Question: do you think that if we envolve from animals, if so why do we eat them, your eating your ancestors. and how do you feel about eating them? eh.

Vera Weisbecker answered on 18 Jun 2011:

We did evolve from animals. Technically speaking we are animals, just like you are from the same family as your grandfather. However, we are not actually eating our ancestors, we are eating organisms that diverged from a common ancestor with us about 320 million years ago and are genetically and structurally very different. Plants and humans also share a common ancestor, although a bit further back, and that also does not seem to cause anyone any worries.

The animals we eat do not have a fear of the future, no worries about what will become of their family, and ideally they do not know they are going to die until they actually do. That is why I am eating meat, but only when I know that the animal I’m eating has not suffered. In my view, if an animal is alive and happy one second and dead the next, no real harm has been done to it. I’d even extend this to myself – I’d much prefer to just drop doing happily what I am doing, without any clue what’s going to happen. But I guess that is unlikely…