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Originally Posted by BadNick
Sorry if this is too crazy or off topic since you did say "animals" in the thread title, so I hope you can just ignore it if so, but I thought of it again as I read these responses. Why are we usually more concerned about killing animals, compared to, say, vegetables and viruses? I guess if something attacks you it's easier to justify killing as defense (i.e., viruses).
I've occasionally wondered, and argued with vegetarian/vegan friends, if we have less "respect" for vegetation than we do for animals simply due to human conceit that makes us think we're the most important living things in the universe, or maybe due to a lack of understanding of the equally important place vegetation has in our universe compared to animals (including humans). When I read about new discoveries about ways that trees and other vegetation "communicate" it just gives me more food for thought  ...mental omnivour |
Virii aren't alive and therefore can't be killed. A virus is just a strand of molecules, something of a genetic instruction manual. Through a series of chemical reactions, it bonds with a specific type of cell and injects it's own RNA into said cell, causing the cell to start producing more virii instead of carrying on normal cellular function. There's no rection to stimuli outside of very narrowly defined parameters and no signs of any real form of life.
And as to vegetables, it's less about a lifeform's importance in the universe and more about a lifeform's claim to thought and sentience. We know we think and we know that the organ that allows us that is our brain. We know that animals have brains but plants don't. It's therefore no great leap to assume that other animals may be capable of thought an even sentience, where plants aren't. The equipment as we understand it just isn't present in a plant.