Newsgroups: sci.bio.ecology,sci.chem,sci.energy,sci.environment,sci.geo.geology,
	sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Global Worries: Outlaw meat production!
From: John McCarthy <jmc@steam.stanford.edu>
Date: 09 Jul 1997 21:45:56 -0700

Ivan <jnahay02@sprynet.com> writes:

 >"Western Research Center" <user@company.com> writes:
 >
 >
 >> 	If God didn't want us to eat animals, He wouldn't have made them out
 >> of meat.
 >
 >I knew there'd be a much of subhuman trash responding to this thread
 >when I answered it.  To which I respond, I don't think human meat-
 >eaters should be given any legal rights.  They live by the law of
 >the jungle, so I shouldn't have one cent of my tax dollars spent on
 >defending their "rights".  No one should be prosecuted for doing
 >any harm to those who deliberately bring more animals into the
 >world for slaughter.
 >
 >John

John Nahay is a vegetarian, and vegetarianism represents a step up in
human life affirmation.  However, vegetarianism has been around for a
long time, and it is time for a further advance in consciousness - to
mineralism.

We mineralists regard eating plants to be even more life denying than
eating meat.  One should properly arrange a diet consisting entirely
of minerals.  Of course, this is not easy to arrange, and today I
attended a reception at which the only item entirely consistent with
my convictions was the salt.

When the mineralist movement first started three years ago at our
convention in Benares, some of our members starved to death (including
our founder), salt having proved inadequate to sustain them.

We have found two temporary expedients that will have to do until our
laboratory produces nourishing meals that are entirely mineral.

(1) We allow ourselves to eat fruit with pits under the condition that
the consumer immediately plant the pit in a location where it can
grow.  (No tropical fruits may be consumed in Northern latitudes).  An
alternative is to eat the pit too and arrange to defecate in a
suitable location.  The justification is that the plant arranges for a
fruit with a pit in order to propagate.  However, none of us, in spite
of great effort has succeeded in getting an unambiguous statement of
permission from a fruit tree.

(2) We allow ourselves to eat animals that have only eaten plants
without pits.  This can be regarded as a fit punishment for the plant
eater.  However, if a cow eats a sparrow, as someone described in this
newsgroup, we shouldn't eat the cow, but regard it as to some extent a
fellow fighter for vegetable rights.  Fortunately, many farmers can
provide certification that their cows don't eat sparrows.

It should be understood that these are temporary expedients.

We have a problem with carbon sources.  Imagine the disgust one feels
while processing a lump of coal to find a leaf in it.  Fortunately, we
are assured that methane hydrates soon to be available are entirely
non-biogenic.

A question has arisen about whether it is permissible to eat
vegetarians; of course they would have to be strict vegetarians.  At
our third convention held in Cannes, it was agreed while eating strict
vegetarians was permissible in principle, under present conditions it
was likely to be misunderstood.  Therefore, it was agreed to postpone
eating vegetarians until an educational campaign had explained its
morality to a sufficient fraction of the population.

To that end, it would be helpful to learn what fraction of the readers
of this newsgroup regard eating vegetarians as ok.




-- 
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.