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Does Eating Meat Make Any Sense?

A Few Arguments in Favour of Vegetarianism from a Long-Standing Veggie

By Nick J WoodPublished 5 years ago 5 min read
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Sometimes I get asked, why are you a vegetarian? At that moment my heart sinks a little. It's like asking someone: Why do you believe in God? Or, What's the root cause for conflict in the middle east? It's not easy to deliver a sound bite in a sentence or two, especially when it's on a conviction of conscience that took months of soul searching to reach. It is for that reason I tend to turn the question on its head and say:

"Okay, I'll tell you why I'm a vegetarian, but only after you tell me why you're a meat eater?"

Usually, this is a firm footing to begin on, in all likelihood, they have never been asked that question and most probably not sort a rationale to justify their actions. I try to lend a hand by playing devil's advocate, listing the common reasons people use to justify the meat industry:

We humans are vastly more intelligent, and this gives us an intrinsic worth above that of animals.

My response to that is to say if we can kill and consume merely on the grounds of higher intellectual functioning, then does that mean a person with a genius IQ has a life more valuable than a disabled person with learning difficulties? Any sane people would think not.

Okay, so perhaps it could come down to our species being uniquely special, regardless of intelligence?

So if tomorrow out of the great blue yonder an alien life form arrived, one as dominant in capabilities to us, as we are to cattle. Would that give them the right to farm us? I have no doubt we would rightly feel our lives have a fundamental value, regardless of being displaced at the top of the food chain. Even if this new life form communicated in a manner we could not even comprehend, with technologies so advanced they seemed beyond the limits of physics, so we would still know that our lives had equal value.

Then I move on explaining my rationale behind the original question: Why am I a vegetarian? I am because of something I call the equality of pain. Pain is felt on a level outside the realms of intelligence; a person with a high IQ in agony feels no greater pain than a person with a low IQ in similar suffering. Pain is the great leveller. It makes life fundamentally equal, crossing species regardless of shape or size. In its eyes, there are only two categories, the living and the non-living, there is no middle ground. Emotional pain (unlike physical pain) needs a degree of higher brain function, but even that complex suffering is well within reach of most animals, especially the ones large enough to farm for their meat.

One could argue that pain for a farm animal is brief though, only for a second or two at the end of their life, but no human wants to be murdered, even if someone said, but you'd just feel a little pain at the end when they suffocate or electrocute you! We would instinctively know such an act was barbarous if applied to a human.

Rationalising that animals and humans have no logical difference in the value of being, is to some extent acknowledging that the status of top dog in the animal kingdom is a misnomer, a psychological trick of the light, like all social pyramids are intellectual, cultural constructs. Strip the queen of her crown and put her in a crowded supermarket, she'd be no different to anyone else.

I can't help but conclude the same basic logic for not eating your fellow man, naturally extends out until it encompasses all living beings.

And in a way we already know this, our young children have intelligence levels below that of many animals, but they have equal rights, and we know they need be cared and protected because of their vulnerability. A child's suffering is no less felt, regardless of intelligence, such obvious statements need not be said, yet for animals, of equal intellectual capacity and with their own emotional inner world, their right to live out their lives unmolested by humanity's appetite is a battleground of opinion to this day.

So what's the point of all this reasoning? What's the next step?

I would argue that if there is a way these days to live without eating animals using vegetarian alternatives, then there is little good reason not to be a vegetarian. You could get home from work quicker if you drove through the crowded mall, or you could get rich fast by robbing every jewellery shop on the way, but we don't do those things because we know morally they are wrong. How long until the moral argument becomes unavoidably clear in our farming of animals for their flesh. If I was stuck with no alternative, then I may eat meat, but the other options are a multitude and the reasons many. The honest and decent thing to do is not to ignore the moral dilemma at the heart of the meat farming industry, embrace it, stand up for a truth that in the end benefits the environment, your conscious and most importantly recognises the animal kingdom is not inferior, we are not separated, but are a part of it. If our greater intelligence allows us to do anything, it gives us the opportunity to be custodians of the ecosystems and life forms that populate the planet. We are the caretakers of the earth, not the overlords.

The moral imperative lies with us to have the foresight that is within our cognitive reach, to change from eating meat not only for the good of the planet but for the well being of our hearts. It is surely better to live free from other beings deaths, in every respect. In the same way, people can stop smoking cancer-causing cigarettes for fake vapour alternatives that deliver the same satisfaction but without the harm. So we can all do the same, heading to the veggie quorn section rather than the meat aisle. That's the only way things will change, one trolly and one credit card at a time.

I end on this final thought, there have been many dark episodes in human history. The textbooks often refer to those times as moments when humans treated each other like animals, but if that's the terminology for the crimes committed in the past, what does that say about how we have and do treat animals in the present.

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If you like this post and agree (or disagree) with its sentiments, please consider sharing on social media platforms and bring the debate to others. I think change comes through such small individual actions like that. A single person's choice multiplies up, one act of consciousness at a time.

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In each of our relationships, too often we can be tempted to think in black and white. It's perfect—err, wait up! Where's the exit! There is a list of "lines" unique to the individual, but culturally connected, that if crossed, trigger immediate soul-searching and relationship re-evaluation.

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About the Creator

Nick J Wood

The journal of a Brightonian writer. Enquires for articles email [email protected]

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