Smaller life than us, humans. Things that are barely developed. Or things that are simply microscopic to us like bacteria. It seems the "why" of life is to fight to stay alive and that our natural life is dependent on violence to stay alive. We have to kill bacteria to get rid of sicknesses and other things. We sometimes accidentally kill things every time we sit down.
Every time you wash your hands you kill billions of bacteria. Perhaps there are undiscovered species of newly evolved bacteria on your hands right now (Bacteria evolve fast due to rapid reproduction)
Do you give a ****?
Nope.
Now that sort of answers my question but asks another.
They only matter if they are necessary or helpful.
I don't think any religions really mention animal life and their spirits, so I guess the only exception would be your emotional opinion.
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You are now reading this. You just lost the game.
You have just read this. You are also manually breathing.
Now that sort of answers my question but asks another.
Does ANY life even matter?
The proper response to this is another question; matter to who / what?
If you're asking if life matters to humans, then the answer (aside from nihilists) is clearly "yes".
If you're asking if non-human life matters to humans, then (again aside from nihilists) the answer is "yes, but not as much as us".
Even the most diehard vegan will agree that non-human life matters less than human life to us. They're just closing the immense distance we've placed in the middle.
The proper response to this is another question; matter to who / what?
If you're asking if life matters to humans, then the answer (aside from nihilists) is clearly "yes".
If you're asking if non-human life matters to humans, then (again aside from nihilists) the answer is "yes, but not as much as us".
Even the most diehard vegan will agree that non-human life matters less than human life to us. They're just closing the immense distance we've placed in the middle.
So we are selfish beings? Or we want to strive to live?
So we are selfish beings? Or we want to strive to live?
Those who don't strive to live are not alive.
I think it would be unfair to call us selfish. That has negative connotations that we don't always deserve. Putting ourselves first doesn't mean that we can't be virtuous.
(In fact, I can't think of a single mythological deity, no matter how good, who doesn't place themselves higher than everything else, including Yahweh)
Now that sort of answers my question but asks another.
Does ANY life even matter?
I honestly don't think so. I mean yes, when things die, it's sad. And nobody wants to die. But in the grand scheme of things, individual life doesn't matter. I believe that the reason that death is feared is so the species can survive. If life didn't fear death, life wouldn't avoid death, so everything would die, and there would be no life. I think life as a whole matters, but the lives of individual organisms don't actually matter.
Every time you wash your hands you kill billions of bacteria. Perhaps there are undiscovered species of newly evolved bacteria on your hands right now (Bacteria evolve fast due to rapid reproduction)
Do you give a ****?
Nope.
This, actually. We kill -LOTS- of bacteria Daily, because he have to. If we don't, it'll get us sick. So really, I don't think anyone thinks that smaller life matters, and you can't say it does. You do kill a lot of it on a daily basis...
But the question is, does their life matter?
Now that sort of answers my question but asks another.
Does ANY life even matter?
I think we have a new philosopher!
I don't think any religions really mention animal life and their spirits, so I guess the only exception would be your emotional opinion.
You have just read this. You are also manually breathing.
The proper response to this is another question; matter to who / what?
If you're asking if life matters to humans, then the answer (aside from nihilists) is clearly "yes".
If you're asking if non-human life matters to humans, then (again aside from nihilists) the answer is "yes, but not as much as us".
Even the most diehard vegan will agree that non-human life matters less than human life to us. They're just closing the immense distance we've placed in the middle.
But then again, we would all die if we didn't have the bacteria in our digestive system.
Problem?
So we are selfish beings? Or we want to strive to live?
We wouldn't die, we would just suffer indigestion all the time.
Those who don't strive to live are not alive.
I think it would be unfair to call us selfish. That has negative connotations that we don't always deserve. Putting ourselves first doesn't mean that we can't be virtuous.
(In fact, I can't think of a single mythological deity, no matter how good, who doesn't place themselves higher than everything else, including Yahweh)
I honestly don't think so. I mean yes, when things die, it's sad. And nobody wants to die. But in the grand scheme of things, individual life doesn't matter. I believe that the reason that death is feared is so the species can survive. If life didn't fear death, life wouldn't avoid death, so everything would die, and there would be no life. I think life as a whole matters, but the lives of individual organisms don't actually matter.
They still exist, it doesn't matter if they lack any brain power we do.
That sentence requires a past tense "had". Now that we have evolved, does it matter what happens to them?
Not all lines of evolution are equal in terms of survival. If they were, the whole natural selection process would go out the window.
This, actually. We kill -LOTS- of bacteria Daily, because he have to. If we don't, it'll get us sick. So really, I don't think anyone thinks that smaller life matters, and you can't say it does. You do kill a lot of it on a daily basis...
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