Part 131 (1/2)
In the teachings of Jesus we find another spirit altogether, but we have not therefore abrogated the old commandments, and the problem of this clear prohibition remains unsolved.
Those of us to-day who feel most keenly the evil of ”taking life” are almost Buddhistic in att.i.tude. They object to killing for food or killing in self-defence.
Fortunately for them, we have not many destructive wild beasts among us, thanks to the vigorous killing of our less scrupulous forefathers.
Some millennial dreamers suggest that the wolves and catamounts might have been tamed, if taken young; the natural resistance of the parents to the ”taking” overcome by moral suasion, doubtless! Yes, it is conceivable that all the little snarling cubs and kittens might have been tamed, and taught to feed out of the hand--_but on what?_
In India some there may be who would emulate their saintly master, who offered his own body as food to a starving mother tiger; a sacrifice of less moment than appears, since he believed he would soon have another--that he had to have a great many--and that the sooner he got through with the lot the better.
From this unkind point of view his offering was much like that of a lady giving away a dress she is tired of, to promote the replenishment of her wardrobe.
The popular objection to killing, in India, results in the continuance of man-eating tigers and deadly serpents; which again results in their killing, in their untaught vigor, great numbers of human beings and other useful animals. The sum of the killings would be less if the killers were killed.
In our cooler land we have fewer poisonous reptiles and creeping things, yet insects there are which most of us slay with enthusiasm; the most sentimental devotee would hardly share couch or clothing with them!
Surely no rational person objects to ”justifiable insecticide”?
The most merciful will usually admit our own right to live, and therefore to kill in self-defence all creatures that would kill us.
Where the line is drawn, however, by many earnest thinkers and feelers, is at killing harmless, inoffensive creatures for food.
The sheep we may shear, but not make into chops; the cow we may milk, but not turn into steaks and stews; the hen we may rob of her potential young, but neither roast nor frica.s.see.
It is no wonder, in view of the steaming horrors of the slaughter-house, that we recoil from killing; but is it the killing which is wrong in itself, or merely the horrors?
Let us first consider how this might be done; and then, if, at its best, the essential act of ”taking life” is deemed wrong, we will consider that.
Suppose green pastures and still waters, the shade of trees, the warmth of the sun, the shelter of roof and walls; suppose protection and kind care, provision for the winter, and that we only shared the milk with the calves instead of barbarously separating the mother from her young.
Calves might be bottle-fed, to satisfy their hunger, and afterward turned loose with the mother; they could not take all the milk then, and we might have the rest.
Suppose creatures thus living in an animal paradise, then gathered in small numbers, in local centers, and neatly, instantaneously and painlessly killed, any surgeon can tell us how. They could then be dressed, chilled and sent to larger centers for more general distribution.
What hards.h.i.+p, to them, is involved in this?
Die they must, some time, and by worse methods. In a wild state or a tame they must either be killed by something or die slowly of old age and incapacity.
Even if we nursed the toothless ox, and fed him with a spoon, he would not enjoy it.
We have to admit that in this whole round world all creatures die, and that in most cases, their lives are taken by others.
Looked at from a strictly scientific point of view, this is evidently the order of nature, her universal law. Looked at from a religious point of view, it is as evidently the will of G.o.d, His universal law.
Some postulate a sinless Eden past, before this killing habit began; and foresee a sinless Millennium to come, when we shall have outgrown it.
These do not use their imaginations enough. Even if Edenic or Millennial tigers could digest gra.s.s and apples, are they therefore immortal? Is a species to live on forever in one representative, or one Platonic pair?
Because if we have life, as we know it, we have also reproduction, the direction for which precedes the picture of Eden; each pair being told ”to increase and multiply and replenish the earth.” Now for the imagination, to forecast results.
If the creatures fulfill this command, (and they do, diligently) the earth presently becomes replenished to a degree apparently unforeseen; unless, indeed, this law of mutual destruction be specially provided to meet that difficulty.