The Value of Life

If a fly flies pass your face in the house do you kill it without feeling guilty?

If a cat runs pass the house and spills your coke can all over the place would you kill it without feeling guilty?

If a horse trampled on your vegetable garden would you kill it without feeling guilty?

If a human doesn't agree to your points of views and even says you are a jerk would you kill him or her and wouldn't feel guilty?

If you say yes to a fly but no to the rest, why is a flies life not as valuable as in other living thing??

Wouldn't it be a sin to kill anything that lives??

extrapolate it further to a microcosmic level then...do you feel bad when you hurt/kill plants?

Flies suck, I won't hesitate to kill one - LOL

Wow! Haven't seen you in, like, forever! Or maybe I've been out for a while too.

Does a plant have feelings??? It does wilt back when fire is near it right? Or not?

If not then if a plant doesn't feel then it is okay right?

Yet does a insect have feelings? It does run when it is threatened so it must have feelings that it doesn't want to die at the moment.

So I just wonder at times. lol

Just like when I watched a movie "7 days in Tibet" with Brad Pitt about the Dalai Lama. Brad Pitt played a Austrian soldier who was sent to explore the Himalaya mountains. He then met the Dalai Lama and he wanted him to build a movie theater, yet when the soldier asked the people to dig the ditches to create the spot for the theater they hesitated, because they didn't want to kill the worms. Tibetans or Buddhism believes that worms could have been your mother or a pass life as a human. We should treat them the same as we would with ourselves. So they had to make sure to not kills the worms when creating this theater.

I thought that was interesting to watch.

Yeah, like I was told plant's feel pain........sure buddy. Flie's are disgusting.

If I die and come back as a worm, that's a fate worse than Hell and I hope someone does kill me - LOL

I never was a worm so I wouldn't know. Oh wait! Maybe I was a worm and never knew!!

He asked if it is a sin to kill anything that's living. Plants are living. It's a legitimate extrapolation according to the initial terms.

Hey chicka, it was me that left for a while. I popped back in, but it's not so great in the forums any more from the looks of it...so don't expect me for long, haha.

Well what are your views on this?? Yes for plants no for anything else? or yes to everything?

No problem...things have changed here. I try to make the best of it while I'm on my summer vacation. Nice to see you again though...and best wishes if you disappear again. LOL!

How do we know whether or not a plant has feelings? Anatomically, it may simply be prevented from a noticeable reaction to pain. More likely, though, you're right that they do not feel pain.

But is the simple infliction of pain an absolute barrier to the righteousness of something? (I'll try to avoid the word 'sin' since it's ridiculously subjective). We execute killers and consider it just. We often inflict very small levels of pain to enforce a point. Where does it change from justified to unjustified? To me, it's ridiculous to argue that you have to pick a black or white opinion...there needs to be a sliding scale. Sometimes inflicting harm on some organisms, human or otherwise, is justifiable.

so you are saying it depends on the situation. I understand!

People write entire books about this sort of thing. (See: Peter Singer) There's no simple answer to display a viewpoint. Everything will be affected by context. Killing plants is fine sometimes (but what if it affects an ecological habitat?). Killing flies is fine (but what if they provide an important biological process?). Etc.

My morals for human interaction is most closely aligned with a Kantian viewpoint, although I sometimes stray from that when pressed in certain specific situations.

I understand completely why most stray away from it. There are so many viewpoints indeed. I will check out Peter Singer and look up Kantian viewpoint. thanks for the tips!

I also have heard that a white ox is considered holy in India or for Hindus. They could stand in the middle of the road and cars would have to leave it alone and drive around it. They are not allowed to be touched.

I think that is interesting also.