30:52 +0000

I liked your article Sanjeev. Although my reasons for converting to vegetarianism is quite different from the ones you mentioned, I appreciate your article nonetheless. However I would just like to add a note. I do not think that if you are trying to convince a meat eater to convert to vegetarianism by saying that “All living beings feed of other living beings and hence there is nothing wrong in taking plant life to feed ourselves”, they will give your logic back to you saying, “then what is wrong about eating an animal instead? It is anyday tastier than eating a plant.. if we must kill to survive.. then we would rather kill and eat the tastier option”. You cannot totally rule out the absence of pain in organisms that do not have a CNS and in my opinion that would be a stronger justification.
In any case, I respect your logic and just wanted to make a humble comment. No arguments!

By: Wolf von Neumann

Wolf von Neumann — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:25:19 +0000

Hello,
Do keep up your work — it’s heartening to see someone take the trouble to think about what should be and what is. But I must introduce my conception of why vegetarianism, why not animals, and why plants:
1. “What is natural” is not a good argument because we aren’t leading natural lives anyway. For example, clothes. Do we have the ability to, “without external help,” weave the clothes we wear? If a pig must be killed with an implement, remember that we use implements for our clothing and shelter, for our thought and entertainment, indeed, for everything. Your argument would mean that we should live exactly like savages. Do you write your articles “without external help”? (Not to be rude, but to shake you to the meaning of what you’re saying.)

2. If uncivilised men kill, say, hens with their bare hands and eat them and feel no guilt because they are savage, it is 100.00% natural, and I don’t think anyone can argue that they “shouldn’t” be killing the hens.

3. Most important: when you farm animals to kill it, *you are negating life, and thus the purpose of the universe.* The universe is struggling to become self-aware, and this manifests in the gradual evolution to man. When man turns living beings into mere molecules, it is the antithesis of the universe; he is going in *exactly* the opposite direction of the universe — in other words, if you believe in god etc., then if god is doing plus-x, the butcher is doing minus-x. That is the be-all and end-all of it.

–von Neumann