The Meat Eaters

New York Times ^ | September 20, 2010 | JEFF MCMAHAN

[oldtimer2]

Viewed from a distance, the natural world often presents a vista of sublime, majestic placidity. Yet beneath the foliage and hidden from the distant eye, a vast, unceasing slaughter rages. Wherever there is animal life, predators are stalking, chasing, capturing, killing, and devouring their prey. Agonized suffering and violent death are ubiquitous and continuous. This hidden carnage provided one ground for the philosophical pessimism of Schopenhauer, who contended that “one simple test of the claim that the pleasure in the world outweighs the pain…is to compare the feelings of an animal that is devouring another with those of the animal being devoured.”

[chesley]

Correct. We answer to God, not the other way around.

[Sherman Logan]

One might as well design a sewing machine around ethical precepts, and in fact, it would be much easier - we actually do know how a sewing machine works.

Most excellent analogy, Bill! The same, BTW, is true of our attempts at tinkering with human society. We don't know how to engineer that either.

The Precautionary Principle, a favorite of liberals, would actually be the ultimate in conservatism if applied consistently.

[ConservativeWarrior]

I would have tried to arrange for all conscious individuals to be able to survive without tormenting and killing other conscious individuals.

Great idea, genius. That's exactly what God did. He created the world and animals to serve man. Chickens don't have feelings.

Boy, these tenured professors must be getting desperate. Now they're plagiarizing from the bible!

[oyez]

If this guy goes messing with Mother Nature he will find she is a bitch, just like we have always been saying.

[thulldud]

Can you imagine having to sit through a semester of his ponderous classes?

Don't bother. He probably does not teach anyway. That's what grad students and assistants are for.

[Valin]

Great Movie!!!!!

[Smokin' Joe]

To be entitled to regard ourselves as civilized, we must, like Isaiah’s morally reformed lion, eat straw like the ox, or at least the moral equivalent of straw.

Feed your Ox straw and he won't be around long. No nutritional value. You need hay, not straw.

Of course, with this guy's worldview, I'm not surprised he does not know the difference.

The moral equivalent of straw (mostly fiber) might cause an outpouring of..., well, something, but it will be 'full of sound and fury and signifying nothing' as the Bard once said. Matter without substance.