[Buddha-l] Re: "Nature" and eating meat

[Chan Fu]

On 10/23/05, Richard P. Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu> wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-10-23 at 17:56 -0600, Jim Peavler wrote:
>
> > I'm likely to get in trouble for this, but people often excuse things
> > because they are "natural". Why is it more natural for a mountain lion
> > or a coyote to kill for food than it is for a human.
>
> Emerson makes the point that nature has come to mean the world as it
> would be without human beings in it. So it would seem that, if nature is
> viewed in that way, it is impossible for a human being to be natural.
> Needless to say, Emerson was smart enough to see that the view of nature
> as the world without human beings is a defective view, but it is
> nevertheless a common one. Even now.
>
> > Humans spent a few million years evolving as hunters, as the long history of artifacts of
> > weapons, scrapers, etc. attest.
>
> Good God, Brother James! As I live and breath, I didn't realize you were
> one of those Evolutionists. To be frank, I lean in that direction
> myself, but I am learning to keep my thoughts to myself on this matter,
> at least in this country. It seems the only sort of Darwinianism that
> most folks in this country subscribe to is the economic version, which
> gave us the slogan "Survival of the fittest," which was not Darwin's
> phrase at all, as I recall, but Herbert Spencer's. It is mildly amusing
> to me that the very people who are fighting to get Intelligent Design
> taught alongside Darwin's theory of "descent with modification" (as he
> called it, rather than evolution) in biology 101 so that the next
> generation will be exposed to decent Christian values seem to be
> completely opposed to any programs, laws or regulations that would
> impede the greed of those who are evolving into the obscenely rich while
> the middle class shrinks and the poor are left to fend for themselves in
> the wake of hurricanes, floods, epidemics and earthquakes. In these
> United States it seems to be the plutocrats are chanting "Spencer, si!
> Darwin, no!"
>
> > (This here is a whole new subject line of which I tremble to imagine
> > the repercussions.
>
> You should have realized I would seize upon the opportunity to say
> something negative about Republicans again. So really it's your fault
> that I committed criticism. I don't know if you read on the front page
> of the NY Times this morning that the Bush administration is requiring
> all universities to upgrade their Internet systems so that Homeland
> Security can read the e-mail of professors and students more easily to
> catch any terrorists that may be roaming the halls of ivy. I mention
> this, because when they come to round me up in the middle of some dark
> night to pay off my karmic debt for telling the truth about Republicans,
> I'm going to have to tell them I was only saying what I was pretty sure
> you wanted me to say. As my favorite philosopher, Red Green, says:
> "We're all in this together."
>
> Now I'm going to go eat a plate of beans.
>
> --
> Richard

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