Originally Posted by tore

Morals are not entirely subjective. I think of that as a really an old fashioned idea (think Thomas Hobbes f.ex). Morals arise from behaviours and feelings that at large have helped increase our fitness in our (increasingly social) environment. It could come from something as simple as the "selfish" want to not share your lover with anyone else to an inbuilt willingness to cooperate with other people for the (fitness) benefit of all. Culture's been mixed into that as well, but our capacity for moral is still very much part of our DNA and we have a moral center in the brain. It may need to be stimulated as a child grows up, but that goes for everything else as well, like fine motor skills.

We're definetly moral beings which is why a person like Erica can feel so strongly about animals. Yet, to me it seems pretty clear that in our history, it's never been adaptable for us to care so strongly about animals that we won't eat them. What's happened in Erica's case is that a lot of empathic feelings most people have towards other humans, she also projects onto (non-human) animals. Just why that happened in Erica's case, I do not know, but I feel that in general, it is something that happens more as people are removed from a natural way of life. For a lot of people living modern lives in the city, living animals are not considered competitors or potential food. Mostly, they fill the role of pets. They meet pets like cats and dogs, they may see cute cows on the television etc. Animals are cute and friendly, never food, and so when they see the reality of meat production for the first time, they are repulsed by it.