Okay, so of course i get into the occasinal veggie conversation with a person who chooses to eat meat... and of course theyll say the usual things "omg! what the hell do u eat then?! salad?" but some people say to me in a rude way, "well you know they have proven that plants and vegtables/fruits can feel pain. so whats the fucking difference?" or something amongst these lines. i dont know a clever comeback line. anyone can help? thanks. im so tired of people using this "but plants can feel pain too!"
either the cows eat the plants and you eat the cows OR you eat the plants yourself. plants are lower on the food chain. you are causing less 'harm'. plants have no pain receptors or nervous systems. there is nothing conclusive to actually PROVE that plants feel pain. only a few speculative experiments in which the results are inconclusive or may suggest that plants 'react' to being 'harmed'. it's not solid fact. solid fact is that pigs scream when you hang them from the ceiling. that's how you know they are feeling pain. or tell them you don't care how much pain your food feels because you just don't like eating dead cow bodies.
Yeah that I'd probably just stare at them, and ask what exactly I was supposed to eat instead. Or why they were asking in the first place (as I honestly have no understanding of the 'logic' behind that statement).
The life force is the same in all things. To destroy it's physical body does not destroy the life force itself. In a sense, you're only moving it from one container to another by eating it. Fact remains, you have to take life here in order to have life. You should go as far down the food chain as you can before you make that decision. x
this is off topic, but that little kitten on the person's fingers is the cutest thing i've ever seen in my life. just had to put it out there. oh yeah, and AWWWWWWWW!!!!! ista cutie itty bitty kitty witty!!! awwwwww!!!!.....okay, i'm done.
Xenon's right, and gave a nice tidy version of my rant from the old boards. One thing we need to "get" as veg*ans, is we still kill for food. now, we can do that efficiently by consuming plants, or inefficiently by feeding lots more plants to an animal and taking THAT life in addition to excess plant lives. Sentience becomes a big deal in this argument. as for plant reactions, that was a fluke in the 1970s that has not been replicated with conclusive results. Heck, we question the validity of polygraphs (the machine used in the "plants feel pain" test was a polygraph) today. but if you really want to be obstinante (and hey, sometimes it is fun) say, well the cow felt MORE pain.
By eating ONLY vegetables, fruits, and grains, you are consuming less than if you were to eat an animal who also ate vegetable, fruits, and grains... less resources consumed. Also, plants do not have a central nervous system, no matter what the claims and theories are... And bring this up: Fruit WANTS to be eaten. Fruit is like flowers. They are brightly colored and sweet so that animals will eat them and re-distribute the seeds in their feces.. (not that most of us poop outside, but hey..)
Go over to the marajuana forums in here and you will find Stoners who swear that the plants are practically human and respond to love and attention, music and other stimulli. They have names for them, identify them by sex and strain and post photos. So, yeah Deja Voo you are going to have to concede that point to the carnivores! :troll:
plants do have genders (and can be both/self pollinating) but that does not mean they feel PAIN as birds/mammals/fish/ things that extract oxygen do. plants do respond to stimulus (watch sunflowers).
So far everyone has concentrated on legitimate arguments, so I thought I'd add my favorite snarky comebacks. 1. (Said with utmost apparent sincerity) - "You know, my focus is on the plight of animals, but if you are concerned with the welfare of plants, I can get you some excellent literature on becoming a fruitarian." 2. "But I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals. I'm a vegetarian because I HATE plants."
think of a cherry on its branch.even if you eat it or not,it will stay there for a while, and then it will rot and drop down.then there will appear a flower with the changing seasons.then that flower will die too,and the cherry will appear there again. but to eat an animal you have to kill it.you have to see blood.its not the same thing.well,thats my answer
hehe i love the 2nd one..took me a minute to get it. haha u can say like "yeah i fucking hate plants. they all deserve to die a slow torturing death...and chewed on 50 times and swallowed by me! muwahahha"
In reality, that 'life force' you speak of is simply the energy of the sun stored up in the plants, or in the animals that eat the plants. Prana is comes from God, not the food chain. That is, if what you are talking about by life force is what determines a living body from a dead body, soul-food kind of thing :tongue:
Nyet. The lifeforce I speak of is the prana. It continues with or with out the sun to energize it's physical container. x
I would remind people that if they are arguing the plant thing, too, then they are most likely not interested in learning. They are interested in starting a ridiculous fight. I really do not believe that people are stupid enough to compare a plant's sentience with an animal's. Tell them that you do not plan on killing yourself any time soon, and being a living creature, you must eat. If they really care about plants, then maybe they'd like to know that a diet that includes meat kills MANY more plants than one that includes only plants. As vegetarians, we eat the plants directly. By eating meat, you are killing more plants because the animals you eat must eat plants for the duration of their lives. Meat production is like a factory in reverse- a LOT of grain in, a little meat out. It is a really old and tired argument, it's not valid, and the obvious choice for what is more ethical is apparent, they know it, and they just want to start a fight.
