All Life Forms Are One Thing

[Guest guest]

LOL- I was just tossing a think-wrench into things when I mentioned the

Venus Fly-trap. There is an entire category of meat-eating plants, by the

way, and yes, there are even plants that MOVE -- literally there is a

small tree in South America I believe it is, that uses its roots to pick

up and move itself to water sources. Pretty wild, eh?

 

Realistically, my rule of thumb is that I won't eat animals and respect

even plants. This means that I don't indiscriminately destroy plants,

either -- ever seen a kid walking through a field leaving a path of

destruction in his wake? I don't do that.

 

Carnivorous plants aren't eaten, that I know of, anyhow, so that's rather

a moot point, but the argument over how things are classified is one that

Zoology has never solved. Various groups will put this or that plant or

animal into one or another category as they see fit -- is a Platypus a

mammal, for instance, or a hairy bird, or its own distinct thing?

 

So this question of what criteria to use is a good one, one the scientists

and the laity alike have never quite resolved. Maybe we can't. Maybe the

truth is more Zen: All is One, No Separation. Therefore, all life forms

are one thing, LIFE. So it's only a matter of degree that we're talking

about when deciding what's ethical to eat.

 

 

On Tuesday, August 26, 2003, at 09:02 AM,

wrote:

 

> (BTW, I'm more or less kidding and found myself laughing about venus

> fly traps because I hadn't considered them. I know that I myself

> would never eat one.)

>

> So, should we use all the criteria when considering whether

> something is an animal, or should we consider something an animal

> based on meeting just one or more of the criteria?

>

" God defeated armies of Philistines and others with confusion. Dimpled and

hanging chads may also be because of God's intervention on those who were

voting incorrectly. Why is GW Bush our president? It was God's choice. "

--Some Idiot Fundamentalist