Thanks for your wonderful points, Salana. You are, of course, right if you look at your facts in isolation, such as that eating fruit doesn't cause the fruit-bearing organism's death. I tend to look at a broader picture of an ecosystem in which my view is still true. For example, while roundworms might feed off of a carnivore without killing it, the roundworms will not survive if the carnivore doesn't kill food to eat. Some species may be several steps removed from the kill, but the death is still required somewhere in the ecosystem.
One reasons humans are remarkable is that we can choose our position on the food chain. I have a lot of respect for people who've chosen vegetarianism, for this reason. I've chosen differently for some of the reasons I've mentioned and some additional ones that are religious/spiritual and thus forbidden topics.
By the way, plants need things to die to enrich their soil and feed them (although it's true that very few plants kill directly). It's all cyclical.
Quote:
Originally Posted by salana  But I have to say that no organism causes as much suffering to other organisms as humans do. |
I can't say I definitively agree with this statement. I've watched my cats torment mice. A large number of animal species have seemingly cruel social orders (like the chicken's pecking order). There're many critters out there with horrifyingly violent reproductive cycles. At least one exists where the mothers don't give birth--the babies eat their way out of her.
What I do believe is that humans have a choice about whether to cause suffering (just as they have a choice about where they want to be on the food chain). The difference for me here is that I believe choosing to cause suffering is always bad. Period. Bad for both victim and perpetrator, for that matter.