A Philosphical Mistake

When considering our relationship with (or "to") animals, many people make this common philosophical mistake: asserting that humans are in some meaningful way more important than animals.

In her new book, “Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals,” Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy Christine Korsgaard makes the case that humans are not inherently more important than animals and therefore should treat them much better than we do.

In an interview about her new book, the professor explains:

“Some people think that humans are just plain more important than other animals. I ask: More important to whom? We may be more important to ourselves, but that doesn’t justify our treating animals as if they’re less important to us, any more than the fact that your family is more important to you justifies you treating other people’s families as if they are less important than yours.”

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/06/harvard-professor-animals-are-just-as-important-as-people/

Very glad she’s written a book about the equality of animals. May more and more people wake to this reality we all share.

May all beings be well.

Two Articles

Here is an article about switching to a vegan diet without pressure or guilt. This might be helpful to you or someone who may be considering taking up veganism.

https://truthout.org/articles/how-to-shift-to-a-more-plant-based-diet-without-the-guilt

And here, a thought-provoking article on advocating for animals in terms of "animal welfare" and "animal rights".

https://www.vegan.com/guides/animal-rights-and-animal-welfare/

Whatever your own views, I know you wish and pray as I do...

May all beings be well and happy, free of suffering and the causes of suffering.

Saint Thomas Aquinas and Biovinity

Thomas Aquinas - whom the Catholic Church regards as a saint and model teacher for the priesthood - insisted that “A mistake in our thinking about nature results in a mistake in our thinking about God." Further, “The opinion is false of those who assert that it makes no difference to the truth of the faith what anyone holds about creatures, so long as one thinks rightly about God. For error about creatures spills over into false opinion about God, and takes people’s minds away from God, to whom faith seeks to lead them.” For Aquinas meditation on creatures leads us to behold the wisdom of God.

Biovinity is the acknowledgement that all creatures, great and small, are living manifestations of the One All-Pervading and Divine Reality (God, or Unity). To intentionally harm any being, directly or indirectly (such as happens by supporting industries that harm animals) is equivalent to intending to harm Divinity itself.

May all beings be happy and well.