Cousins
I was walking out of my lab yesterday and saw something that really struck me. There was a chipmunk underneath an oak tree standing up and eating an acorn. A large black dog on pulling at his leash regarded the chipmunk as the chipmunk stared back at the dog. The dog's owner, talking on her cell phone took stock of the situation and allowed her dog to continue staring at the chipmunk. I continued walking past the three, stopping only long enough to begin thinking about what all four of us have in common.
I had the sudden feeling of satisfaction in knowing that we are all cousins, separated of course by generations, but tied together by a genuine family relation. My great-great-great... grandfather and the chipmunk's could have been the same creature. It wasn't a realization of the fact of evolution. I've understood that theory for quite a long time. Rather, it was almost a feeling of community with the animals. After all, we are just one big family.
What could be more fantastic? And yet, I remember how doubters of evolution in my high-school would ask me "so you're related to
So now I want to know: why is that disgusting? What's wrong with acknowledging that you're cousins with the animals? I know it goes against all of the myths of creation, which many educated people still believe. Is that actually a reason to find the idea distasteful?
One upshot of this is that I no longer feel like I want to eat the meat of mammals. After all, I've known enough dogs to be sure of their intelligence and emotions. Pigs are supposed to be even smarter. I do not doubt that I could become friends with a pig if given the opportunity. How can I justify killing a creature I might otherwise have been friends with to satisfy an appetite I could easily satisfy otherwise?
I'll probably draw the line at mammals. I don't feel as close to fish or fowl, and there is a much bigger difference between my mind and theirs, so I think that eating them is not so bad.
What do you think?
posted by Jeremy @ 5:37 PM
6 Comments:
Some birds are also quite cunning, but mostly the hunting types (eagles, hawks, etc.), so I suppose you're probably safe in eating typical poultry :)
eating meat is -so- out of fashion
I wonder what is the difference between mummels and fishes or birds. If you think you should not kill a creature, you should not kill fishes an fowls too... the primery building unit of all creatures is cell... so you see all of us are same! but my opinion is to let the natural echo-system does its duty as well as it did before.
Plants are made of cells too, so if that was my criterion, I couldn't live long.
Is this Ali?
Sentimentally I agree - I do not eat animals that can walk on their feet. Nevertheless, sometimes I have doubts about what good this sentiment does to me, or to a larger picture, the human kind - afterall, it seems that the intelligence of one specie may very well have been built on top of another specie of lower intelligence by cosuming the lower species, for example, we humans are superior to dogs (our ancesters did and still many people now consume dog meat), which are superior to chicken, which are superior to worms...and so on. Is it part of necessity for the evolution of human intelligence, to consume other animals? Certainly I do not like an extremity this theory could evoke to some people: human eating human could generate even super intelligence... I am just reasoning or concerning of how being vegetarian or semi-vegetarian is unfitted to the evolution of human beings.
Just some silly thoughts to share - I still do not eat most meats though.
as a follow-up to anonymous: imagine a human who eats humans *who eats humans*. whoa
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