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MEGA ANSWERMAN!

Oh lordy. You probably shouldn't have told me this... *runs off to Amazon to look at Happy Hippo prices...*

I've never heard/read anyone say "meh" before, but I find it really annoying now.

Humans are omnivorous but evolved to primarily eat plant foods with meat as an addition to the diet. That's why we're not particularly good at digesting red meat (relative to animals for whom it's a more important part of their natural diet).

Moomintroll wrote:

Humans are omnivorous but evolved to primarily eat plant foods with meat as an addition to the diet. That's why we're not particularly good at digesting red meat (relative to animals for whom it's a more important part of their natural diet).

I always though that we couldn't digest red meat well because we cook it . . . I don't recall wolves firing up the grill before eating

Actually this has to do with enzymes in your digestive system; carnivorous animals are better-equipped with such things are are able to actually digest proteins in much larger batches. Humans on the other hand can only consume about a fist of protein in a sitting.

Whilst that obviously applies to TVs and radios, I fail to see how it applies to parrots. Parrots are sentient (obviously - look up the word) and are quite capable of cognitive thought (as demonstrated by their ability to learn and to solve problems). And a creature capable of cognitive thought has intelligence by definition.

Can a parrot tell me it is aware of itself and its existence? Can a parrot tell me it understands what death is verbally? Can a parrot do calculus, algebra, or hell, long division, on its own? Not to say they aren't smart animals, they're very smart animals, but that's all they are.

Not all people can do that.

ruro niko wrote:

Not all people can do that.

As shocking as it sounds I wouldn't consider people with severe mental impairments truly human. In the end both animals and people are just hunks of flesh. We're all made of the same crude matter. What differentiates humanity is our minds. Our ability to think, reason, solve problems, and communicate makes us unique and it's what got us where we are. Without that, anything else is just a mere hunk of flesh.

Your "vast bulk" seems to be limited to a few hundred years ago when most animals were considered the porperty of the lord of the manor and to hunt even a rabbit was considered pouching, a hanging offence, or "tranported" to the "colonies", when it has been archeologically proven that hominids have hunted animals and eaten their flesh long before that.

We all don't have K9 teeth for nout.

I just don't understand how vegetarianism is so impressive.

WRONG!

If you don't want to be a good human being, then don't waste.

Mohawk52 wrote:

Your "vast bulk" seems to be limited to a few hundred years ago when most animals were considered the porperty of the lord of the manor and to hunt even a rabbit was considered pouching, a hanging offence, or "tranported" to the "colonies", when it has been archeologically proven that hominids have hunted animals and eaten their flesh long before that.

I disagree. I didn't say nobody ate meat

- I said rarely. That's a view supported by the historical evidence available. Most people (at least in urban areas) did eat meat but they did so occasionally. I'm sure I can dig out the relevant historical and archaelogical texts from my library if you really want me to.

You'll note, I'm sure, that I also specified "Western" societies (though any non-Western largely agrarian society would also fit)

- there are certainly other peoples (Inuit for example) with very heavily meat based diets.

Mohawk52 wrote:

We all don't have K9 teeth for nout.

Quite true. But the fact that our canines are so weedy relative to those of some other omnivores (e.g. brown bears, certain species of primate, badgers and so on) does highlight the fact that meat has historically served as an occasional meal of opportunity rather than as our dietary foundation.

Can a parrot tell me it is aware of itself and its existence?

Can a parrot tell me it understands what death is verbally?

Can a parrot do calculus, algebra, or hell, long division, on its own?

Not to say they aren't smart animals, they're very smart animals, but that's all they are.

I have a very firm gap established between animals and humans

and that is the ability to either understand it exists and that it is a being (sentience)

or the ability to do very complicated tasks that require a lot of intelligent thought such as say, complicated math problems or spacial logic or reasoning.

So far the only animal I've seen express that are some forms of primates like the ones we've trained to use those primitive speech keyboards.

I didn't say you did.

Was it by choice, or by force of having to purchase it, but not having the means to do so?

well I'm sure there were vegetarian Inuit but I guess they all died out early on.

So much for Darwin then.

To Moomintroll:

When I said I didn't understand how vegetarianism was so impressive, that was a statement, not a response. I am allowed to make statements, right? I thought it was relevant I begin there and get to explaining why I thought so.

I can see why what I said was frustrating; in that you think I'm a pillock. Well I wasn't calling you names. My feelings...

Look, I get its hard to distinguish between arguments and explanations, but could you have considered my words on the whole instead of berating my "coup de grace"?