ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Thou shalt not kill. But how do we stop?

Updated on July 26, 2014
Basket full of murder
Basket full of murder | Source

Thou shalt not kill. Probably one of the greatest moral directives ever thought of by mankind; but utterly impossible to adhere to.

All humans have to kill for their food even if they themselves just go to the market to buy it and have no hand in killing anything themselves. The thing would not be there to buy it if there was no demand at all for it.

Now, of course many will tell us this biblical directive was talking about humans killing humans, and specifically children of the god of Abraham not killing each other. Fair enough, because what happens later supports the idea that killing other humans was demanded by god, so the only conclusion one draws is that killing is fine if god says so, and killing gods not so chosen is ok. So I’m not discussing the Christen/Jewish or Muslim explanation of their book’s confusing directive.

Not killing has long been thought of as a high moral position and goal. Not just people killing other people, but people killing other things. Buddhism teaches that all life is sacred regardless of what it is. Hinduism has the same idea.

But really the only people who can practice this way of life are the priests because they rely on what people give them to eat. Without people looking after these holy men they would have to starve.

There is a story about a Hindu master who noticed that the drinking water had been contaminated with mosquito larva. To allow others to drink the water meant exposing them to malaria. Dumping the water and refilling it would have meant he would have killed hundreds of lives. So what did he do? He told a passerby to dump the water.

Was that a real solution? The passerby was innocent because he didn’t know he was killing anything, and he thought he remained innocent as he didn’t do it.

But of course he knew what his request would do, so to me that doesn’t absolve him of the killings, lt makes him the same as anyone who hires an assassin.

Once he knew there were mosquito larva in the water he had no choice but to sin no matter what his choice was. He had to choose between human life and insect life. In fact, he was killing bacterial life as well.

Every doctor who has cured someone of a bacterial of viral invasion is a murderer, and proud of it.

So perhaps most of us can justify the killing of insects and bacteria as a self defence move? After all, they are attacking us, not we them. Self defence is always a good reason to have killed: Survival.

But we can see that holding all life sacred is a worthy idea. Everything is made of the same substance; atoms. Everything is connected. Even though it isn’t possible to completely comply with “thou shalt not kill” we can still keep our killing to a minimum, can’t we?

That’s why some people become vegans or vegetarian. Many people feel that we shouldn’t kill animals for food. It’s cruel and unnecessary.

Of course one has to know that vegetables are alive too. Just because they can’t scream as you skin your carrot alive, it is still a life form, and therefore sacred, if you will. Studies have shown that they do react to being attacked. But of course they don’t have a brain so according to many can’t feel pain.

Instead of insisting that feeling or emotional response may not require a brain, as all hardwired responses have physical consequences. Or that motions and feelings are needs felt and that all things respond only to real or perceived need: you wouldn’t blink if not for a need, I’m just going to ask: since when did whether a thing feels pain or not become the reason to kill it or not?

Well if all life is sacred then the veg is no less sacred than the cow. You can tell yourself there is big difference, and there is to most of us humans, but in the grand puzzle: is there?

It’s survival. If I kill by eating and supporting meat production, and I kill by supporting the agriculture industry, mashing potatoes like witch hunters pressing people to gain confession, what can I eat? It’s eat or die, simple as that.

The only animal that doesn’t kill is a scavenger. The true scavenger eats what it finds already dead, and cleans the area by ingesting what would otherwise rot and attract disease. Yet scavengers are looked down on by many. Come to think of it, vegans are looked down on by meat eaters and meat eaters are looked down upon by vegans.

Plants that can live on the energy provided by light, nutrition in the soil and water also don’t have a moral dilemma. But humans do, and so does all the meat we eat. Perhaps we should just eat meat?

Am I suggesting that we should stop eating and all do what a Buddhist monk once did, sacrificed himself to a hungry lioness and her cubs when he saw their need? No. If that’s your thing then... well, I better not encourage you.

Am I saying we should become scavengers? Certainly not. Wouldn’t be enough to go around anyway.

What I’m saying is there is no way around it for humans. Both sides are wrong. It is wrong to kill animals, but just as wrong to take any life for any reason, never mind torturing veggies and making them bleed in your soup. No use looking down on anyone for their opinion on which is more or less humane. Killing is killing. But survival insists we are responsible for something’s death.

In the north, of course there is really no choosing to be vegan. It’s meat or fish your family dies. Some insist that doing the killing one’s self is a humbling lesson in living and the relationship between humans and their meal. Natives often thank the animal they kill. Again, all good for some, not for everyone.

The universe is set that way. Atoms don’t die, they just merge with other systems. But systems, like ourselves, die. The energy that was us is then recycled to make other things. Nature is a constant renewal process, constantly transforming everything.

If there is a conscious god responsible for this should we not be pondering whether we can forgive it or not for it’s cruelty? But of course if it is just nature; just the way it is and must be, then there is no reason to forgive anything.

We all have to make choices in life concerning what we will and won’t eat. Some will eat anything, guilt free. Others have guilt about it no matter what they choose. Do what you are comfortable with, with my blessing. Try to do what makes you fell healthy and the least guilty. The fix was in from the start: Thou shalt not kill never had a chance.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)