As I sit here looking at my cat sleep I think we actually have a lot in common as beings.
We both eat, drink sleep, poop, pee, play, hear, see, feel. We are both made of the same kind of stuff, carbon, iron, water, cells, DNA...etc. Our bodies function in roughly the same way.
We both feel emotions and think. So what make her animal and me not?

Mankind's elitism! Nothing else. If we have souls, how can we deny them to the Creator's other creatures? I'm sure he didn't!

We are similar to animals in that we are all created beings, and have a 'physical' nature. However we are different in that we have a spiritual dimension, this is due to us being created in Gods image. Jesus said God is spirit and those who wish to worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.

Mako is correct. I'm going to go a little more and say it's just man's ego to be better than everything and everybody. Since we've been taught this "better than the animals" prejudice, and the animals can't debate back, we get away with thinking this way.

We're definitely more intelligent, but instead of being @sses about it, we should be thankful for it. I know I'm grateful...

Peace

And remember this, the next time you think people are "better" than animals, humans are better known to bite the hand that feeds them. And we consider ourselves more intelligent. Ha ha

Technically speaking, you and your cat are both animals. What makes you (and the rest of humanity) different, at least in degrees, is that you have a significantly more intricate and developed brain, which allows you to in turn reflect on how different you are from your cat.

we are both animals and hybrids ...

If we are all equal and just animals then why do we think it ok to eat a cow but not your next door neighbour?

Your nextdoor neighbor doesn't moo.

Hahaha, Good one GM.

Also I would like to point out cannibals eat people. Whats deemed ok to eat and not, is quite societal.

I bleieve everything has 'spirit' inculding animals and humans. Because God's spirit is everywhere. And everyone is a part of God.

I never heard of a society were they accepted that each member was 'fair game' and could be eaten at any minute!


Your point being?

You know what is so sad is the worst animal of all man has turned cows into cannibals.....
I put man in the animal category...

There isn't a good, universal standard of dealing with animal morality and the like. Generally speaking, it is good to be humane to animals, even the ones that are going to be killed for food. However, they are not equivalent to human beings and human rights; while some animals are clearly very intelligent, many are not.

As for cows, we might be doing them a favor by keeping them for food purposes. The wild ancestor to the cow is extinct, and if suddenly eating them for meat became unacceptable, cows themselves would nearly disappear.

Hindus doesn`t think so.



Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.

Who said you weren't an 'animal'? Of course we are. We're not spirits or ghosts or anything. We are living creatures just like our pets and the animals outside.

Give man a brain and he has become dangerous, you know we are only as evolved and humane as how we treat those that we call that which we have ranked less than..and its a fact many hold the beleif that they are superior to the life that supports them. All of these people waiting for satan and what other lores and myths they can imagine up may find that mans downfall is himself ........In nature there is no less than or greater then all life works togehter for the common good of the whole...

""As for cows, we might be doing them a favor by keeping them for food purposes. The wild ancestor to the cow is extinct, and if suddenly eating them for meat became unacceptable, cows themselves would nearly disappear."

here we have an example of the general line of thinking in the average animal Man.....mr bass did you know that eating meat is a choice a myth generated by those that want to sell a product?????You do not need meat to live......

This might explain why: Mad Cow

If a cow could talk would you eat it?

The Iroquois used to eat the heart of enemies to get courage. There are many cultures who ate their neighboring tribes. Mostly because they thought of them as sub human. On Easter Island when the environment degraded to the point there was no food they took to eating each other. I read some place that people taste like pork.




That is a good one, Guardsman Bass. When I was a kid I helped the next door neighbor with his cows. Those were some lucky cows. They good grazing, the best feed, and every evening with their food they got beer lots of beer. You stand in the barn and pop the can and they would come running. They were pampered and petted. When I came time for butchering we sent them to a local butcher where they killed quickly and pain free a possible. Our reward for our kindness to them was the best beef I have ever had in my life. Native Americans thought if you didn't honor the animals you killed for food the animal spirits would not return and there would be no hunting and the people would starve. It is the factory farm I have problems with. The animals live in horrible conditions, if we respected the animals we eat and we would not have the problems we have now with the food supply. Honor their spirits or they will abandon us.
(Sorry Sheri its how I see it.)



In my faith all creatures have spirit and we are all the children Anu the Great Mother who nurtured the tree of life. We are no different in spirit they are our brothers.




She has cute little pointy ears. soft beautiful fur, and a long tail. (Wish I had a tail.) She stays home all day, sleeps on the couch and waits for me to come home, so I can feed and pamper her. That really make me question who is the smart one.

You're right. But it sure tastes good

We are all animals, yet in my opinion humans are different, we have the capacity to grow beyond our simple animal instincts and desires, the chance to live in harmony or to live in destruction. Mostly humanity has chosen destruction.

Regards, PA

In fact humans genetically are very close to other animals, basically it comes down to the fact that we are more intelligent.

Also as to why the cow isn't extinct has to do with economics, basically when something is a public good it tends to be overused to the point of extinction, because their is no incentive to maintain the numbers, this is why overfishing occurs.

Are we an animal? Yes of course we are

Does morality and intelligence separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom?
To a degree it does as does agriculture and our huge manipulation of the envnviroment but I think it’s hard to not be bias and see thing through anmpomorphic eyes but does that mean we are not an animal?

A bee has a social structure, a community it manipulates its environment it has a hierarchies
a social standard that can be seen to be a rudimentary sort of morality i.e. it doesn’t attack and kill its own hive members for no reason .bees convey information to each other directions to foods ect .
Some ants farm aphids for sugar and in return protect them .Termites build huge complex structures that are built with a basic air conditioning that allows them to keep the ambient temperature just right as to cultivate mould are they intelligent?
In there own way yes they are it just takes a alternative form
Most Birds can fly they mastered aerodynamics long before we could get out of the cave

You see there are many similarities between even the most basic of life forms

I think it’s our complexities in our anatomy (the brain) and the complex social nuances we all abide to that lead to some to see us as better or separate I think it’s a product of ego rather than being something of merit or a physical attribute

With regards to eating meat that’s a moral choice anatomically we have all evolved to eat meat a couple of examples being we produce enzymes specifically to break down protein /meat in out diets and we have teeth for both meat and vegetables

I think its admirable thoe to accept that we evolved to eat meat but as a moral choice decline to do so than to say I don’t eat meat because we aren’t designed to

Were did we animals get morals from then?

How do you define morality?

The dictionary Sais good or virtuous conduct

The sense of treating people how you would like to be treated a sense of not doing harm to another of your kind this is a evolutionary advantage to get along with one another is more productive than to not so. Morality Evolved as did all of our behavioural nuances it’s a mechanism that enables us to get along

That’s why I said it was admirable to over come evolutionary instinct

In a strange way I think you unintentionally hit upon another aspect as to why humans think humans are better than everything else our ability to suppress instinct

This sounds like social contract. This cannot explain morals. It may be beneficial to me to sometimes do things that are 'wrong' (like harm others) so why are these things not deemed 'right'?

Yes but are you not part of a larger whole? A social group? To get along with people one needs a universal set of behavioural patterns

If an animal was hostile to all of its own kind including its family members it would never find a mate and become extinct it doesn’t happen why because all animal including us have an in built ability to treat our kind or our family group with a certain conduct a mutual understanding of the others right to exist .this reinforces family bonds and close social bonds and acts as an evolutionary advantage

While it may be an advantage to harm others from another group it wouldn’t be to harm someone from your own group to do so would result in alienation from the group and as we are a social animal that is detrimental to the long term survival of our race we need to get along to survive

The only difference that separates us is technology.

No, but you do need to eat, period, and meat is both a good source of food and nutrients (particularly certain kinds of food), and a traditional food source for humans (at least before the rise of agriculture). Humans are omnivores, and we are actually poorly adapted to eat plant life; we can't digest most plants, which is why the 'plant' part of the human diet in ancient times before agriculture consisted of eating fruits and seeds.

Tags i have some reading for you....

They say there is evidence of altruism, with some animals acting disinterestedly for the good of others.

Animals which live in communities, they say, often exhibit signs of morality which resembles human behaviour.

They say there is scientific backing for their claims, with huge implications for human use of animals. ......

He told BBC News Online: "Animal sentience has been a matter of debate down the centuries.

"We can't prove absolutely even that another human being is sentient, though it would obviously be unreasonable to assume they are not.

"But the weight of scientific opinion is that it's certainly right to give the benefit of the doubt to all vertebrates."

The rest of the article> news.bbc.co.uk

Zandore, I certainly wouldn't disagree that some animals, particularly the more intelligent mammals and birds, have some degree of sentience (a number of other mammals actually dream while in sleep). Extending that to 'all vertebrates', however, is ridiculous. Scientists can't even agree, for example, if fish caught on hooks are capable of actually feeling pain as something other than to instinctively and automatically move away from.

Guardman meat is not needed by the human body you choose to eat it, its a myth you need to eat meat...the truth is meat is not the best food source, protien is in everything you would be hard pressed not to get enough protien lol, i lift weights and am a strict vegan lol and quite a few body builders and superior athletes are vegetarians.. the reason meat is not such a good food source is it has no fiber it has no complex carbohydrates, it is irridated which menas its nuked this is the meat industrys answer to the new mutant bacterias that are resulting from the abuse of antibiotics and hormones and awful living conditions of factory animals.....irridation destroys what ever nutrirents the meat may of had which is questionable......Becasue the meat industry tells you meat is good doesn't mean it is (wink wink) If you doubt that meat is not a good food source look to the sickness that is prevalent today hypertension, many cancers which are meat related meat sitting in a digestive system is very toxic and toxins reabsorb many do not add the required fiber do you know how much you should have Guard??????your understanding of nutrition is not very good.....you have tailored the info to justify eating meat we are omnivores means we can eat both meat and plants we are actually very cabable of digesting plants lol, actually they are better assimilated.....How do you get your vitamin D ????We all need plants one way or another guard....Its the way we get the energy of sun do you know of photosynthesis????

We are animals. Carnivorous, Viral, Disgusting animals. Look at what human has done. Produce weapons of death. Destroy our forests. Branch out Nomadically like a Disease, destroy everything. We are animals. Probably the most disturbing fact is we are the most dangerous animals to ourselves. We pose the biggest threat to ourselves.

It's actually more the kinds of meat that you eat. Obviously, going through 10 pounds of beef steak is going to kill your heart. On the other hand, fish (and particularly Atlantic Salmon) not only provide a lot of protein without a lot of fat, but they can play a major role in suppressing cancer. It's partially why Japan, a nation of rampant chain-smoking, actually has lower lung cancer rates than the United States.

She just means killing animals in general. Yeah its harsh to kill animals, but its not like we can stop what has been going on since humans were on this planet.

I would of said the same thing but don't want to be so harsh but you speak the truth man with a brain is DANGEROUS not all their are some great caring people whose definition of family extends beyond ther 4 walls who devote their lives to stopping the destruction but the majority of americans are oblivious sad to say and just don't care.........man is creating his own demise from his own stupidity and refusal to admit many things have been in error.....LOL the powers that be can't bear to say they are wrong ......

It's not that harsh, at least to me; after all, whenever you eat, unless what you are eating is a factory produced goo of nutrients, you are killing something. At the same time, you have to acknowledge that not all animals are equal, and do not deserve equal rights.

Oh I wasn't trying to be harsh but its the truth. I care very much about people but its hard with those who care not about logic or tolerance that run around pressing buttons with bombs on the other end. Why can't we all just get along !

Thats very true. I mean, slaughtering an innocent animal just because, like hunting or something, I don't condone, but if you plan on using the fur and the meat, as a necessity, I don't have a problem with. But case in point, there are some extremists that would go as far saying animals have rights. Yeah, they have some rights, but not the same ones as humans. I agree with you on the point that they don't have equal rights to humans.

The first conclusive evidence of pain perception in fish is said to have been found by UK scientists.

This complements earlier findings that both birds and mammals can feel pain, and challenges assertions that fish are impervious to it.

The scientists found sites in the heads of rainbow trout that responded to damaging stimuli.

They also found the fish showed marked reactions when exposed to harmful substances.

The argument over whether fish feel pain has long been a subject of dispute between anglers and animal rights activists.

The research, by a team from the Roslin Institute and the University of Edinburgh, is published in Proceedings B of the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of science.

The researchers, led by Dr Lynne Sneddon, say the "profound behavioural and physiological changes" shown by the trout after exposure to noxious substances are comparable to those seen in higher mammals.

They investigated the fish for the presence of nociceptors, sites that respond to tissue-damaging stimuli.


EDIT: Forgot the > LINK <

Guard where do you suppose this great healthy meat is coming from the oceans are polluted I live on the ocean I can see the effects of mans ignorance. the eatable fish are gone the oceans have been over fished...The only fish safe to eat is wild and its very hard to get and very expensive lol you are eating farm raised fish and it is full of hormones and antibiotics....other than organic meat is irridated read the label it has to be put on there now, also not the cooking and handling instructions its not safe to eat... Irridation kills the nutrients and creates mutant bacterias that are carcinogenic cancer causing....

dennison i'm not opposed to one eating meat on occassion i used to eat meat I don't any longer becasue its detremental to my health and with the health care industry strained and unable to do more than perscribe meds antibiotics aren't working no cures for things i have went in the I'm responsible for myself direction and the way I eat will have the greatest benefits to me than anything else, .....the people that I have known that were plant based eaters are also the healthiest.........I don't eat meat but the way animals are treated is inhumane and cruel and I will never support a industry that has no regard for life......if and that is a very big if i actually know of aisins tha t haev died of cancers just like us americans... asians are avoiding lung cancerr its becasue of the vegetables and seaweeds they eat not the fish....i live next door to aisans and i know what they eat alot of vegetables and fruits is the main part of ther diet very little meat if any at all......

you have to eat plants i don't care how you do it you have to eat them, until recently the majority of the plants and fruits werer doused in pesticieds which compromises the quality alot i actually have had stuff tested you would be amazed at the difference and we are by far the sickest nation why????

It's actually been scientifically documented that certain kinds of fish (particularly Atlantic Salmon), when consumed as part of regular diet, lower your cancer rate. Some type of enzyme in the fish.

Atlantic salmon is farm raised i would never beleive that study who put it out the meat industry probably do you have a lnk???????If htey can't get you to eat meat they will market fish remeber how pork was marketed as the Other white meat LOL........they are huge buisness and they aren't looking to downsize LOL.......

I eat my fruits and veges from my garden

good for you i want to do the same myself this year I will try my black thumb at gardening any tips lol......

Don't kill the plants

I was goingto say that LOL but you beat me to it



Yea dont kill the plants...

Okay i'll make that my goal don't kill the plants LOL thanks guys ha ha hah aha

Ok Sheri...if you say...don't kill the animals..and dont kill the plants..wtfook are you going to eat then?? Whats left? LOL

I don't have to kill the plant to eat it i just take what i need,,,lol air??????? lol

You'd be the only one to live on fresh air and fresh air alone girly LOL...we need the animals and plants to live its all part of the food chain

J/K girly although there have been monks.. ........ We need plants however we can get then it seems .....