A Darwinian Argument for a Non-Violent Diet

I’ve been a vegetarian for most of my adult life.  Although I’ve always felt strongly that the needless killing of animals is morally wrong, recently I’ve come to feel even stronger about it.  This of course goes against the thrust of Western civilizations, which have been avid eaters (unlike many Oriental cultures) since their inception.  Has Darwin, however, made a vegetarian diet more tenable within Western thought?  Has he thus created a space within Western thought that not only justifies vegetarianism, but abolishes justification for meat eating?

 

Animals such as cows, chickens, lambs, and pigs are certainly less intelligent, and certainly have less complex emotions than humans do.  However, one of the great contributions of Charles Darwin’s Descent of Man (1871) was to argue that man must have descended from lower vertebrates because they also have limited forms of reason, aesthetic appreciation, emotions, etc.  Of course, we all know this to be true.  Any dog owner knows that dogs are sad when they see their owner leaving, yet happy upon their return.  And dog owners know that dogs can think and reason in remedial ways.  We know how clever squirrels and raccoons can be in the matter of getting the food they want.  I’ve had the pleasure to spend a few weeks serving in a cow hospital in Vrindavana, India.  This hospital took in cows that have been hit by cars and trucks, or have been abandoned to die by their owner.  (Even in the land of Krishna, who is the lover of cows, the residents of Vrindavana do severely mistreat and abuse cows.)  Based on my experience in helping these cows, I can say without any doubt, that they have very developed emotions, and they are able to think and reason in a limited manner.  A “Thank  you” to Darwin for arguing for this in a sophisticated way.

 

I take it as a given that cows, and even lower animals like pigs, chickens and lambs have limited forms of reason and emotion.  Darwin even argued that our aesthetic sense evolved within birds and was thus passed on to us.  Certainly there is a huge gap between the rational, emotional and aesthetic capacities of the animals that humans typically slaughter and human beings themselves.  Some people say that it is because humans are so much smarter that they are justified in killing animals because they are so far less developed than humans.  However, conduct the following thought experiment:

 

In the future human beings make contact with an alien race who posses intelligence and emotional sensitivity that is much greater than ours.  These aliens are a species of humans who left earth years ago, only to return after the population had evolution pushed them far forward.  Let us say they are as smart to us as we are to a chicken.  In other words, the gap in intelligence between a human and a chicken is the same between a human and this alien race.

Suppose the aliens wanted to breed us as a food and energy source; would they be justified?

Those people that think humans are justified in killing animals because animals have less developed intellects and emotions run into trouble with this question.  People often say that we can kill animals because they don’t understand pain, fear or separation from their children the way a smart human does.  In the same way, these super intelligent aliens could say that because humans are so much less intelligent one is justified in using them for one’s own purposes.  But of course if it did come to be the case that aliens bred humans merely for food, those same humans that had been getting fat and happy off the bodies of animals would feel their rights had been violated.

 

The cow gives us so much:  the milk for our cereal, the cream for our tea and coffee, the cheese for our pizza, yogert, butter, and so many other delights.  It is cruel, heartless and completely ungrateful to then kill those very creatures who give us so many pleasures.  A civilization based on such ingratitude, which India is swiftly becoming, just as the West always has been, is surely not the sort of civilization that will create persons of good character who can lead and guide us to peace and prosperity.

 

Although Darwin is often criticized by Vaishnavas, one of the great contributions he did make is to show that so-called lower animals have the sorts of emotions and mental powers that humans have, and this fact suggests meat-eaters need to rethink the morality of meat-eating.