Nature does not act with morality in mind. It may be a mistake to look at nature when determining the morality of certain actions. Nature may show us the most effective course of actions, help us find our place in nature, or help us understand why we act the way we do. However, determining what is moral requires introspection because morals are tied to human emotions. Maybe watching Bambi and sympathising with deer is a completely valid reason for not eating venicin simply because our emotions tell us it is wrong. Unfortunately, emotions can also be misguiding and may sometimes interfere with the best course of action, our place in nature, and understanding ourselves.

What I find immoral is the act of using an animal's life for profit. It transcends any natural or necessary need to kill animals for nutritional purposes. But does one have the right to kill an animal they brought to life? Every animal dies & is it even aware of the length of it's life? If not, should it matter at what age they cease to live, or for what purpose?
An animal that has the instinct to survive must be aware of it's own life.

What to do, how to feel, what to support is all dependent on how the individual feels about the situation. Subjective opinions and comforts are what shape the morals of the individual. I don't intend on the meat market changing substantially through any moral movements - so the importance of ethics for this situation lies solely in the comfort of the individual.

You can't know. But you can believe.

No one can prove that when an individual dies their spirit goes to heaven, or that we are alive on this Earth for a reason. Nothing can tell us what we are doing here, no one can prove that it wasn't an accident. In the same respect no one can dictate what is good or bad.

Belief tells some people that when the die their spirit will go to heaven & that we arrived on this planet for a reason. And that it's better to be good than bad.

Whether you search for knowledge & truth, or you live with belief I think it's most important to allow yourself direction, passion, comfort and fulfillment. Either way is fine, and I choose neither.

I still stand by my belief that it honestly does not matter who is right or wrong when it comes to opinions of faith. The enrichment that faith and God bring to peoples' lives overrides any importance in matters of "truth." And any quests for "truth" seem trivial to me - as I find it hard for such a journey to provide any level of fulfillment close to that which religion supplies.

Do you see blue? I see blue.

I think the commonplace ideals of ethics speak for themselves - that people have a notion of how they should treat each other in order to protect feelings, make things easier, happier, lighter, better, more enjoyable.
I hear there are people out in this world who enjoy pain. And I'm sure if I ever meet one of these people I'll be awkward, uncomfortable, and I won't know how to act.

A few opinions:


"In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration--feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,
As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love." - William Wordsworth


"What is it to practice benevolence? It is to imitate the Deity." - Publius Syrus


"Do the thing you believe in. Do the best you can in the place where you are and be kind."
- Scott Nearing


"Ethics is the activity of a man directed to secure the inner perfection of his own personality...
By its means man is to become capable of acting among men and in the world as a higher and purer force, and thus to do his part towards the actualization of the ideal of general progress."
- Albert Schweitzer


"Ethical life and service are an aid, but they are not an end in themselves. The end is to be one with God." - Swami Prabhavananda


"Ethics judges not only man, but God also." - Nicolas Verdyaev


"Without ethics, everything happens as if we were all five billion passengers on a big machinery and nobody is driving the machinery. And it's going faster and faster, but we don't know where."
- Jacques Cousteau

I believe, in agreement with “Atheism and Agnosticsm,” that most people believe in god because they were told to. In the same respect I would argue that I don’t believe in god because no one told me to. Who is right? It is always wrong to rest content on any belief that someone told you, especially when there is sufficient evidence against such beliefs. It is one’s responsibility to believe according to good reason.

More important than holding beliefs that are evidentially true according to sufficient knowledge, is holding beliefs that provide comfort, happiness, and security. It does not matter who believes the “right” thing, which beliefs are more reasonable and who is being ignorant. I know people whose lives are shaped by the essence of a god and in this faith they find exactly what they need to have security and happiness in their existence. God and faith provide them with a purpose and with this they are able to live happily. Even when things are going wrong in their life they believe through God that there are reasons and in the end all things will be the way they are meant to be. At the end of the day does it matter if such faith is reasonable when the belief in God is enriching peoples’ lives?

I don't believe that there is a meaning to life or that individuals have purposes, but I have recently developed upon these ideas. Since there is nothing beyond existence on earth and everyone's essence is fatal I had established the idea that the only thing I could do is try to make myself happy in my lifetime. I had decided that no one could do anything that could profoundly affect anyone else's life because nothing would ever be capable of changing life's terminal quality. I question why I hadn't already explored this notion, but since this is all we have - my quest for happiness is not nearly as selfish as I had thought. I'm sure that I affect many more people than I realize, and while before I theorized that that didn't matter I now know that it does. Happiness is the only goal that we can reasonably strive for and by spreading such a notion hopefully people will be able to acheive a higher sense of peace within themselves.