Human vs Animal vs Vegetable vs Rock (Part 1)

Yesterday I saw an article that, instead of inspiring me to greatness, was attempting to inspire me to become a vegetarian. They made a wonderful little argument in a cartoon on the side of the page. Let us be in awe of its brilliance:

1. Animals are my friends (Animals are my friends)
2. I don't eat my friends (Friends are things I don't eat)
3. Thus, I don't eat animals! (Animals are things I don't eat)

To be fair, the article was arguing about the amount of energy resources we can save by becoming vegetarians. But, in my view, there are a plurality of ways to save energy resources (including never printing another article on how people OUGHT to be vegetarians). Nonetheless, the cartoon which was with the article seemed to capture the sentiment and action of the culture better than the article itself. Although, to your surprise, I agree with the first premise that animals are my friends; I happen to disagree with the second premise because I eat my friends. Why am I okay with myself even after I admitted publicly that I eat my friends? Because, under normal circumstances, insofar as my friends are both not human and delicious, I am just fine with eating them. What does this come down to? For me (notice I am employing the subjective principle), my human friends are radically different than my animal and plant and rock friends. And I would suggest that it should be the case with you as well; that is, unless you desire to be a mere animal.

After I say what I'm about to, in this post and in the next, I hope to never revisit this point again. In this post, however, I'd like to begin by establishing two principles that are obvious to me. Humans are fundamentally good. This does not simply mean humans have something good about them or some goodness in them, but rather it means in the core or essence of who they are, there goodness is. The second principle that is obvious to me is that humans, who are fundamentally good, have a power (or capacity) to do unplumbed, immeasurable, and untold things (whether greatly good or greatly bad). Now these points seem obvious to me but they may not to you so, in my next post, I will explain them a little bit starting with the second point.

The Form of Life

It has taken quite some time for me to work up the energy, the desire, and the justification for a blog of my own. However, I have decided that I would simply start, knowing that the direction of my blog may change entirely, and I will see what comes of it. I was contemplating trying to begin in a way that kept hidden many of my biases and my motivation; however, I find that truth is always revealed over time. That being the case, I shall reveal that my motivation for this blog is to speak to the human condition from the perspective of a Christian (and most especially the perspective of a Catholic). Of course, insofar as I can, I would like to keep this blog ecumenically applicable to all of my brothers and sisters who call themselves followers of Christ. Along with that, it is my hope that even if you do not hold this bias in common with me, you would at least read what is said here in this blog and engage with me down this discussion of life.

Thus, I get to my point. Although this may change, at present this blog is about the incredibly enormous importance and significance of our human lives. Hopefully it can serve as an encouragement for us to pursue "a more excellent way" (1 Cor 12:31). Although it is not my purpose to map out what exactly an excellent life looks like, I would like to use this blog to inspire myself and others to shape our lives in the pursuit of integrity and the truth of love. This is so that we can live our lives to a greater extent than we once thought imaginable. Although I am an advocate of doing great things, it is more important that, in our essence, we are becoming great people. Alas, I foresee that many postings will be very practical to this point, but I also believe that many of my posting will be speculative in nature. This is because I believe it is important to provide an underlying framework to understanding the significance of our lives as well as the practical aspects of "becoming" great people.