Puzzled about fish

[MadScot]

One of the bad things about studying philosophy is that it makes you question assumptions. I tried to think about what was the moral thing to do. If I were trying to survive in a non-modern society, killing and eating anything you can get your hands on seems to me to be ok, as it it is necessary for survival. But in a modern society where there are many options, this seems not to hold water. Can we justify eating something just because it tastes good and we've done it for a long time? We could make similar arguments about eating other things. how about eating our criminals. hey there is a solution to a bunch of problems, world hunger and exploding prison population...

Anyway, i decided to use an intelligence test to determine what i eat. I only eat dumb animals: fish, chicken (poultry), etc. Smarter animals like pigs, cows, and pretty much most mammals are out. Sometimes i eat other meat, but i feel guilty later. I hate that I have the gall to have convictions but don't have the stomach to stand by them.

Oh, well,

MadScot

"What? Haggis isn't meat, is it? They told me it was a wee doggie!"

[Lizzard[MPE]]

Originally posted by MadScot
I only eat dumb animals: fish, chicken (poultry), etc. Smarter animals like pigs, cows, and pretty much most mammals are out. Sometimes i eat other meat, but i feel guilty later.

that could be the funniest thing i've heard all day

[omegaRED]

Originally posted by MadScot
how about eating our criminals. hey there is a solution to a bunch of problems, world hunger and exploding prison population...

Now there`s an idea!

[Wulfman]

Originally posted by MadScot
Anyway, i decided to use an intelligence test to determine what i eat.

Explain the test, please!

mfg
wulfman

[Gurm]

I challenge you. I challenge ANY vegetarian to do entirely without animal products. Voluntary animal products are ok - milk, cheese, eggs. But not involuntary products - no gelatin, no... oh, wait! You can't drink milk because they grind up fish to use as emulsifier! So sorry! I _suppose_ you can go find straight-from-the-cow milk, at $5 for a half gallon.

No vitamins, either. JUST vegetables, and milk (if you can find the right kind) and cheese, and eggs. That's IT. No supplements, no vitamins, no nothing.

You'll be ill before you know it. All the REAL vegetarians I know are stick-skinny anemic-looking people. You gotta eat a LOT of spinach to get the iron from one medium-rare porterhouse. And you have to eat a LOT of ... umm ... which vegetable has fat in it again? You _DO_ know that without fat you'll die, right?

And I'd LOVE to know where you'll get your amino acids from. There are quite a few that are only found in animal flesh. Not in any plant known to man... but go RIGHT AHEAD. Just leave me the hell out of it. I want to stay healthy.

- Gurm

[omegaRED]

Wulf, come on. Everyone knows chickens are plain dumb. And the fish? Talk about stupid. I mean, when`s the last time you saw a fish solve a math equasion ... come to think of it, i havent seen seen any animal do that ... but i`m sure if you put all animals to a test of stupidity, the fish would come second (after the chicken ofcourse).

[MadScot]

The intelligence test is rather subjective and ill-defined. Two possibilities are as follows: Can i reasonably and entirely imagine what it is like to be that animal? I think i could imagine what it is like to be most animals that i don't like to eat. But what would it be like to be a fish? Do they have thoughts, or are they just stimulus-response? What would it be like to be such a creature? I don't know.

The second method is ad-hoc. Chickens seem really stupid. I've seen rocks smarter than some fish. Cows, while slow, are no more dim-witted than some people i know. Pigs are smarter than dogs, so if Fido is safe, so is Porkey.

When the world comes out with a smart broccoli, I'm screwed.

MadScot

[Wombat]

Can we justify eating something just because it tastes good and we've done it for a long time?

<B>Yes!!!</B> What would make you think of anything different?

In the words of Dennis Leary:

(don't bother cooking it)....just bring me the whole cow! I'll carve off what I want, and ride the rest home!!!

[KRSESQ]

All the REAL vegetarians I know are stick-skinny anemic-looking people.

I've met four true vegetarians in my life. Only one of them matched the above description. Two others are my niece and her husband. They're otherwise normal (more or less, considering my family). The fourth weighed 300 pounds if he was an ounce. He swore on his mother's grave he never ate any animal products except for dairy. I don't know what else was in his diet, but he sure wasn't starving!

Kevin

[MadScot]

Originally posted by Wombat

<B>Yes!!!</B> What would make you think of anything different?

So such things as canibalism or eating a live elephant would be fine, so long as we had a history of doing so, right?

MS

[MadScot]

Look, I'm only playing devil's advocate. There is nothing I hate more than people pushing their beliefs on others. I lived with a militant vegan and hated it. I also lived with a rancher who would put down everyone who didnt eat enough red meat. Both were pains in the ass for it.

I, for one, love the tast of raw things. Sushi tops my list, but when i was young, i loved raw ground beef. Then i heard about parasites and bacteria...

MadScot

[Kastuvas]

What about people eating sharks and whales, they are fish and they are far from dumb.

[agallag]

Originally posted by Kastuvas
What about people eating sharks and whales, they are fish and they are far from dumb.

Whales are fish now? I must have missed that memo

[spoogenet]

Whales are fish now? I must have missed that memo

I'll make sure you get another copy.....and about those TPS reports.....

Gurm: if you want fat, just eat lots of potatoes and rice, then sit on the couch and watch TV while using minimal effort.....you'll get your fat.

If we're supposed to eat so much meat, then why do we cook it? And before throwing out some "our imune systems are weak from not eating raw meat for so many years of our evolution" explain to me why anybody in the history of man started cooking his meat in the first place. I'm genuinly curious.

I'll eat steaks....but only well cooked. I used to eat them pretty rare, but my digestive system isn't too keen on that these days. I stopped eating beef altogether for a while because it seemed every time I ate it I would get slightly sick....my theory...the hormones. Just a theory. I go to Canada and eat some nice rare beef....mmmmmm, tatses soooo good, no digestive reaction. Coincidence? Perhaps. But no matter how you slice it, the non-hormonal beef still tastes better.

I hear there exists a cow in Japan that has been massaged with beer and fed a mixture of grain and beer....worth $500k per cow or so? I'd like a piece of that....beef. Kobe beef, or something like that?

Tofurkey....I like tofu and the thought of that just turns me off. I like turkey too, for what it's worth.

<homer voice>
MMmmmmmm......suuuuushiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii......
</homer voice>

BTW, I've known fish smarter than some humans, I swear it. Don't count fish out of the intelligence pool.....just because they like to eat shiny metal things with hooks on them doesn't make them stupid! Or does it? Then again, think of what they have to work with. We, fortunately, have appendages that we can manipulate the world with. A fish has one real choice to investigate things.....taste it. If it gots hooks, though....it's gonna be a painful experience. But think of the first time you touched something hot without knowing what it would do....yeaow. The difference? We only make that mistake once....(or twice, or any number of times depending on the person).

b

[Rags]

Originally posted by Wombat


Slaughtering cows? If you ever looked at a cow head on, you'd know it's just begging to die.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

That is the best thing I have read in the last ten months at least!! And it's so true!

Rags