A Convenient Lie
In a forum today, a troll had a genuinely interesting question:
What if vegetables had feelings or felt pain? How would the vegans cope?
I know, huh? Makes you think. Of course they’d cope somehow, right? You can’t eat rocks.
But the answer to me was immediately obvious. Most people can’t imagine not eating meat. So the question can be stated just as easily like this:
What if the animals you ate felt pain. How would you cope?
Easy answer, right? You have options! You could lie to yourself about the pain they feel, in which case you’d probably enjoy reading books by other people who deny the pain of animals and watch TV pundits go on about how scientists lie about animal pain. Or maybe you genuinely wouldn’t care, because you’re just insensitive. If you’re strong, you might accept that a bit of suffering is necessary and that your survival is more important than the suffering of animals. Weaker people might not be able to face that suffering, so they would avoid thinking about it, and accept the Bible’s excuse that god put them here for our amusement, clinging to a convenient lie, while others face the problem and live with it.
Which brings me to my question for you:
What if you knew that you were going to die some day. How would you cope?
Would you face the problem and live with it, or would you cling to a convenient lie?
