- We don't have mythical powers. I mean, we're just not cool enough. Why don't we have wings, or, or breathe fire?! Why can't we by super-strong or invisible?!
- We eat tuna. I mean that's just wrong.
- We manage to justify eating meat. Claiming it's natural to do so just isn't good enough, surely we're capable to making moral decisions, as we're more sophisticated than an animal. Being more 'intelligent' is a reason we shouldn't eat meat, not a justification to do so. We think and talk in words, so therefore we get to eat everything else! Great idea. Also, it's not just eating them, is it? If we weren't so vastly overpopulated and needed to kill so much, and we simply hunted ourselves, I wouldn't have -so- much of a problem, but we breed animals specifically to kill them. Often in unimagionably cruel ways. So someone please tell me that's the right thing to do?
- We do maths. Seriously people?!
- We cull things because there are too many of them. E.g. rabbits and myxamatosis. Jeez! How hypocritical!? I do understand though that sometimes people do have slightly better arguments for this.
- We don't cope well with power, e.g. every evil dictator there's ever been (QUITE A FEW)
- We are pretty selfish. (Like most living, breathing things.... ) ZOMG SID THE SELFISH PLANKTON!
- We're not very good at making books into films, apparently, at least from my film education. Excluding LOTR. Obviously.
- Somebody invented tabloid newspapers.
- We're slowly destroying the earth, which is beautiful.
- Wealth is distributed really unfairly.
- We pump loads of money into pointless things which could be used for much better causes. By the way, just so you know, I'm not pretending I'm not human, I mean I buy cosmetics and pointless stuff I could live without. It's a silly criticism but it sort of makes sense. Like putting so many millions into space exploration. Why can't we just look after our own planet?!
- One of us must have created the first ever computer virus.
- MURDER?!
- RAPE?!
- Ahem, MASS MURDER?!
- Intolerance?
- Lying...
- People who don't like magic the gathering?!
End xD
Eep! Angry Sara! I am going to respond to this article in two parts: :D
ReplyDeletePart 1 - The Serious Answer - The flaws of men i.e. the capacity to sin and make a really big mess of things, happened after the Fall of Man (the Adam and Eve story). This is WHY we can be so bad. However, it is not a justification for our behaviour. Thankfully, we have Christ, who came to save us from this and through Him we see the perfect life that God intended for us to live before the Fall. Although we can never attain perfection in this life, only God is perfect, we aspire to live like Christ, to follow Him and His teachings, and to make this world a better place. Sure, we mess up all the time, but there is HOPE, and above all there is LOVE. And one day all will be restored to its full glory. Of course, in the mean time, there is no doubt that we are absolutely called to take care of the planet, the animals, and the people in this life that we live now.
2 - The Silly Answers - I do understand what you say about meat eaters, and under your argument I struggle to justify myself - however, people like me who aren't as convicted as yourself eat organic meat - whilst far from ideal in your eyes, would you agree that it is at least better than buying battery-farmed meat - eating organic is a boycott of this part of the industry. I know you would prefer it if I ate no meat, but...
Ok, there are actually some pretty good books into film movies other than LOTR though not many. 'Atonement' is one such :)
Everything else I whole-heartedly agree with you on (except about eating tuna, lol). Don't tell Rob you don't like maths ;) And I don't understand what the last point means?
Love you! xxxx
I hasten to add that I did not post that comment at 5:30 in the morning - your clock obviously isn't set to UK GMT, argh!
ReplyDeleteorganic/free range meat = definitely better xD. That's what my sister tried to do ^_^ x
ReplyDelete@Fire Fairy: You make some good points, but I would like to say (as a commited atheist) you should be careful how you use the word 'we'. You also make it sound as if your belief exempts you from responsibility (you did say we should do what we can now, and I whole heartedly agree with that, but you make it seem as if it doesn't matter if we don't do what we can 'in this life that we live now' because of the afterlife.) I would also question your use of the singular 'Answer'; are there not other equally plausible answers to be considered?
ReplyDeleteOK, moving on from religion (we're clearly never gonna agree on the subject and debating it will just annoy us both and quickly descend into an argument), non-organic meat and battery farming aren't necessarily the same thing, and free range and non-organic meats are not mutually exclusive - meat can be both free range and non orgaic, and battery farmed meat can (but almost always isn't) be organic. Pedantics aside, I tend to agree with you, free range meat is vastly preferable to battery farming, but as a vegetarian myself I agree with Sara on this point. Although you do see that eating meat is morally and ethically questionable, which I have to say is refreshing :).
The way I see it, bad books get made into good films (Wizard of Oz (bad film, worse book IMHO) and LOTR (yeah I said it! the LOTR books aren't that great) being prime examples) and good books get made into bad films (the Harry Potter films are pretty bad and Eragon was awful).
Magic: The Gatering isn extremely nerdy trading card game that is utterly incomprehensible to outsiders and yet is completely addictive and awesome.
@Sara: 1: Mythical Powers are only mythical because we don't have them. Would other animls not think the opposable thumb and the power of immensely complex speech are mythical?
2: Never having eaten tuna, I can't really object to it more than other meat, but it is among the worst smelling substances known to man.
3: The vast majority of meat eaters can't justify eating meat. As a general rule, if you can visit an abertoire and not come away deeply shaken, you deserve to be able to eat meat.
4: Be careful what you say about maths!
5: Complicated issue... I would argue that by culling animals and altering certain environments as if we didn't exist is the opposite of what we're trying to achieve. We're trying to mould certain environments into what they would be if we weren't here so they're 'natural', but what about us isn't natural? Hence why I feel we should generally leave nature to get on with its own evolution and not interfere by culling things or introducing other creatures. (Although this does get a whole lot more complex when you go back and say that humans introduced rabbits and grey squirrels into Britain - where do we draw the line?)
6 and 7 go together: No animals have truly altruistic natures. Humans just have a particularly destructive way of demonstrating that, hence megalomaniacs and genocide etc.
8: Been covered
9: Hmmm... strangely, the Daily Mail was the first tabloid... good to see it's still around...
10: Yeah, but ranting about that is a little passe nowadays :P People are genuinely trying to stop that. ut for some reason doing nothing about the destruction of (for example) the destruction of the Amazon for iron, roads, and McDonalds' farms...
11: Are we really in a position to get indignant about this? As I said above, humans don't have altruistic natures. We aren't redistributing our personal wealth, should we be trying to make other people? Although I do agree with you, capitalism will (hopefully) at some point eat itself and evolve into socialism, but I can't see a capitalist world accepting its own evolution into socialism...
12: Space travel is harmless, it's warfare that's the real problem. We're paying billions (possibly even trillions) of dollars worldwide to kill each other in ever more inventive ways.
13: Yes, but you could ask what would have happened if it hadn't happened so early on? If a virus hadn't been written so long ago, all it would take is one person to write a piece of malware and the entire globe would be in turmoil... Rather like if everyone denounced armies and the military.
14, 15, 16, 17, 18: Never gonna stop. I could launch into another rant about my thoughts on capital punishment at this point, but won't. I shall save that for if I ever write my own blog...
Anyway, I hope you're happy. That took me near enough an hour to write and my back hurts -.-
Oh dear Ben...I was joking about some of the things you picked up on xD
ReplyDeleteHey Ben, sure, your answers are more than welcome. I certainly do not exempt us from responsibility, because that's not what the Bible teaches. I know Sara personally, which is why there were some very specific references there (I admit all of what I said wasn't wholly to do with Sara's entry, but do with human nature and what that means - I was thinking more about our capacity do to bad things - but that it is NOT ok for us to do them, or to not do good things as the case may be), as I was kind of continuing from a discussion we had recently. I think that it absolutely does matter what we do now, because the planet is in a total wreck! I don't think that apathy and laziness is without consequences. Whilst I do strongly believe, as you see, about being saved by God, I live a daily life of working to change for the better, because I believe that's what He wants and is the least I can do - it is hard, it is challenging, but I also believe it is crucial. So no, I really didn't intend to sound like we should be exempt from responsibility - I might add I am also a tad ineloquent on these things and sort of write my thoughts as they come to me, so it may not always be clear what I mean, sorry! There are other people who explain these Biblical issues much better than I do!
ReplyDeleteI am also in no way discounting anyone else's views - but as I believe the things I said so strongly myself, I say them as though they are truth because I believe them to be so :)
And yeah, I hear what you're saying about meat - that's really what I am trying to find out. I take much the same route when opting for fair trade and other organic produce. However, the organic chicken I buy is also free-range. I should have been more specific, well spotted.
PS. Singular answer meaning my own answer, not discounting other answers :)