Non-human animal rights and souls

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... Credit To "jj" ..@.. http://onwapo.com
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Credits to "jj" @ http://onwapo.com/
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When photos are shown of suffering or dead animals in the Gulf of Mexico it is so upsetting that I change the channel, mute the volume and divert my eyes. I don’t know exactly what my real feelings are in this matter. Is it personal shame, communal shame? Whichever I just get this overwhelming distressed feeling and I don't think it has anything to do with my religious beliefs. For many years I have voted for those whose politics I believe have the best interest of our environment. Yet the internal combustion engine for transportation and fossil driven power production continue to be the main reason for our dependence on petroleum and coal. Very little gets done about energy efficient public transportation and cleaner power production. So I still go out crank up my gas driven car and I still utilize power supplied by our local electric coop. I suspect this is true of my fellow parishioners and fellow secularist that come to our various places of gathering. I would bet few if any of them like me go without electricity in their homes. Hopefully some who can afford the extra cost have bought more fuel efficient vehicles. For my part I don’t believe hybrids or anything on the market until this coming year was anything but an excuse to continue burning gasoline. The advent of the very expensive Chevy all electric car will change that equation. We have been given very little choice and lots of excuses by our industrialist and our political leaders. I personally have felt powerless to make a difference. But then I truly believe we have not made enough demand as a community to look at any suffering of species on earth and blame anyone else but our own lack of will.

(1 of 2): SUSPICION:

Venezuela + Iran + Turkey + Syria via AGENT'S {sleeper Jihaddista's & secretly blessed via ELDERS OF Wahhabi & Ayatollah?) D-i-D, jointly, Did Cause today "Gulf-OIL-911", a deliberately/calculated & Sabotage; like 911; "So the Gulf-oil-Explosion & Mass-Death-Pollution WAS/IS NO-ACCIDENT; but DELIBERATE!

So, Like a basket-ball; It's high time Fo Brother-Mon, Borak H. Obama, poppa-son, to do some Slammin & Dunkin with Turkey + Iran + Syria + ENEMY #1, via Big-Mouth Venezuela & CO.nspirators! They Played US, now We r gonna Play Them!

Uncle-SAM & Aunt-LIBERTY must sing, "No-More Mr. & Mrs. The Nice Guys or Gals! Time For a "QUADLATERAL-SANCTION" against Turk + Syria + Venezuela. Not Only IRAN!!??

Beware the Islamization Of S.outh America. Groundwork or Sure recipe for Future Sectarian Wars (Islam against KAFIRS) as they "AL TAQIYAH" their why into our hemesphere.

Note: SINO's + ISLAMO Scare/Creep Conspiracy is Real! So To have ISLAMO-PHOBIA & or SINO-PHOBIA (thinking/feeling) is not Neurotic at all! So,

That's Their Tricks: To make You Not-Suspicious of such obvious-creep; all along backed by Straight Faces & forked smilers via Islami ABRAHAMIC-Satanic-Versus loving Brothers/Sister Ummah; "DO & then DENY or DENY & then DO" & always TELL BIG LIES pass-on (being persistent) as if truth ; until they getchya!

Note: Thank G-D (if any) That Islamic-TURKEY's Al Taqiyah'ists (WAHHABi & AYATOLLA infiltrators) Did Not Creep/Sneakaroo into the EURO-Family of Nations, under Secular-Pretexts.

Time To Support The KURD's, Armenians et al; Not Turkey, Not Syria, not Iran & CO!

RECOMMENDATION: Don't Buy Any-Product, Good or Services from either Turkey/Iran/Syria + Venezuela. THEREFORE: U.S.A. must BLAME This "OIL-WELL-911" Accident; On, Yes, "V-E-N-E-Z-U-E-L-A" (Mr. Chavez & Fidel Castro & Co)! WHEREFORE:

INVADE VENEZUELA 1st NOt IRAQ! Or CUBA simultaneously. Then INVADE TURKEY 2nd NOt AFGHANISTAN! then INVADE SYRIA 3rd NOt Somalia! but Save IRAN for Last!

Note: Since Ventriloquist TURKEY is a 1/15th Member (for 2 years) of the U.N. Security Council; Turkey should "RECUSE" itself or get kicked-off for "Conflict Of Interest" or Insisting a Riot-On-The-High-Seas" [Similar]. and

(2 of 2):

Since "AL TAQIYAH"ist-TURKEY/OTTOMAN is also a sneaky low key Member of N.A.T.O, that Turkey Should also Be Kicked-Off for "willfull" Globa & Local "Promotion of HATE & Terrorism" against another NATO Member (i.e., little Israel, who's YAHUDi's never Caused Islami's or none Islami's any Problems; especially AFTER since 122-132 CE/AD: see SANHEDRIN/HEREDi-Riots, aka "The King-HADRIAN Blunder" for reneging on Promise of Permanent Homeland there because ROMe empire Caused it all back then; Then OTTOMAn-empire 1919 AD/CE caused israels problem today & now England empire is stuck!?).

PS: Willful Violation Of The "MONROE-DOCTRINE" via Any Nation in OUR hemisphere (N. or S. Amerika/o's) + outsider-Nations, as those mentioned above, should Be Punished severely, Via Mass-Infrastructure Destruction (as Retaliation) or forced into making Just Compensation to victimized Americans or Pay for such, Opec-Made Crime against HUMANITY & ANIMALa Kingdom.

This is tantamount to Starting a War, direct or indirect, of the Trans-Ocean Deep-Sea OIL-RIG) Another Sneak-Attack via "Industrial Terrorism").

PS: IRAQ + AFGHANISTAN must compensate U.S & Friendly's every Penney invested via "NATURAL-RESOURCE & BARTER-Payment" System! Even if it must take 100 years! Thus

All Moneys invested in trying to Civilize Them (not in vain) FUNDAMENTALISTs (crave to live in Past; not Future lives); must be payed back (to Coalition); especially after "The-People" (Rule of Law Lovers; not Satanic-VersUS Lovers) realize that they've been Used or Suckered (milked in vain). Beware of Neo-Islami-Nazi Turkey & CO.

Important: Turkey's (1500 non Combatant) Forces In Afghanistan, are Only Spies; for a Further/future Conspiracy; to Unite Islam & Asia for Islamic World Domination with SINO' Commies against WESTERNERS & CO..

"We can, btw., live without meat and would be the better for it."

Are you sure that you have thought this through sufficiently?

In fairness to Genesis, it does not say that man should torture animals or that BP should annihilate them. God may have thought that obvious.

As for animal testing, it can and should be done far more humanely and responsibly than it is.

We can, btw., live without meat and would be the better for it.

Religion and souls are irrelvant to this discussion no matter what one's beliefs. As an atheist, I share with other atheists endless sadness and anger at the carnage that BP has wrought--suffering and death.

Recently, photos of the Gulf oil spill have shown birds covered in oil and this has caused many people to feel a strong sense of compassion for the animals and to realize just how environmentally damaging the oil spill is. Others seem to shrug off the photos of oil soaked animals and insist that God gave man dominion over the animals.

One thing we have to realize right from the start is that we are all animals. Humans are no different from chickens except for the fact that we have the ability to realize this fact. Contrary to the teachings of the Abrahamic religions, humans don’t have souls. There is no divine spark separating man from beast. We are merely a different kind of beast. We are the kind of beast that has developed the ability to think about the world and ourselves. This gives us a huge advantage and has enabled us to alter our environment to suit our needs and to work together to create complex tools and weapons.

You can read the rest of my response to this topic:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8928-Philadelphia-Atheism-Examiner~y2010m6d16-On-Faith-Do-animals-have-souls-and-rights

I will be responding to every issue posted in the 'On Faith' section. If you would like to be notified when my new response is up, please subscribe.

We human beings have a curious dichotomous nature. On the one hand, we are capable of the most praiseworthy altruism; on the other hand, the most blameworthy cruelty. Apparently, as noted by Frans de Waal in his book “Our Inner Ape”, these are characteristics we share with our simian cousins, especially with the other co-called “great apes”. It was in recognition of this dichotomous nature, especially the cruelty aspect, that recently prompted Stephen Hawking to caution us against being so quick to let other intelligent beings in the universe know of our presence. He noted that, if they are anything like us, they are not the kinds of creatures with whom we would want to associate. The cruelty aspect is well-attested by the history of our species. Indeed, we do not have a good track record in the treatment of others of our kind, and any impartial observer would be fully justified in describing us as an “embarrassment to the cosmos” on the basis of that behavior alone. Given the recognition of our dual nature, I believe that we should strive for the highest ethical standards, namely, those that stress the altruistic, loving, generous, cooperative, and kindly aspects of our nature, rather than the cruel, aggressive, hierarchical, competitive, and territorial aspects. The higher we set our standards, the more likely we will be to act with sympathy, impartiality, and understanding when ethical decisions need to be made and the more likely we will be to hold ourselves and others accountable to those standards. The lower we set our standards, the more likely we will be to find pretexts to contravene those standards. Moreover, I believe that these standards should be applied to our treatment of other species as well. Ethical treatment of other species should start with respect for all life – the recognition that other species deserve to be treated with the same sympathy, impartiality, and understanding that we apply to members of our own species when we are on our best behavior. This respect is based upon the recognition of the uniqueness of all forms of life – the recognition that all forms of life are the result of the same processes of natural selection. Though this means that we humans are no more nor no less unique than every other species on this planet, it does not overlook the fact that evolution has endowed us with disproportionate brain power compared with most other species. That brain power means that we have to apply disproportionate effort to restrain the negative aspects of our nature and to act as responsible custodians of this planet and the life found on it. In sum, given our track record, I believe that we can do immeasurably better in the way that we treat both members of our own species and those of other species.

Religion certainly may play a role in a person's attitude toward other living beings, but then again it may also play a role in their investment decisions or their choice to exercise. The fact that a religious person may see *everything* through a religious filter makes it a fairly unremarkable connection to me. I'm more interested in the evolutionary origins of humans' "general inclination toward sympathy for suffering animals" (Dan46). Cruelty to animals is generally considered evidence of mental illness, which can exist alongside religiosity. All this suggests to me that there is a genetic basis for humans' tendency to protect and help animals.

"Religion is a major player in the way humans think about other living beings." You can take this statement on its fundamentals or you can interpret it.

If you interpret it as "religion guides people's sentiments about animal rights," I disagree wholeheartedly. Religion is a major tool we use to justify our instinctual or learned thoughts and feelings about animal rights.

If you want to take the statement as it applies to other living HUMAN beings, I'd agree halfheartedly, because, while some people use religious doctrine to justify their positions, some people's feelings and actions are guided by religious doctrine (therein lies the utility of religion). There is no doctrine of kindness nor vengefulness toward other species that I'm aware of in western religious thought (please correct me if I'm wrong), so the sole dominion clause juxtaposed with Christian non-cruelty brings us back to the previous paragraph.

If you take the statement as it is; it's a statement of fact. There are a lot of religious people and they interpret the world around them through the lens of their religion. Herb's tale tells us that even a rationalist perspective, while nonreligious, may be used to find footing for some position on where other beings stand in relation to one human or humans in general or where humans may stand in relation to one another. Religious doctrine and teachings are used similarly to find some footing for a position on these matters.

Perhaps a more interesting question is "what percentage of people are guided by religion in their decisions on how to treat other living beings (versus those who use it for rationalization or justification, or those who instead follow their heart, their stomach or their mind)?"

As with Professor Silverman, Peter Singer had a profound influence on my life as well and had much to do with my becoming a vegetarian and, more recently, a vegan. Singer believes that our ethics should be based on a capacity to suffer and not on arbitrary and artificial categories such as belonging to a particular species. I agree totally. Our treatment of animals as commodities to be used as we see fit is deplorable. As Isaac Bashevis Singer (not related to Peter) once said "To animals all humans are Nazis. For them it is an eternal Treblinka."

I doubt that religion has much to do with the general inclination toward sympathy for suffering animals. No doubt many of those who are working on saving animals in the Gulf are humanists, atheists, agnostics, etc.