Discussion Does all life live at the expense of other life and what is this world for?

[MeowTheFlemishCat]

Do you believe there's any rhyme or reason to this world? Does all life suffer to prevent suffering for other life? Are any of you vegan? The suffering animals go through is beyond horrific but in nature most die a horrid death.

 

[avoid_slow_death]

Nope. The entirety of existence is suffering imo. If you are an avid reader with a sizable vocabulary, I suggest checking out a book called The Philosophy of Redemption by Philip Mainlander. It's a pretty radical concept, but it explains why things are so random and chaotic in the universe.

 

[ScaredOfMachines]

There's no rhyme or reason to any of this at all. If you're not suffering throughout life, it's because you're making other people suffer in your place. I contribute to it myself, living in a first world country where all the products I buy are made from the suffering of people in other countries.
Sometimes I wonder if this is just a failed world in general. This can't be the way things were intended to turn out.

 

[Darkover]

In my opinion the basic fundamentals of life are "evil". I think most people would agree that if you take something from someone or something without there consent that it's wrong to do so. But life itself is built off of taking advantage of other organisms.

the condition is inherently evil, just to live we must commit necessary evil

 

[pointblank]

We're nothing but guts and gonads to quote a redditor I was resonating to.

I had been a vegan for over 5 years. I stopped cause I got "whispers" or auditory hallucination after one evening of my daily meditation. It told me to drop it and live life. Being a vegan was tough socially because everyone bonds over food and I couldn't partake in that like a regular person.

 

[Darkover]

Sometimes I wonder if this is just a failed world in general. This can't be the way things were intended to turn out.

the fundamental reality of the universe is wrong because everything must consume energy if energy was free there would be no need to consume other living things

 

[ijustwishtodie]

Yes, all life does live at the expense of other life. This is what happens when you place a bunch of organisms within a habitat. It creates competition and, within the wild, the competition leads to death. There's no winning either way as if a predator were to not eat their prey, the predator would suffer. In all cases for the wild animals, suffering has to happen at the expense of other life. As for humans, the same thing applies when they breed animals into existence just to kill them off.

Life itself is inherently shitty as it requires predation to survive. This is not intelligent design, it's a stupid design

 

[pointblank]

the fundamental reality of the universe is wrong because everything must consume energy if energy was free there would be no need to consume other living things

Yeah. Animals aside it made me think of the plants who just thrives off photosynthesis from the sun. That is cool imo.

Yes, all life does live at the expense of other life. This is what happens when you place a bunch of organisms within a habitat. It creates competition and, within the wild, the competition leads to death. There's no winning either way as if a predator were to not eat their prey, the predator would suffer. In all cases for the wild animals, suffering has to happen at the expense of other life. As for humans, the same thing applies when they breed animals into existence just to kill them off.

Life itself is inherently shitty as it requires predation to survive. This is not intelligent design, it's a stupid design

I'm grateful for the quick death processes of killing a fish or the halal methods that ensure a quick death for the animals we eat.

 

[Gustav Hartmann]

If there would be only light and no shadows we would see nothing. If there would be only happyness we would not be able to experience it, it needs bad experiences to be able to see the good ones.

Expressed in a song from Marlene Dietrich:

If I could wish for something
I'd feel awkward
What should I wish for,
a bad or a good time

If I could wish for something
I'd want to be only a bit happy
because if I were too happy
I'd long for being sad

 

[Darkover]

If there would be only light and no shadows we would see nothing

if there were only light and no shadows, our ability to perceive objects and depth would be drastically impaired but you would still see light

If there would be only happyness we would not be able to experience it, it needs bad experiences to be able to see the good ones.

Happiness does not necessarily require the contrast of bad experiences to be felt or understood. Neurobiologically, happiness is a response to positive stimuli or the fulfillment of needs. If someone is constantly in a state of happiness, their brain would still register the pleasure and well-being without needing to contrast it with negative states.

 

[Gustav Hartmann]

if there were only light and no shadows, our ability to perceive objects and depth would be drastically impaired but you would still see light

If you have a white sheet of paper and only white ink, nobody would be able to see your writing.

 

[CogitoMori]

Do you believe there's any rhyme or reason to this world? Does all life suffer to prevent suffering for other life? Are any of you vegan? The suffering animals go through is beyond horrific but in nature most die a horrid death.

I'm not vegan but I do advocate for purchasing from local farms that don't abuse their animals, as generally if you can afford a vegan diet, you can afford to buy locally. Being vegetarian makes sense if you feel guilty about life being taken, but chickens are still gonna lay unfertilized eggs, cows still need to be milked so they don't get an infection, and bees will have honeylogged hives without harvest, so I'd rather that food not go to waste.

 

[L'absent]

Exact. It's a horror show. Biology is a monster. And then they teach us that nature is wonderful. Mentally disturbed people who are called healthy.

 

[notreallybored]

ב''ה,

One of the hottest Jewish takes is that reincarnation exists voluntarily so all sacrificial animals are just reincarnated souls putting in the effort of coming back so people can eat.

I'm not exactly sure I buy it or that I don't, it's been weird.