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Why do vegetarians/vegans differentiate between plants and animals?

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posted on Jan, 30 2015 @ 05:28 PM
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a reply to: maxwellinfinity
Yeah, ok fruits are supposed to be eaten, but what about potatoes, carrots and other sort of vegetables, such as lettuce and all that stuff? what about mushrooms? They are all lifeforms, not supposed to be eaten. Let alone, some plants are killed after they are harvested each year. And I mean killed, like Jalapeno plants for example, they are killed and the whole harvest is replanted every year.

On the other hand, Animals area also supposed to be eaten actually. They are supposed to be eaten, in order to maintain a certain balance. If snakes weren't killed by badgers, rats and other small mammals would be in danger, now that their predator are growing in numbers. So we are all supposed to be eaten.

We humans managed to avoid being eaten, and look were that took us. We are a menace to the natural balance, in fact we have altered it quite a lot already. Lions should have kept feeding on us.



posted on Jan, 30 2015 @ 05:30 PM
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originally posted by: RoScoLaz4

if a visit to an abbattoir won't clearly demonstate why animals' deaths are different to that of plants, then frankly i don't know what will.



I kill my own meat, so there is no need for me to visit one of those fancy French slaughterhouses - I just call that "Thursday". Based upon years of experience, I can definitively say that there is not much difference at all between the death of a plant and the death of an animal - death is death. True, if you're slow or lazy a plant can't outrun you, but that's the only difference as far as the dying goes... that, and the fact that it takes a LOT longer on average for a plant to actually die once you've killed it.




edit on 2015/1/30 by nenothtu because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 30 2015 @ 05:37 PM
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originally posted by: HUMBLEONE
Yeh. I don't get it either. I know that I know that I know that plants are much more advanced beings than animals. You know?


I also though of this many times.
I came to the conclusion that we dont value life for what is it, instead we value consciousness. Life is only valuable if you are conscious of it. So we asume plants aren't conscious of their existence, they don't have feelings, don't mourn those who die as animals do, and don't fear death.

I have killed many insects, and most people kill flies, spiders, ants and all kinds of bugs. Why isn¡t that considered to be violent or cruel? It is cruel and violent. Still, we go like, "that spider had no idea what life or death is, so # it, what difference does it make?" IMO we generally believe life itself, isn't valuable, or at least as valuable as consciousness of life.



posted on Jan, 30 2015 @ 05:39 PM
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originally posted by: artistpoet
a reply to: Eunuchorn

My point is about respect ... and also toleration of other's choices

Why do you think Vegans choose to not eat honey ?


A vegetarian told me that she doesn't eat honey because it's "bee vomit" - evidently the issue wasn't that it was made by bees, but rather HOW it was made by bees.

I just said "Cool - that leave more bee vomit for ME then!"




edit on 2015/1/30 by nenothtu because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 30 2015 @ 05:56 PM
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originally posted by: 3n19m470
Seriously though? I dunno... maybe because it's possible to eat a plant without killing it? But maybe it should be ok to eat an animal if it died of old age or an injury, too? I don't really know...


That's some kind of twisted, to eat something while it's still ALIVE, without killing it!

As a side note, every animal I've ever eaten died of an "injury"...



posted on Jan, 30 2015 @ 06:23 PM
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a reply to: nenothtu

You and 3n19m470 are making an interesting point.

If the objection is the taking of life of another being, vegans would not mind eating things (plants, animals) that died naturally, I guess?

Fruits and seeds have been living tissue at some point too, before being separated from the plant.



posted on Jan, 30 2015 @ 06:31 PM
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a reply to: InTheLight


Ummm...and then the vegan eats the little critters in the plants and..............voila...they're no longer vegan they're omnivorous...
What an absolutely lovely concept...I'M...more evolved than you cause I only eat organisms that i refuse to...see...

It makes me wonder how many pounds of insect protein go into the typical vegan diet...Hmmm...?





YouSir



posted on Jan, 30 2015 @ 06:38 PM
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a reply to: moebius

Seeds are living tissue even after separation from the plant.
If not, they wouldn't grow.
So people need to think about how many individual peanuts are roasted to death in order to make a PBJ sandwich..... we won't mention how many grains of wheat are ground to death in making the bread.



posted on Jan, 30 2015 @ 06:50 PM
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Because it suits their needs.

No other logical explanation.


If you pick and choose which life forms is OK for you to kill and eat then the belief is just silly.



posted on Jan, 30 2015 @ 07:24 PM
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a reply to: butcherguy

Yes, me being sloppy. Late night/early morning here, time to AFK I guess.


Thanks for everyones contributions so far.



posted on Jan, 30 2015 @ 07:29 PM
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originally posted by: moebius
a reply to: nenothtu

You and 3n19m470 are making an interesting point.

If the objection is the taking of life of another being, vegans would not mind eating things (plants, animals) that died naturally, I guess?

Fruits and seeds have been living tissue at some point too, before being separated from the plant.


Seeds are STILL living tissue, until they too die. have you ever dissected a seed? I have, because I'm evil like that, and don't mind offing stuff. It's a baby plant wrapped into that seed. There is a tap root, a stem, "cotyledons" to feed the baby plant on until it leaves out (think of them as "seed yolks", I guess), and sometimes a couple of embryonic leaves, too.

Just because it is dormant does not mean it is dead, by any stretch of the imagination. Throw a little care at it - a little water, a little warmth, a little dirt - and it will unfold into a brand new organism, just as it was intended to. If dormancy were a determinative factor, vegetarians would eat any kind of critter that hibernates, as long as it were killed in it's sleep, hibernating.

SO - if one doesn't want to "kill to live", then seeds are off the table, as well as roots and vegetation... unless one wants to eat hay and the like, as cattle can, after it has died a natural death. Fruit is another matter - most fruit probably isn't "alive" after it falls from the plant, and the riper it gets, the less "live" I suppose... but it too may have a purpose in the life cycle of the organism other than just to be eaten by something else - providing nourishment or a protective environment for the seedlings it holds within are potentials that come to mind.

Still, if vegetarians REALLY gave a crap about "living things", they would eat nothing but hay and fruit - and even then only after that had naturally died.

I hear the screams of anguish from salads being inexorably force-fed into the gaping maws of the grinding apparatus of vegetarians whenever I walk past one eating his hapless and utterly defenseless victims. At least the critters I eat have a fighting chance to run away or gore me.



edit on 2015/1/30 by nenothtu because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 31 2015 @ 07:42 AM
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originally posted by: nenothtu

originally posted by: artistpoet
a reply to: Eunuchorn

My point is about respect ... and also toleration of other's choices

Why do you think Vegans choose to not eat honey ?


A vegetarian told me that she doesn't eat honey because it's "bee vomit" - evidently the issue wasn't that it was made by bees, but rather HOW it was made by bees.

I just said "Cool - that leave more bee vomit for ME then!"





Same thing goes for sea-bed dwellers, they eat fish poo...and we eat sea-bed dwellers!

edit on 31-1-2015 by smurfy because: Text.



posted on Jan, 31 2015 @ 07:56 AM
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Great thread, OP. I can completely understand not wanting to support the cruel meat industry, but as others pointed out, plants are life as well. Also, killing your own food is as natural and normal as breathing and defecating. Life eats life, fools. A lion would eat you in a heartbeat, with no moral compunction whatsoever. If society crumbled tomorrow, you'd see how all those vaunted morals will fly right out the window when the plant eaters and their children are starving to death.



posted on Jan, 31 2015 @ 01:31 PM
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originally posted by: Calalini
Great thread, OP. I can completely understand not wanting to support the cruel meat industry, but as others pointed out, plants are life as well. Also, killing your own food is as natural and normal as breathing and defecating. Life eats life, fools. A lion would eat you in a heartbeat, with no moral compunction whatsoever. If society crumbled tomorrow, you'd see how all those vaunted morals will fly right out the window when the plant eaters and their children are starving to death.


Only in first world countries where food is in abundance can people choose to be vegetarian. Eating other animals is the natural order of things.

God forbid when the SHTF. A lot people are going to starve to death because they won't know how to go out and hunt.



posted on Jan, 31 2015 @ 03:28 PM
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Personally, I do think it is very strange that in general, life needs to consume life to live.

I am an omnivore, tho. I do understand this morbid reality and choose to not concern myself with this aspect of it.

Vegetarians, tho, I belive are just trying their best to do what is right. I do understand their dessision and am just glad they can think deep enough to relize the issue.

On that note, some one who eats plants, in my personal belief, is doing the same as the meat eater.

Neither one should put down the other for trying to do what they feel is the right decisions. That is the wonderful thing about being a human, we are all different.

We should be more accepting of others beliefs and choices. Appreciate diversity and allow it to help expand all our wisdom.



posted on Jan, 31 2015 @ 10:40 PM
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a reply to: moebius




posted on Feb, 1 2015 @ 12:12 AM
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The Bible never refers to plants as living things. They are very complex, but do not have a soul, which is flesh plus the breath of life. Here is one of many examples showing that living things and plants are not the same:

Genesis 6:19-22 (AKJV)

19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. 20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. 21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. 22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

In verse 19 God says to take all living things of all flesh. In verse 20 He says to have two of each in order to keep them alive. In verse 21 He tells Noah to gather food for his family and the animals. This clearly distinguishes that animals and humans are alive, and plants are not.

Also, the Bible never once says anything about any plants dying. It always says they will fade or whither; it never uses the word "die" when talking about a plant.



posted on Feb, 1 2015 @ 02:52 AM
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I am vegan and i see it like this. Yes plants are conscious just as animals, but plants are connected to the earth and the earth spirit provides us with life, where as animals are their own spirit. They come here to learn, experience and grow as do we. Taking the life of a plant that is provided for us by the planet that provides us with life is much different than taking the life of an entity that has come here to experience.



posted on Feb, 1 2015 @ 08:08 AM
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originally posted by: hoonsince89
I am vegan and i see it like this. Yes plants are conscious just as animals, but plants are connected to the earth and the earth spirit provides us with life, where as animals are their own spirit. They come here to learn, experience and grow as do we. Taking the life of a plant that is provided for us by the planet that provides us with life is much different than taking the life of an entity that has come here to experience.



That is a very interesting justification for your choice. Well done, whereas I prefer medium rare.

edit on 2/1/2015 by Krakatoa because: added additional content



posted on Feb, 1 2015 @ 12:11 PM
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a reply to: jeramie

The Bible reflects the knowledge level of the humans some 2000 years ago.

I'd suggest to read some more recent material maybe. We have made some decent progress since then.







 
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