I have decided to stop killing little bugs that annoy me. I have decided to not step on the spider that creeped me the sh*t out. I have decided that in order to become a more complete person in terms of my view of the universe, I will shed some evolutionary baggage that states that members of the Human species are the dominant on this planet, and therefore can decide if another living thing should continue on living it's little spider-y life just because I find the thought of it a repulsive thing. That sounds like racism on the level of species. That's speciesism. And last I looked, we were searching for life in the Universe by way of Mars, and far away Europa. The things that may inhabit that world may only be a bacteria, or even something that has a very very small DNA strand, but it is life.
-So let me ask you this. Yes you, sitting there reading this. This is a question for you. So be prepared to state your opinion. And please do give it some thought.-
Would you land on the planet at that point, after we have verified that, 'YES - LIFE EXISTS ON ANOTHER PLANET IN THIS UNIVERSE, AND THEREFORE LIFE MUST EXIST ON OTHER PLANETS BEYOND THE REACHES OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, AND THAT THERE IS VERY LIKELY A PLANET OUT THERE WITH INTELLIGENCE TO DECODE OUR RADIO TRANSMISSIONS AND IS IN FACT PROBABLY WATCHING GILLIGANS ISLAND AS WE SPEAK", would you then land on this planet which is home to said bateria that is the personification of our search for life in the cosmos... and destroy it?
Personally, to believe that the the mere fact that we have evolved more massive brains that can understand emotion and logic and and can create things like the Hubble telescope, -probably one of the greatest things mankind has EVER created, let alone just the category of scientific instruments.- to believe that we have these brains that are capable of solving complex mathematical equations, and have completely disregarded respect for other living things, is an atrocity.
Would you hurt the person you are in love with? Would you hurt your family? How about your best friend? How about your best friends sister? How about your neighbor? Your neighbors friend? Someone that you've never met before? Someone who lives another city away? Or state? Or continent? If they lived anywhere on this planet? To each of these, I say no. With just as much seriousness from the person I am in love with, to the person who I have never met living on the other side of the planet. I will never kill another human being.
How about an animal? Would you kill your pet? Why not? Is it because you have named it and given it a home and taken care of it? That just means you're emotionally attached to it. Just like I'm emotionally attached to my brother. But if you take away that emotional attachment, and are left with just any other animal, and any other person... would you allow harm on those things, either?
If you said yes, then deep down I think you lack a fundamental piece of what it means to be a human being. And it's called compassion. It's something you will never see transpire in the reptilian brain. Only in the mammalian brain. You will never see a gecko display compassion. -This is why I think Geico is bullshit :P- And I have decided to use my compassion as a tool. As something to be used. And become a more complete person by respecting life.
I will never swat a fly. But I will open the window to let it outside to live.
Having said all of that, I love to eat meat. Preferably fish. This whole conversation takes a left hand turn when it comes to dinner. But who knows.. maybe one day I'll become a vegetarian. I do love tofu. I've even given up drinking milk for all the fat content, and I've learned to love soy milk. Not that drinking milk has anything to do with being vegetarian. But if I sat down long enough, I could probably give up meat.
...maybe.
I'm trying very hard to imagine never eating sushi again.
...okay maybe just fish. Is killing fish wrong? o.O
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