In regards to eating meat

[Monica]

So you're saying that killing an animal is wrong no matter what?

Yes. Just as I think killing a human (or a dolphin) is wrong, no matter what. (Except in extreme case of self-defense, as a last resort.)

If so, are you still basing that on the idea that animals are individuating while plants are not?

To be honest, my belief that killing animals is wrong isn't based on any particular idea, but on simple knowing. I didn't decide killing animals was wrong after rationally thinking about it based on concepts from the Law of One or any other spiritual book. I didn't need that. It was already obvious to me, even as a child, when I was forced to help my father butcher chickens, ducks and pigeons. It was obvious to me when my father killed 3 of the 5 kittens born. Even before that, I knew. No one had to tell me.

I never ate meat at all until I was 10. At that time, due to a variety of factors I won't go into here, including pressure from family, I 'overcame' my aversion and started eating meat. This lasted until I was 21, when I read The Essene Gospel of Peace and Survival into the 21st Century.

I read the books. I quit eating animals overnight. Instantly. The idea that eating animals was wrong was not something that the books convinced me of. I already knew it. The books just reminded me of what I already knew.

Simply looking into the eyes of a cow or chicken is enough for me. I don't need to intellectualize or rationalize it.

The only reason I'm doing that here, is because what is obvious to me, isn't obvious to others. So I am trying to find ways to explain what is a given to me.

That was mostly about plants not having pain receptors. Whether or not they do, they still have consciousness, right? Are you suggesting that a carrot that is pulled from the earth doesn't realize it?

I think the oversoul of the entire carrot population certainly knows it, but I don't think the individual carrot knows it.

I guess you're referring to kosher slaughter here. Like you, I don't consider that humane.

What I'm saying is, I think most of us here would help that dog, right? Why? Why not just leave him to suffer and die?

I don't need to explain to anyone why they should help that dog. They just know.

Why is it any different with cows, pigs and chickens?

Cows, pigs and chickens are 'dying by the side of the road' by the millions, every single day, and each person who buys meat has the power to put a stop to it.

Why are people letting all those millions of animals suffer and die by the side of the road?