Evolution (yikes!)?

Question

If you believe in evolution (I do), how do you now treat other animals and why?

I can understand the Christian belief i.e. man is 'special' so he is somehow separate from animals, but what about people who go by the belief that man *is not* special?

For example; most of you won't kill another human for moral reasons, but you will kill other animals. Many people would never kill a dog but have no problem killing a cow.

What *reasoned* explanation do you have for these common discrepancies? It seems to me we are put in the position of saying all life has some intrinsic value, no life has intrinsic value, or articulating why some life is more valuable then other life. Or, maybe we just leave it to whatever our culture says?

PS. I am not 100% vegetarian so this is not a plea to become a vegetarian; I'm just honestly curious whether huge scientific ideas (like evolution) ever make people re-evaluate their actions, or if they are just cute abstract ideas separate from themselves.

Wow! Thank you all for your answers. They were awesome and it will be impossible to chose one 'best' answer.

So I just want to say thank you to everyone!

Answer 1

I eat most of them. I wouldn't eat the cat who sits in my lap when I read detective stories, nor the dog who barks at Jehovah's Witnesses. (He is a Rottweiller, and barks at eye level, with his paws on the top rail of the fence, so I don't get many Watch Tower salesmen at my door.) You don't eat your friends.

Cows, chickens and salmon are not my friends. I don't mind eating them. I'll grant dogs and cats a wide privilege - I won't eat anyone of their species. I do the same for humans; I wouldn't eat an Argentine or an Afghan, even though I don't have any Argentine or Afghan friends. I wouldn't eat another primate, for that matter.

Answer 2

Lets put one thing straight first.
PURE Science and PURE Religion do not contradict each other
Evolution is a Scientific THEORY it is NOT Pure Science.
God has Created Rules and follows them.
God is Logical he does not contradict himself.
There is only ONE True Religion.

Evolution is a theory that all living creatures evolved from some a common evolutionary ancestor.
Evolution also states that this creature evolved from rocks and rain. the reverse steps are
animals and plants - single celled organism - prehistoric cell and mitocondria and chloroplasts - ooze that contains building blocks of life - rocks and acid rain - lava and gases from volcanoes.
that is what unpure-science claims you evolved from
Evolutionary Theory also is missing too many pieces to make a detailed map or picture. like making a puzzle with only 0.1% to 1% of the pieces. doesn't work period.

and since religion gives the only other alternative i'll have to go with the belief that we ARE created by God.
after all how does a quatinary biological programing language (DNA) that works actually come into existance by accident.
there is too much order in the universe for it to have just happened.

Answer 3

The bottom line is that life feeds on life and we humans need to kill some form of life to sustain ourselves, just like all life does. We humans take our classifications of life as an unquestioned truth and, therefore, treat things with central nervous systems as different than plants; we also make a ''hierarchy" of things in this world, with human consciousness/sentience being perceived as some high-end state/goal. The truth is that everything in the universe is the same -- nothing more special than anything else (rocks = plants = dogs = humans). With that, the recognition of the essential crappy state of affairs (that compound organisms feed on others to sustain their form) is accepted and a reverence for everything should be the result. On the other hand, we do realize that suffering is something that occurs to things with central nervous systems and, so, although we don't want to separate our reverence for all of life, we do understand that should we decide to take life that we've labeled as 'animal', we want to do so in a way where suffering is minimized. It's not moral or immoral to eat animals but the WAY we do it is the key. Something to think about for those who are vegetarian: my friend was a strict vegetarian until he became a formal zen student (reason: he realized how much the vegetarianism was about his ego/self, its identity, its comparison to others. etc.)

Answer 4

I'm going to give you one of my serious answers, since your great question deserves one.

I have actually struggled with this idea in my life.

I firmly believe that mankind isn't so damn special in the world, in comparison to other animals. My dog is more loyal and moral than just about any other human I've ever met (including myself).

But yet I'm a meat eater. I love meat. Sorry, but I really do.


I accept if a vegetarian accuses this as a rationalization. Perhaps it is, but perhaps it's a legitimate point.

A wolf living in the wild needs to eat, or it dies. Killing and death are a natural part of nature. Each species does feed off of something. Even a vegetarian eats something that is living.

Is it morally "wrong" for an animal such as the wolf to eat, since it involves taking a life? That argument doesn't seem to make sense, since not eating still results in death (of the wolf)


of course, this is where my vegetarian friends say that man doesn't NEED to kill to eat, and that we should be held to a higher standard.
I accept that idea as noble, but again it does come down to the fact that eating meat just seems natural (and enjoyable) to me.

Great question!!!

Answer 5

I believe in evolution - and I am a vegetarian. If I was stranded on a desert island and had nothing to eat for ....I dunno a week? Not even berries or anything, but there were fish in the sea, well I guess I would try to catch one at that point! I think a lot of people don't even think about it, they just go with what they were bought up with. I have a question for you - why do most men want their sons to look like them in terms of circumsized vs not? Doesnt matter what the research is or whatever, they will almost always argue for them to be the same. Apparently its hard for people to break away from what they are brought up with.

Answer 6

The value I place on life is in direct proportion with its capacity for intelligence.

I don't harm animals needlessly, but sometimes death needs to happen. A dog with rabies needs to be put down to protect other animals, but torturing it to death would be wrong.

Some people believe that butchering a cow is wrong. However, that is the sole reason cows exist. If humans didn't raise cattle for food, we wouldn't raise cattle at all. The idea of animal rights shouldn't be used to exterminate their species. I don't have a problem with butchering a cow, but its death should be accomplished as quickly and painlessly as possible and the meat should not be wasted.

Answer 7

Everything is different depending on the society where you live. Many people wont kill cows but will eat dogs in some places. One reason is functionalism. Here in America, we have a European past where dogs were used for hunting and pets. They were more usefull alive than dead. The same goes for India and Hinduism. Cows were more usefull alive because they used to be used for plowing fields, eating weeds, and milking. Now cows are not harmed nor used. Evolution has nothing to do with it.

Answer 8

Man is just an animal
and did not evolve from vegetarians. Our closest relatives (chimpanzees and bobabos) exist mainly on fruit but do kill and eat other animals. There was a period in mans' evolution when there was incredibly rapid growth of the brain that most scientists believe could not have happened without meat from cooperative hunting. I am an agnostic believer in evolution and a strong believer in animal's rights but I still enjoy eating meat.

Answer 9

BB,
Yikes, you really hit a spot
there. I´ve been on the
same train thought lately,
not a complete vegan either,
but finding it harder and harder
to accept our superiority which
can dictate over others.
Evolution seems to have stopped
somewhere along the line, I mean,
here we are in the 21st century,
and everyday we have more and
more wars, killing one another
seems to be the order of the day,
remorse is nowhere, so, if we are
to evolve, were do we go from here.
We need to become tolerant and
move on, or we are on the way
down, and sliding quickly.

Answer 10

Being a buddhist, and more importantly living as a buddhist even before I knew what Buddhism was, I cannot even harm the smallest of insects. If someone asks me to squash a spider, I gently pick it up and excuse it to the outside world. This angers many people as they don't understand the delicate balance of life. But I sleep great at night.