Posted on 08/04/2015 9:29:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The uproar over the killing of a lion named Cecil in Zimbabwe by an American dentist, Dr. Walter Palmer, is further proof that secular society inevitably produces moral confusion.
In saying that, I do not in any way defend the killing of a protected animal. First, I do not hunt for sport (among other reasons, my religion, Judaism, opposes it). Second, if the lion suffered for a prolonged period, that would add to my condemnation. Third, if Palmer knowingly killed a protected animal, he should be prosecuted.
Having said that, most of the reactions to what he did are more frightening than what Palmer did.
Since I began writing and lecturing, I have been warning about the breakdown of the distinction between humans and animals (or, as the secular nearly always put it, "other animals"). For decades I have asked high school students: "If your dog or cat (or hamster or other beloved pet) and a stranger were drowning, which would you try to save first?"
In virtually every instance, the response is the same: One-third vote to save their dog, one-third to save the human being, and one-third don't know what they would do (or should do -- but there are few shoulds in the lives of many secular Americans). In other words, two-thirds of American young people (and by now, presumably adults, as well) wouldn't vote to save a human being they didn't know before the animal they love.
Love has come to trump moral standards. With the breakdown of objective moral standards, personal feelings have become the sources of right and wrong.
In Western Europe and North America, we live in the first godless and religion-less generation in Western (and probably world) history, and without Judeo-Christian values, there is no compelling reason to hold human worth above animal worth. Judeo-Christian values are based on the Bible, which asserts the fundamental principle that human beings, not animals, are created in God's image. Therefore, human life is sacred; animal life is not.
This in no way suggests that one can mistreat an animal.
Deuteronomy 25:4: An animal must be free to eat while working in the field; it may not be muzzled when it treads out grain.
Deuteronomy 22:10: Given their different sizes and gaits, one may not attach an ox and a donkey to the same plough.
The Ten Commandments: Animals must have a day of rest just as humans do.
Nevertheless, the distinction between human and animal has been fundamental to Judeo-Christian values and societies. That's why we say that a person who has deliberately taken the life of another person has murdered that person. Whereas, we don't say "murdered" when describing the deliberate taking of an animal's life; we say "killed." No one murders a chicken. Or a lion.
Until very recently, at least.
The secular moralists at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) who equate human and animal life do believe that killing animals is murder -- to such an extent that the organization equates Americans who barbecue chickens with the Nazis who cremated Jews in the Holocaust. See their anti-poultry campaign: "Holocaust on Your Plate."
And now, PETA has called for the execution of the American dentist. After all, if he committed premeditated murder, why not execute him? (Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's president, later said she didn't mean it literally.)
Likewise, in The Guardian, Rose George, a British journalist (who began her career at The Nation, a left-wing magazine), wrote: "I'd rather not attempt to comprehend the inexplicable act that is the murder of animals for fun."
And The New York Times reported: "'Murderer! Terrorist!' one protester, Rachel Augusta, screamed into a megaphone."
Palmer has received thousands of death threats and has been pilloried by many of the confused moral thinkers who populate Hollywood. (Last year, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem charged Israel with committing genocide in Gaza.)
It is instructive that Zimbabweans are dumbfounded at the hysteria over a lion's death. Their country is one of the poorest on Earth. (Having been there, I can personally attest to how poor it is.) And its brutal, psychopathic ruler, Robert Mugabe, has had innumerable Zimbabweans tortured to death. Now the people of Zimbabwe are hearing the West lament a death in their country. Of a lion.
I haven’t seen much uproar among people I know.
Actually, this forum is the only place where I have seen people not mocking the stupidity of the manufactured outrage.
So I am doing my best to bring the old dead lion story the mockery it deserves.
I note that a number of the whiney lion fetishists are entirely absent on the planned parenthood threads.
There is a reason.
If you do the statistical average...using all of Africa....there’s around 250 people killed by lions each year (more than those killed by mass shootings in the US, at least on the average).
So you do this pondering thing. What if the friendly liberal crowd really jumped on this and helped to improve the lion population in Africa from 30,000 to 60,000? Well....it’d mean some members of the animal population would shrink in relationship....due to the food intake of the lions. Also, you’d double the number of humans killed by lions to 500 people. All of this comes back to the ages old lesson in life that people ought to learn....consequences will occur....sooner or later.
The proximate cause of our American collapse is the tremendous success of our grandfathers and fathers. They created wealth beyond comprehension this resulted in idleness in their children. The old saw comes in here; i.e. “an idle mind is the devils playground.” Today’s people are not so much bad as they are trivial; look who was elected as President TWICE!
I deal with this daily. I have customers who think their pets and horses are rational in some way. To suggest otherwise is to lose their business. Most people now believe animals have some sense on par with humans, they have some degree of rationality, they can communicate in some detail, they have emotions like us (they express love, they feel loss, happy, sad, etc), have a sense of past and present. MOST of this is untrue. Regardless, it causes people to be more concerned about an animal than a human. If an animal hurts me, their first concern is always for the animal. Recently, I saw a stray on a freeway; more people stopped to catch the stray, at their peril, than I have ever seen stop for an accident or to aid a disabled motorist.
OH TELL THE SHARKS!!!!
bored
it also shows the more sinister concept of media programming the populace into manufactured outrage, in order to mask the real outrage - planned parenthood - by distraction.
kinda like the confederate flag
Its sounds like the dentist deserves prosecution.
What he did was sleazy.
Lion’s are far from say the wild deer overpopulating and causing damage here in Maryland, they are a limited species.
It makes sense to make protected places for them.
If Cecile was running around our US parks killing and wounding humans, few would object to killing him.
but he wasn’t.
Who would fetishize a whiney lion? (Duck’n & runn’n)
Over 35 years ago I was in a market in a small town in Burma. Someone was selling a leopard or jaguar skin of some sort. I asked why they killed it. Seems it came around their place and they had little kids, so it was a no-brainer to kill the cat. They were just recycling the remains. Good enough for me.
There are some here.
You really have to know the whole story.
Palmer might not have a total angel’s halo following him around as he got in trouble once before for some kind of hunting irregularity. But Zimbabwe chooses to advertise for a certain number of lion hunters, even knowing that it does not have an unlimited supply of lions. And it is unclear whether Palmer knew that his hunting guides had set up a lion that was a local pet for him to shoot. At 80% unemployment the temptation to cut corners to get paid must be immense.
See “Mountain Lion, Puma, Catamount, panther”...
That’s the US version of a lion. They’re killed here all the time because they’re dangerous predators. When they’re in their own habitat, left to themselves, they keep the population of deer, mountain goats, etc., and other prey animals at natural levels. When they venture onto rancher lands and kill livestock or come into contact with humans, they’re eliminated.
Same with wolves, coyotes, badger, bobcat, and wolverines.
Nature’s cruel; but she has a balance. Whether it’s humans as the dominant species at the top of the food chain, or something else... there will be balance.
This lion was lured out and killed out. Not because it was a danger, but because it was wanted as a trophy.
It was not a good thing to do.
That's interesting.
Which parts are true and which parts are untrue?
A lot of the folks in Zimbabwe were like, what is the big deal, people get killed by wild lions almost daily here.
They might have thought different if it was a pet that was not considered dangerous, but STILL....
#ZEBRALIVESMATTER
yeah, save the zebras!!
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