by Quagmire » Sat 09 Jan 2010, 20:01:32
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Quagmire', '.')
"Why" ?
Well, Tanada...what stands at True North on your moral compass?
If you don't care about extremely intelligent fellow mammals trying to live their lives in peace while being persued to the ends of the earth by high tech ships using high tech equipment to slaughter them, then what do you care about?
Not that anyone really cares, but I see this particular thread as a litmus test of sorts. It's good to know who's who.
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Funny but when I was growing up I was taught that answering a question with a question is rather rude. Dogs are rather intelligent fellow mammals, as are Donkeys and Gorillas. I have never eaten any of them, nor have I eaten Whale, but that is a cultural thing much more than a moral thing. I have no objection to eating Cattle, Goats, Sheep, Chickens, Geese, Turkey, Rabbit or any number of other animals.
Anthropomorphizing animals and emotionally attaching human levels of intelligence to them is a natural reaction, but that doesn't make it true. From what I have seen and read Dolphin's and Porpoise's are quite intelligent, around the same level of cognition as Chimpanzee and Gorilla and Orangutan. Whales with the exception of Killer Whales do not from any study I have seen exhibit any particularly high level of cognition, if you have a link of a study demonstrating otherwise I would be interested in seeing the data.
My moral compass says it is dead wrong to exterminate a species if it is at all possible to avoid doing so, but in the case of the Japanese Whaling ships they are only allowed to harvest a small number of Whales of specific species and they are watched every minute to keep them from cheating on those limits. It is IMO no different than any other form of modern hunting in that it is regulated, controlled and limited to a sustainable level of harvesting.
If they had a license to go after the last Blue whale I would be willing to join the people who file court papers for injunctive relief AND the people who put themselves at risk for the Whales, but that is eminently NOT the case in this situation.
If you want to stop all whale harvesting then get your country to petition the UN to change the international whaling act to say so. Or go out in a speed boat and ram a ship if that is what you believe is your moral duty. Do not, however, lecture the rest of us to live by your personal moral standard. Doing so is no different than a Hindu and a Muslim attacking one another because they disagree about what is the right way to live and what happens when we die. That kind of 'moralizing' has not served anyone well at any time in history, as India and Pakistan. Or ask Mormon's or Jews who disagreed with the majority faith in the past or present. Or heck anyone at all who disagrees with the majority view on a wide range of 'moral' issues.
It was in a sense a rhetorical question, but equally on the other hand, it was a serious question. What does stand at True North on your moral compass?
I'm listening.
What I'm hearing so far is that it's okay with you for humans to go out and slaughter any creature less "intelligent" than man as long as a 'sustainable' breeding population is left... And for any purpose or no purpose, as long as it was decided by a human, because they know best.
Actually, you needn't bother answering.There's a paradigm breach here too wide to cross.
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