Do you think stepping on bugs is wrong - why or why not?

If a black widow makes into my house, it's a goner, I'm not taking a chance.. At the cemetery where my parents are buried, black widows are all over the place and I take care to avoid them. If I see one I do step on it, not for idle amusement, but because they hurt like hell when they bite and you can't reason with a spider. In this area, we also need to be careful about copperhead snakes. The young ones pack a punch that will hospitalize you if your lucky to get to the ER in time. We call exterminators if we see one because there are always more close by.

I was raised as extremely pious. I even have small whiffs of looking back at that as sort of comfortable, from here, now. I went through big changes as did a lot of other people who tuned in. But pious stuff rattles me, so, whatever the year, I smell it going on, and I don't leave out myself, though I try to stop with it.

You and I disagree on a bunch, but I'm always interested in your points.

I'm confused, are you saying I'm pious?

Snort, not you. Krumple.

My attitude toward life is not a philosophical position regarding the abstraction. I do little thinking regarding life and death; my attitude is characterized by a pattern of responses regarding the existential life related experience of concrete actual humans. I do put crickets and spiders outside. I am, however, prejudice against black widows and brown recluses

Brown recluse packs a wallop. Their venom injures flesh and makes it necrotic.

You're getting angry over some dead bugs. Nothing (at least nothing that matters) is hurt by my actions. You're making assumptions about my personal life based purely on the fact that I purposely step on bugs. I'm actually a good guy. I have a reasonable number of friends and I live a pretty productive life.

Didn't you read my last post?

Actually (I say actually because, actually, you use use the word actually a lot, actually, as if it actually means something) Ants a much more important to the environment than humans are.

it appears you haven't had much education in the sciences

So, I'm not necessarily defending Thrylix, because he does sound immature, but you and glitterbag seem to be overreacting just a bit. Don't you think that your statement is slightly exaggerated? Yes, the damage that humans have caused can at times be insufferable. I can't compare the good vs. bad impact that humans have on our planet, but I would have to say humans are more important, at least for our own survival. We are of course responsible for what happens to us.

Ants provide very important contributions to our ecosystem. That doesn't make them 100% innocent either. Depending on the species, they can be anywhere from a nuisance to deadly, but Thrylix wasn't advocating the genocide of ants.

I'm curious if you all are familiar with the methods of bug collecting...butterflies and such. The killing jar...or gently squeezing the thorax of the butterfly to kill it, being careful not to damage it. How do you feel about the motives of these people and their disregard of life?

Thrylix says:


bellamente says:
The number of friends an individual has does not decide whether that individual is a good and/or holy/christian living person or not.

No matter how productive an individual is, how well accomplished an individual is does not matter once you leave this life for eternity. Whether an individual is a holy/christian living, the LORD Jesus Christ fearing individual or not matters.

Interesting point. I remember hand coning (I don't know the proper term) butterflies, and I think I let them go but probably not the first few, and probably not from care but that I didn't want to do butterfly collecting. I did do stamps, hate to consider the equivalence, but even that is complicated, re early scientific inquiry which can be useful and exhilarating to do and learn. The neighborhood kids taught me to how to catch fireflies too, and we put them in jars. Useless to be mad at myself now, many decades later, but I see how I didn't connect, they were other. I remember being sad they died. I had barely been in yards before, barely had friends before. Hadn't read science yet, never had pets, and so on, being nine in a moving family.

Meantime, I've killed my second cockroach of the year.
I had a friend who was a studying with a famous concert pianist teacher in Paris, and he told that when he got to his quarters there, there was a black pipe by the wall. The pipe rippled. Black with cockroaches.

I consider this defense action.

why are they collecting bugs?

for science or for entertainment/home decor?

if it's for science, I'd give it a meh pass. If it's for a hobby/entertainment/home decor, I'd say no way and don't invite me over.

Thrylix was killing something because he was bored and then tried to rationalize it by saying he/humans are more important than ants.

Killing because you're bored is not acceptable IMNSHO.
Saying humans have some intrinsic value is a weak argument.

double fail

(I'd recommend diversifying your posting if you don't want more accusations of being the same person as the OP)

I had a look around here and found that you are somewhat of a tightly knit community. A few recently posted in topics seemed interesting, but many of them are posts that are ongoing from a year ago or more. Anyway, I shouldn't be here at the moment...gonna be late.

What does that have to do with anything?

Ehbeth said I should diversify my posting. I was explaining why I haven't branched out yet. If she means diversify my opinions on the topic, well, I can't just change my opinions based on his. I don't even share his opinion. I just don't entirely agree on yours.

ha! no I don't think you need to diversify your opinion (is that even possible?)

just a suggestion to join the rest of the board - old threads doesn't mean they're dead or that all opinions have been heard

also - don't hesitate to start new threads for questions or discussions

Good. That's what I thought. I wasn't sure why chai2 was confused . I'll get back to you guys later though. I'm still out. Just pulled it up in my phone to see what was going on here.