Rationalization of eating meat

Face it, humans like to eat meat, and the species divider is convenient. Humans also like to rationalize, so we'll come up with all sorts of crackpot moral theories on why it's okay to kill non-humans, but not humans.

All these theories (besides being highly arbitrary anyway) fail because we're too similar to animals in all respects. A theory based on intelligence will fail because some of us aren't more intelligent than animals (think babies). A theory based on potential intelligence will similarly fail (think brain damaged people). A theory based on our knowledge of morality will fail not only because some of us don't have said knowledge, but because animals can be taught right/wrong in the same sense as a child can.

In the end, it comes down to the two facts I outlined at beginning. We like to eat meat, and saying "it's okay to kill only nonhumans" is easy and conveniently gets us the juicy bones. Trying to justify it in any other way is just deluding yourself.

OP, u aren't blessed - the feeling of guilt when u kill animals
u aren't a vegan anyway

I'm actually a full-on meat eater. I'm eating tuna right now. I'm just pointing out there's no consistent moral theory that allows one to kill animals but not humans, and that anyone who tries to make one is doing nothing but heavily, misguidedly, rationalizing their om nom nom of delicious muscle. (In a full-blown state of denial as well.)

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For those who say "no justification is required", well, yeah, in the same sense that no justification is required to murder someone.

Killing a pig, killing certain humans (like babies or severely brain damaged people), not all that different when you think about it.

Then there is also the slight problem of differences in intelligence between people - some are more intelligent than others (thus can we rule that only they could kill animals). The issue that you raise does not relate to the individual intelligence of a human, but to the average intelligence of humanity - and i think that we have a higher IQ than most animals (save dolphins and mice )

Not the most free-thinking person in the world, are you? Have you ever thought that there is an instant benefit to killing a pig, but none to killing a baby?

Why is the line drawn at the species level in particular? The average IQ of white people is greater than that of black people, so why aren't white people morally allowed to kill black people?

firstly: sentience

secondly: those studies into race and IQ have been heavily discredited

thirdly: we are the same species......

SCIENCE FAIL

Why is the line drawn at the species level in particular? The average IQ of white people is greater than that of black people, so why aren't white people morally allowed to kill black people?

Technically, you could eat the baby, so a cannibal, for example, would have an "instant benefit".

(Are you sure you're not the one whose free-thinking is limited? )

I think you misread. I was asking why the line would be drawn at the species level in particular, rather than at another, so your comment that "we are the same species" doesn't help much. And while the race and intelligence crap is discredited, it is undeniable that the average IQ of black people is less than that of white people. The other person was talking about "the average intelligence of species" and using IQ as a synonym, so it was natural to ask that question.

Lastly, in what sense is a pig less "sentient" than a human?

Animals generally don't kill/eat their own species! If they did then they probably wouldn't evolve far enough for them to become anything.

No animals eat other animals for survival. I haven't seen any of those vegetarian lions, tigers, foxes, dogs, cats.
About concious thoughts, i'm going by what i've heard. That is how we learn.
Eating people is wrong because we believe it so, you paraphrased a bit there. Why don't people go around stealing stuff from everyone? Becuase it is against the law. Why is it against the law? Becuase it is seen as a wrong thing to do.

It is also undeniable that IQ tests are culturally biased, that IQ can easily be trained and therefore blacks who have to walk three miles each day to drink dirty water are not going to be as well suited to these tests than white people who get driven to school in their mum's 4x4, and that IQ is a crap measure of overall intelligence.

In case you forgot, even humans have cannibals, and much more commonly, humans kill other humans, so unless you're calling us "nothing"...

I can't argue with someone this dense.