Is Meat Really Murder?

VEGANGELICA · 11-19-2010, 05:28 PM

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Originally Posted by skaltezon

Good point. Why should the biggest ego get to eat the lesser egos? Ooo, I can do calculus, so I'll have a steak.

Why stop there?

People who can't do calculus are obviously leading worthless, simplistic, shallow lives, so they might as well be food for those of us who can. Since they possess less than optimal levels of those quintessential human traits of voracious curiosity and the ability to want to think beyond the obvious, what value can their simple lives have?? Not much. So...snack time!

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I think I love you.

I noticed that you, too, have a soft spot for critters

...and not just in the pit of your stomach!

I've always liked earthworms, skaltezon. I think they're cute. I like to crouch and watch how they react, such as when they stretch out their little front ends until they are skinny and pointy, and then squinch up quickly if you touch them.

It turns out that some worms have fairly interesting neuronal systems that scientists feel make them capable of "free will," the ability to make choices. This is yet another example of how the differences between humans and other animals are often not qualitative but quantitative.

And sometimes the differences are simply qualitative. I will never feel the wind rushing through my feathers, for example. A bird will have many experiences and choices that I can never have.

So, when people eat other animals, I often feel as if people are viewing their own abilities and capabliities as more worthwhile than those of their "food" animals. Maybe beings lacking humility ought to be eaten first...starting with the ones who can't do calculus.

Now for exciting info on worm neuron structures, read on to learn about the human-like brain found in a type of worm!

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Human-Like Brain Found in Worm - Think Atheist
September, 2010

Brain structures directly related to the human brain have just been identified in a marine ragworm, according to a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Cell.

The discovery means that the origins of the human brain can now be traced back at least 600 million years, when we last shared a common ancestor with this species, Platynereis dumerilii, a relative of the common earthworm.

Tomer, a scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), and his colleagues suspect that other invertebrates, such as insects, spiders, crustaceans and velvet worms likely also possess the brain structures, called "mushroom bodies," which correspond to our cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is a part of the human brain involved in memory, learning, thought, language, consciousness and more.

When French biologist Felix Dujardin first observed the mushroom bodies in invertebrates in 1850, he proposed that these structures bestowed insects with a certain degree of free will control over their instinctive actions. Dujardin's theories have since been largely validated.

Subsequent research has established that the mushroom bodies, which look a bit like mushrooms, serve as a center for associative learning and memory formation, activities that are very similar to those of the cerebral cortex.

He doubts, however, that invertebrates think and feel just as we do, since their brains are small and lack the "immensely large number of neurons" present in the human brain.