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Thread: The Depravity of Mankind

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    Default The Depravity of Mankind

    Following a news report on the subject, I found a video clip and pictures revealing the horrors of the Chinese fur trade. Animals are skinned alive for their fur. (Apparently, the fur is best when it is taken off a live animal). This level of barbarism is of the Devil himself. Just when you think nothing can shock you, you are presented with such treachery.

    As a pet owner, it was deeply troubling to watch the video. I will freely admit it brought me to tears.

    How could anyone be so evil?

    It actually led me to acknowledge my own wickedness more fully than ever before. While I have never done anything so barbarous, Christ died for that sin just the same as my sins. We are evil people who are at the mercy of God.
    Last edited by Augustine; 03-26-2007 at 10:28 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Augustine View Post
    It actually led me to acknowledge my own wickedness more fully than ever before. While I have never done anything so barbarous, Christ died for that sin just the same as my sins. We are evil people who are at the mercy of God.

    Brent, you're a decent enough fellow. You must stop finding shame in yourself, and simply learn that you are human. We all are. Jesus was a human being. We're all put on this planet in different capacities, but to fear some angry, intolerant, jealous dictator in the sky is to lose your soul.

    Chew on it.

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    The pain felt by the animals being skinned alive far outways the difference in satisfaction given to the human by having live skinned furs compared to having dead skinned furs, and so could be deemed to be unneccesarily cruel.

    If you take a utilitarian view.
    Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.

    Friedrich Nietzsche

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    and mankind still kills each other over jealousy, power and posessions as well. I think stopping that is a bit more urgent than our cruelty to animals.

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    I find it repulsive that they would kill an animal in such a way to increase the value of the fur. It decreases the value intrinsically when people learn of such.
    Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
    - -- Aristotle

    Believe nothing on the faith of traditions, even though they have been held in honor for many generations and in diverse places. Do not believe a thing because many people speak of it. Do not believe on the faith of the sages of the past. Do not believe what you yourself have imagined, persuading yourself that a God inspires you. Believe nothing on the sole authority of your masters and priests. After examination, believe what you yourself have tested and found to be reasonable, and conform your conduct thereto.
    - -- The Buddha

    It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
    - -- Aristotle

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    and mankind still kills each other over jealousy, power and posessions as well. I think stopping that is a bit more urgent than our cruelty to animals.

    Yet we have the capacity to both at the same time, US.....

    Should we stop researching a cure for cancer because we are searching for the cure for aids at the same time... :-).
    Last edited by AnyOldIron; 03-27-2007 at 07:13 AM.
    Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.

    Friedrich Nietzsche

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    Quote Originally Posted by AnyOldIron View Post
    and mankind still kills each other over jealousy, power and posessions as well. I think stopping that is a bit more urgent than our cruelty to animals.

    Yet we have the capacity to both at the same time, US.....

    Should we stop researching a cure for cancer because we are searching for the cure for aids at the same time... :-).

    You are a bit more optomistic than I am about humans as a species Anyold. I am not so sure we have the capacity yet to do either.

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    You are a bit more optomistic than I am about humans as a species Anyold. I am not so sure we have the capacity yet to do either.

    I'm not sure we have either, but we should work towards both to see if we do.
    Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.

    Friedrich Nietzsche

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    "I'm not sure we have either, but we should work towards both to see if we do."

    Agreed. But then my answer is part of the problem "greed".

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    Agreed. But then my answer is part of the problem "greed".

    True. To alter greed, you could take the positive liberty approach that greed is not in the interests of any individual (it being destructive) and thus legislate it away, dealing with the problem with coercion. This has obvious totalitarian issues.

    The other is to remove the payment of greed, by changing public perceptions and removing the market itself, but this is incredibly difficult to do, and has limited results.

    Maybe a combination of the two would work.....
    Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.

    Friedrich Nietzsche

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    If people knew what was involved in obtaining the fur they would resoundingly reject the product.

    There are those who would justify anything for wealth, those who Make more that subsistance money in this process are the evil ones.

    The people who actually have to perform the evil may have to justify it by the dire need of their families.

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    So we need shock videos and such like the anti abortion folks use ?

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    If people knew what was involved in obtaining the fur they would resoundingly reject the product.

    Some would. Others would consider the suffering of animals neglible in comparison to the gains made, others would operate speciesism (yes, that is a true ism) and care not one jot....

    There are those who would justify anything for wealth, those who Make more that subsistance money in this process are the evil ones.

    But they need a market.... Those who profit from this can be circumvented that way. So you work on the majority. You'll never fully alleviate this, because you'll never alleviate the market totally. But you can reduce it to make it unprofitable and thus not worth the effort.

    The people who actually have to perform the evil may have to justify it by the dire need of their families.

    Many of these will make the ethical decision that the suffering of their family through not working far outweighs the suffering of the animals. You are right, they aren't something we can change.

    If you want to resolve this, work on the market, changing perceptions and make it not worth the effort of those without ethical concerns for animals...
    Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.

    Friedrich Nietzsche

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    So we need shock videos and such like the anti abortion folks use ?

    That is a tactic many animal rights campaigners use.

    Obviously I would draw the line at some tactics, bombing etc. If you are imposing more suffering than you are preventing, it defeats the object....
    Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.

    Friedrich Nietzsche

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    Obviously I would draw the line at some tactics, bombing etc. If you are imposing more suffering than you are preventing, it defeats the object....

    Extremists often undermine their own cause.

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