Question for atheists...

[Jeslek]

No this is not about religion or any of that kind of stuff, but rather about an interesting discussion I've had with someone I know in real life.

Since I'm religious, I know I'm placed above animals as a human being and are better than them and not simply an evolution from them. (Don't argue, thats not the point.) God also instructed man that eating of animals is permissable. (The dietary rules of what and what not to eat isn't important either.)

However, as an atheist, if you eat meat how do you justify killing a fellow animal for food? If you do not have a problem eating animal flesh, why not eat human flesh since humans are animals that are just a bit more evolved? If you do not want to eat human flesh, what makes animals so special that they can be eaten? Why is it murder killing a fellow human being for revenge, but killing a fly because it annoys you isn't murder? What makes humans and animals "different" in the mind of an atheist?

I'd like to know what some of you guys' reasoning is behind this... And no since the thread topic is about something I don't believe in anyways, I can't make any arguments but listen And also, this thread is not about vegetarianism and all that... just the comparison of humans and animals.

 

[Dave]

first off, i'll ignore the 1st two paragraphs.

However, as an atheist, if you eat meat how do you justify killing a fellow animal for food?

all organisms on this planet eat something to survive.

If you do not have a problem eating animal flesh, why not eat human flesh since humans are animals that are just a bit more evolved?

that is a cultural taboo. some societies (albeit very few) still engage in the eating of human flesh. i'm not 100% certain how that taboo come into place, but i believe it had something to do with the spread of disease. even though the taboo is firmly entrenched, people will dine on human flesh if the circumstanses (sp) are extreme enough. (e.g. like in the movie "alive")

Why is it murder killing a fellow human being for revenge, but killing a fly because it annoys you isn't murder?

apples and oranges.
humans have killed one another for revenge, as well as honor and other ideas, for countless millennia (sp). we still do it. its just more frowned upon in our society.
as far as the fly goes, i kill them not so much because they annoy me, but because i know they aren't exactly "clean". i dont want something that may have just crawled on a carcass or a plie of feces to be near me.

 

[Scanty]

The difference between the treatment of humans and animals - by humans - is a matter of what we've been brought up to learn as acceptable or not acceptable by the society we live in.
You could also ask the question "Why does it cause significant upset when a dog is killed in a movie, but when a human dies no one bats an eyelid?"
It all depends on society.
See...you are using logic in your above statement. Which is fine, but the thing is society is anything but logical. Because it is something that's evolved organically and you're going to find all kinds of strange inconsistencies here and there. It's life.

 

[Gonz]

Survival of the Fittest. We must eat. Long before your deity was known about, humans ate animals. Many of us still do. People Eating Tasty Animals.

Murder is bad because it slows the evolutionaty scale.

 

[freako104]

simple jerek. its called survival. we eat to survive same with sex(its a drive to procreate as well as feels good),shleter(need to keep warm). plus open your mind up to atheists. they may also believe that they are more evolved. i personally equate humans and animals but i am wiccan but i also was raised atheist and still have atheistic beliefs. but not all agree.

 

[fury]

Why do we eat meat? Because we can. We have sharp teeth, they're good for 2 things - opening tabless beer cans and chewing meat.

 

[Jeslek]

Why do we eat meat? Because we can. We have sharp teeth, they're good for 2 things - opening tabless beer cans and chewing meat.

You're missing the point... why not human flesh then?

 

[PT]

You're missing the point... why not human flesh then?

Because it's stringy, and you have to use some killer tenderizer on it to make it edible. Did I say too much?

 

[Scanty]

Why do we eat meat? Because we can. We have sharp teeth, they're good for 2 things - opening tabless beer cans and chewing meat.

You're missing the point... why not human flesh then?

because of what i said in my post.


And because it's SO been done already. Haven't you seen Alive?

 

[Squiggy]

Survival of the Fittest. We must eat. Long before your deity was known about, humans ate animals. Many of us still do. People Eating Tasty Animals.

Murder is bad because it slows the evolutionaty scale.

I see contradiction there Gonz. Survival of the "fittest" is suppressed in a social setting. Laws are created to protect the less fit from the more fit, therefore disruppting the evolutionary scale. Without social guidelines, The strongest would prey on the weakest and we probably would end up as cannibals ....again. The question is way too complex because of the many fibers of social fabric that cause the current human mindset.

 

[PT]

I've got something at home that I found a few days ago that I'm going to post here tonight. I thought about posting it then, but decided I'd wait until you brought up another religon thread. Stay tuned.

 

[Scanty]

Survival of the "fittest" is suppressed in a social setting. Laws are created to protect the less fit from the more fit, therefore disruppting the evolutionary scale. Without social guidelines, The strongest would prey on the weakest and we probably would end up as cannibals ....again. The question is way too complex because of the many fibers of social fabric that cause the current human mindset.

Exactly, I agree. It's too much of a man-made sort of set-up now. Complexities and rules that do not strictly follow what may be logical in the natural/evolutionary sense, are apparent in society now because it's almost artificial in it's make-up. Humans have the sort of intelligence that will start to form ideas of it's own, and add on extra social laws and conventions, to the ones that have been present for thousands of years. Eventually you get to a point where these unwritten laws are quite detached from what might make strict sense.

 

[Jeslek]

Haven't you seen Alive?

No, not yet.

 

[PT]

To sum it up without ruining the movie for you, an airplane crashes in the mountains, no food, people are killed, and the survivors eat them. It's a true story. These people would have starved to death had they not done what they did. Humans have instinct just like animals, just because something is taboo doesn't mean we won't do it, it just means we are inclined not to do it.

 

[Ardsgaine]

The reason we eat animals is because we're omnivores and that's what omnivores do. The reason we don't eat people is because we have the ability to reason and that's how we're supposed to deal with one another. It's the ability to reason that gives us the concept of rights: the right to life, liberty, etc. Animals cannot be expected to respect rights, because they don't reason. Try to resolve your differnces with a grizzly by argument, and you'll lose every time.

 

[Scanty]

Haven't you seen Alive?

No, not yet.

*makes hand over head gesture* WHOOSH!! There goes the humour!

 

[Jeslek]

I don't easily get subtle humor if I don't see the person's face and body language. Sorry.

 

[Scanty]

Well....I did sort of say this...

it's SO been done already.

...in reference to eating human flesh. That was the humour give away. Don't worry I doubt it was vaguely amusing to anyone, lol.

 

[Altron]

The reason peoples don't eat other people are:
Too big to fit in the oven
Too hard to kill
*looks over shoulder* and the government tries to get you

 

[Scanty]

ha.