@hightor,
Quote: I'm sure you have other redeeming qualities as well. I didn't mean to be harsh, but you asked a question, and that question was all I had to go on. I liked your response in the "How can we be sure that all religions are wrong?" thread and there are probably lots of other things we agree on. But a cavalier attitude toward inoffensive beings is something which sort of repels me.
Thanks man; I like to think I have some redeeming qualities. I'm a volunteer EMT on call two shifts a month, if that counts. Also, my crowning achievement: I coach Peewee tennis every other weekend and get paid almost nothing for that too! But I enjoy the adoration from the kids.
It's interesting that you refer to insects as inoffensive. Insects aren't exactly helpless, and they are quite brutal toward all living things. They are nature's little pre-programmed killing machines. Even though they don't know any better, they
are ruthless. I'm not even talking about spiders biting and bees stinging, because that doesn't even scratch the surface. Two things most insects strive for: reproducing like crazy (often cannibalizing one another after doing so) and invading each other's territory for resources. Ants especially are practically genocidal, warring with and killing rival colonies without regard for the individual lives of their soldiers and sometimes even abducting larvae from the conquered in order to produce a generation of slaves for the colony. On an individual level, ants have no regard for even their own lives, and in sufficient numbers they will continue trying to gather food from a dangerous location even when some jerk like me is stepping on them. And I'd be the guy to know: I've stepped on
a lot of ants.
Quote:So yeah, I kill a lot of bugs. But what I object to are people like the OP who will go out of their way to step on any insect they see, as if there were some great cosmic battle going on between humans and insects. It shows such a lack of appreciation for the diversity of life. I dislike the look of smug satisfaction as they grind the remains of some harmless creature into the ground with their shoe, as if they've put their life on the line and done their part to save humanity.
You make it sound like there are people running around maniacally looking for bugs to kill. I don't go "out of my way" to step on insects. Sometimes --*occasionally* -- I'll step on them if they are in my path and I'm feeling capricious, but most of the ones I kill are pestering me somehow. Also, I know more about insects than most people -- or at least I think I do -- so you couldn't really say I don't appreciate life's diversity. I do appreciate how prolific and unaffected they are by anything I can do to their population, however.
And although I don't
think it needs to be said at this point, I don't believe there is a cosmic war between insectkind and mankind. Plus, consider prey mantises off limits if that counts for anything!
At the end of the day, do I really seem like so repellant a guy?
