[StrongHeartsWin]

Quote by: ferrolad I eventually started to ask myself why animals were more important than plants. Was it because we could so easily relate to their pain? Pain or no, the argument usually put forth is that animals simply have a "right" to live.

They do have a right to live. Before that, though, they have a right to live without having unecessary suffering caused to them -- just as surely as we want the right to have unecessary suffering not directed at us.

Suffering is an unpleasant state to be in. Would you want to be in that state? Might does not make right, and simply because we are able to do something to a being does not make it a universal right that is correct in doing. Humans are not captives of their emotions. We can reason ourselves out of our selfish passions or desires. We ourselves do not want to be treated like animals, then why should we act like them?

I can make that same argument for anything, including plants, bacteria, and viruses.

I don`t think you can. If so, then please put it forth. You think those things you listed are analogical to animals, but then you cannot prove that suffering is something those things are capable of.

So while I can't say I'm thrilled with the way animals are treated in the meat industry, that's entirely separate from whether or not we "should" eat meat.

It is not a seperate issue. Does this logic sound right to you?:

I can`t say I am thrilled with the way Jeffry Dalmer treated his victims in his apartment, but that`s entirely seperate from whether or not he "should" have eaten them.

To me it doesn`t. Analogies are used to cut across arguments to insure that the logic/reason being used is correct. Logic and reason cannot be prejudicial.

In fact, the question of "vegetarianism" is a three part question whose parts are all connected.

The question concerning "vegetarianism for moral reasons" does not rest simply on "should we eat meat," it rests on "Is the consumption of flesh necessary when it entails suffering and deprives an animal of its life when in this modern society flesh is no longer necessary to live a healthy lifestyle?"