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A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 


Depart From Evil – 8 August 2007
By Mary T. Hoffman

The following is from Pamela Rices’s excellent article “Intelligence Tests: Animals Passing with Flying Colors!” (Summer 2007 American Vegan):

“The eighteenth century philosopher Jeremy Bentham challenged the world regarding animals with his famous quandary: ‘The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?’ It’s becoming more and more obvious to science that animals are able to do all three: reason, communicate, and suffer. The differences between animals and humans are being blurred with every new scientific finding. Upon inspection, each creature is a wonder, no less so than that species, our own, which happens to walk upright.

Ultimately, today’s question must be, Can we humans utilize our known capacity for logic, communication, and empathy to take animals off our plates?”

My comment: Even if we are unaware of the proven similarities between other animals and humans, we should always err on the side of compassion. The few humans from ancient to modern times who were compassionate toward animals did not need science to tell them what they knew instinctively. I believe that God makes this knowledge available to anyone who chooses to “depart from evil.” (Found in 7 passages: Job, Psalms, and Proverbs of the King James Version) There has never been an excuse for cruelty.

Pamela Rice, a vegan activist living in New York City and founder of the Viva Vegie Society www.vivavegie.org, is the author of “101 Reasons Why I’m a Vegetarian.” Besides the pamphlet version, a 2005 book version is also available.

Go on to: Orcas in Captivity – 9 August 2007
Return to: Vegan Organic – 7 August 2007
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