Is Vegetarianism a paradox?????
By Syam4u
@Syam4u (307)
India
2 responses
@veganbliss (3895)
• Adelaide, Australia
30 May 11
Five years on, I'm able to fill you in a little more on this issue. I agree with you that plants have life. If you were to prune a fruit tree or harvest certain vegetables in the proper manner, they will become even more prolific & give you an even bigger yield next season. If you were to cut a rump steak out of an animal, well, you know what happens then! There's the argument that omnivores put forward about plants feeling pain too. I've explained all this before. An animal's consciousness is equivalent to humans whereas a plant's is only a few percent. Also as plants cannot locomote, the sensation of experiencing pain would be superfluous. Plants differ completely physiologically from animals & it's like comparing chalk & cheese, or so the expression goes. Plants don't have a central nervous system (CNS) to process pain. Without a brain we wouldn't "feel" pain, it's as simple as that. And there are humans that feel no pain because the part processing that 'information' lacks in their brain/ nervous system. The disease is called 'Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis'. Sure, there are studies around that demonstrate how large, old trees & other more "highly evolved" plants respond when we try to harm them, but these results haven't been duplicated on plants we eat like carrots, beans & radishes.
In summary, to be a vegetarian is to minimize killing other sentient beings who were created to be our companions, not our food.
@vandana7 (100303)
• India
30 May 11
I stand enlightened. I mean I never thought of it as life. But yes, plants still continue to live if we pick the fruits, leaves, flowers, in a proper way. But once we cut an animal..that is it.
I am a vegetarian by choice. I dont relish non-veg of course. But the main reason is I cant bear the thought of an animal trusting me, trusting my love, and then me sending it to a slaughter house to increase my bank balance. That is ugly.
@veganbliss (3895)
• Adelaide, Australia
31 May 11
Well said.
There were studies done long ago on very big, very old, but prolific trees. The conclusions were that these trees did respond to negative stimuli like cutting & burning & had responses which were associated with pain & fear. It was even believed that these old trees had souls. From a spiritual viewpoint, they do, but the souls are said to be sleeping & much, much less advanced or developed than animals & humans. But we don't harm & even eat from these trees, that's the thing. The same findings could not, for example, be duplicated on broccoli!
Another issue is that those who kill animals for their food can not even talk about the lesser evil of killing plants for food (if that's how they see it), unless they themselves first refrained from murdering innocent animals just to please their palates. Perhaps breathairians (those who survive without food) would be justified in being upset with those on a plant based diet.
There were studies done long ago on very big, very old, but prolific trees. The conclusions were that these trees did respond to negative stimuli like cutting & burning & had responses which were associated with pain & fear. It was even believed that these old trees had souls. From a spiritual viewpoint, they do, but the souls are said to be sleeping & much, much less advanced or developed than animals & humans. But we don't harm & even eat from these trees, that's the thing. The same findings could not, for example, be duplicated on broccoli!
Another issue is that those who kill animals for their food can not even talk about the lesser evil of killing plants for food (if that's how they see it), unless they themselves first refrained from murdering innocent animals just to please their palates. Perhaps breathairians (those who survive without food) would be justified in being upset with those on a plant based diet.