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And if we are hungry, we eat things we kill for fun too, what is your point?
Oh, we eat alright. Since this is mostly an american viewing site, I'll use the US statistics.
The average family eats around 6000 pounds of food in a year. 27% of it is thrown away as waste. If you think that's bad, in one day, all the food americans waste could've been used to feed 240 183 people starving to death. 21.4 of the 6000 is snack food. An average person eats 87 hot dogs a year. Each day, americans eat 90 acres of pizza.
Now imagine what this is doing to the environment? The slaughterhouses, the harvest, factory, packaging, shipment. All of it has at least some impact on the environment. And since we're eating more and more and more each year, then you'd be stupid to STILL not know why some, no scratch that, most of americans are fat. You have the fast food chains to thank for that. You know what's also funny? We barely know how to limit our consumerism. Some time back, we've fished so much tuna that we've had to put a law on it.
Well, it only makes sense that fast food restaurants will survive the economic depression because with their cheap meals (McDonalds mostly because there's so many commercials, like 1 per every 3), people with not enough money to buy food from the grocery and start meals from scratch will have a place to eat. Imagine how many cows, chicken and pork are forcibly giving their lives to feed us? And imagine how much fat, grease, oil and sodium is processed in them to make them taste better?
So with our over eating, we're runing the lives of animals and ourselves. The bad guy to thank in this crime is money. No, wait, I meant the greed of money (because all money does is to represent the power of trade). Who do you think wins in this whole system? The corporation FrEaKs of course. But what do they care? They only want the oodles of cash.
I found it very interesting how animals live in perfect harmony with our planet, they eat what they need and only as much as they need, they know exactly what type of environment they belong in, they know exactly who to hunt and who to be aware of, they communicate in their own ways, their basic survival skills are so simple, and yet so complex. Animal kind is very much in balance with the nature, they help nature to prosper. Our planet was, at one time, cleaner and healthier, before humans appeared.
Life abhors a vacuum and it will take over any environment in which it has an advantage. For example, zebra mussels and asian carp have invaded the location where I live. They have no natural enemies; therefore they are thriving at the expense of weaker native mussels and carp. Nature will eventually correct the imbalance, but the environment is changed forever.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShepsMom
We don't seems to find a perfect balance with our planet. We don't bring anything positive, we pollute air and water, we destroy nature to accommodate our selfish desires, to have best of everything, to dominate, etc... We are animals of the worst kind, if such thing even exist.
Homo sapiens are like any other life form. We live in an environment where we have the advantage, where we have subdued all natural enemies (except for disease), and, as a consequence, we have thrived. Vigorously consuming resources is a behavior of every life form. We are no different except for the fact that there are so many of us.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShepsMom
Do we really belong on this planet, or we just "aliens" who are surviving in "foreign" environment? As far as i see, we bring nothing to achieve any type of harmony or balance, quite the opposite.
I'm pretty sure, when human race is gone, the animals will still be here (if we don't kill them all) ruling the planet as they once were. Do we really belong here?
Because we have thrived on this planet absolutely indicates we belong. Just as the asian carp or the zebra mussels mentioned above now belong to my area. Nature is in balance, but it is a dynamic balance. Life that cannot adapt to a change in environment will die, and life that can adapt will thrive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShepsMom
I would like to hear an opinion from a religious point of view. Was god right in his decision to put humans here and let us to destroy all the balance and harmony that he himself so carefully "designed"?
If he knew, as he knows it all way ahead of time, we, the humans, the sinners, the barbaric kind, would be destroying, dominating, ruining everything that this earth is offering, why would he allow us on this planet, his precious creation? Everything worked so wonderfully before he "brought" us here.
Would you possibly think that maybe, just maybe, he made the biggest mistake by "creating" human race, or even "placing" us here on planet Earth? Better yet, why would he?
Somehow i fail to see the point of such unhealthy "creation" and on a top of all, despite everything, still "love and forgive" it.
Believe it or not, we are natural beings who are behaving just as Mother Nature intended us to. I believe that religion is important in that it may be the most influential institution that could convince us to temper the exuberance of life. It does in some ways (The Seven Deadly Sins), but not in other ways ("... be fruitful and multiply...").
We are no different except for the fact that there are so many of us.
And don't forget the other differences: we're industrialized, advanced in technology, have different languages, litter, create substances the environment can't recycle, travel in space, made PLENTY of scientific discoveries, schools, restaurants, pollute, religion, politics, nuclear energy, harnessed electricity, TV, computers, telephones, radios, celebrities, air travel without wings, automobiles, artificial projectile weapons, carnivals and dominate any form of land to call it our property (where most of us don't share with the animals who origionaly inhabited it).
Most of the thing's that make us different from animals makes us think we can do more. Like when we discovered how to use animal hides for warmth. That allowed us to survive in nothern climates, and another effect was that it left us with less fur. Then came science, plilosiphy and theory. Then the dark midevil ages. Then we discovered the New World, colonized, destroyed and pilliged indian grounds. Now we have cities that pollute, people who litter and global warming. This is bad, and not to mention that our population now outnumbers every human that ever lived before the 2000's.
More humans=more resources needed=more resources obtained=more species lost=more pollution during resource processing=waste=prosperity (a.k.a: MORE humans)... turns out that more is less, since we're making other species extinct by the second.
This is what some humans would classify as INHUMANE, and most AN UNIMPORTANT ISSUE since most of us (especially americans) care about no other living thing but themselves. We grew into the false impression that we're the dominant ones, and you have religion to thank for that. We've taken advantage of that "dominance" title and used it to our advantages, leaving a lot of destructive side effects to our world (ex: more food in America, less in Zambia) and the nature world (ex: More forests we harvest for construction=less habitats). Thankfully, there are some who do care, like the people who actually RECYCLE their waste, or the people making environmentally friendly products like electrical cars and renewable energy
For the "so many of us" statement, it is false. There are many things that outnumber us, like rats, cockroaches, ants, termites, bees, snakes, trees, grass, bacteria, beetles, worms, mice, mosquitos, most protozoa, flies, butterflies, frogs & toads, and according to Elmer Fudd: Those wasky wittle wabbits!
I found it very interesting how animals live in perfect harmony with our planet, they eat what they need and only as much as they need, they know exactly what type of environment they belong in, they know exactly who to hunt and who to be aware of, they communicate in their own ways, their basic survival skills are so simple, and yet so complex. Animal kind is very much in balance with the nature, they help nature to prosper. Our planet was, at one time, cleaner and healthier, before humans appeared.
We don't seems to find a perfect balance with our planet. We don't bring anything positive, we pollute air and water, we destroy nature to accommodate our selfish desires, to have best of everything, to dominate, etc... We are animals of the worst kind, if such thing even exist.
Do we really belong on this planet, or we just "aliens" who are surviving in "foreign" environment? As far as i see, we bring nothing to achieve any type of harmony or balance, quite the opposite.
I'm pretty sure, when human race is gone, the animals will still be here (if we don't kill them all) ruling the planet as they once were. Do we really belong here?
I would like to hear an opinion from a religious point of view. Was god right in his decision to put humans here and let us to destroy all the balance and harmony that he himself so carefully "designed"?
If he knew, as he knows it all way ahead of time, we, the humans, the sinners, the barbaric kind, would be destroying, dominating, ruining everything that this earth is offering, why would he allow us on this planet, his precious creation? Everything worked so wonderfully before he "brought" us here.
Would you possibly think that maybe, just maybe, he made the biggest mistake by "creating" human race, or even "placing" us here on planet Earth? Better yet, why would he?
Somehow i fail to see the point of such unhealthy "creation" and on a top of all, despite everything, still "love and forgive" it.
I wouldn't descibe the balance as "perfect harmony". Instead life is intense and ruthless competition of individual creatures struggling to do better than the next one on fluid and ever-changing playing field. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don't.
Animals don't know when to stop destroying the environment any more than people do; a herd of deer that is too big will strip a forest of food in the winter and all starve to death, a horde of locusts will eat everything in their path and let other animals starve. People are just better at ravaging the earth than most creatures, but we are still born of the same system.
From a certain point of view, a human built environment is still a "natural" environment, just altered by the creature, like a beaver building a dam. Some creatures benefit and others don't, but nature is still at play.
On a macro scale everything eventually balances out over time. Species that can't keep up disappear, new species develop to fill ecological niches, the forest grows back and the damage is repaired.
Man does not own or dominate nature, we just think we do. But in reality we are subject to it just as any other animal is. And if we are too voracious we will destroy ourselves, just like the deer in the winter. Nature will eventually balance us out if we fail to balance ourselves.
On a macro scale everything eventually balances out over time. Species that can't keep up disappear, new species develop to fill ecological niches, the forest grows back and the damage is repaired.
The problem with the notion that humanity is 'at the top of the food chain' is that there is no top or bottom; the food chain is a circle.
Another problem with humanity is the fear that we as omnivores (who has a better survival chance than a herbivore or carnivore) are still afraid that our food will run out.
Then again the fact than we eat as locusts does validate that fear. Which incidentally is the cause why humanity keeps growing and growing, because we keep producing more and more food (for humans), with the downside that we seriously threaten the world's biodiversity.
Our modern agriculture is nothing but a declaration of war on nature (read: biodiversity).
The problem with the notion that humanity is 'at the top of the food chain' is that there is no top or bottom; the food chain is a circle.
Another problem with humanity is the fear that we as omnivores (who has a better survival chance than a herbivore or carnivore) are still afraid that our food will run out.
Then again the fact than we eat as locusts does validate that fear. Which incidentally is the cause why humanity keeps growing and growing, because we keep producing more and more food (for humans), with the downside that we seriously threaten the world's biodiversity.
Our modern agriculture is nothing but a declaration of war on nature (read: biodiversity).
yup. and the eu-subspecies are whiners. period-ic(k)-ally..
Which incidentally is the cause why humanity keeps growing and growing, because we keep producing more and more food (for humans), with the downside that we seriously threaten the world's biodiversity.
Not to mention that we're addicted to sex and making children. Our population today out numbers the total of every single human that has ever lived before the 2000s.
B) Even if you are the victim of a poor science curriculum and you think we're not animals, neither of us "own" the planet in any meaningful sense.
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You have the fast food chains to thank for that. You know what's also funny? We barely know how to limit our consumerism. Some time back, we've fished so much tuna that we've had to put a law on it. 
The problem with the notion that humanity is 'at the top of the food chain' is that there is no top or bottom; the food chain is a circle.
Which incidentally is the cause why humanity keeps growing and growing, because we keep producing more and more food (for humans), with the downside that we seriously threaten the world's biodiversity.
