re Vegetarianism and Reincarnation

[Guest guest]

Jai-ram posted……

..........................................

Namaskar...

As far as i can recall, Prof JC Bose conducted experiments on plants and his

experiment proved beyond doubt that plants experience severe trauma not

merely when you 'hurt' them, but also when you THINK of hurting them...they

are as sensitive as animals.. if not more

......................................................

Response:

My Dear Friend,

It seems that you have gone through quite a bit of research before coming up

to such a conclusion. This lead me to do the same as this really came as a

shock for me, I prayed and would always be praying to Lord to not let this

happen.

I went through the recent researches and found similar articles on whether

plants have the pain feelings or not. And not only Prof JC Bose, there are

quite number of scientists who have conducted similar experiments. But to

YOUR surprise MOST have different speculations. So what you are suggesting

as " BEYOND DOUBT " is certainly DOUBTFUL(as it is still not the established

fact rather i should say that your " BEYOND DOUBT " theory is not at all

widely accepted).

To be utterly unbiased I will first present in brief the speculation by Dr

J.C Bose(1858-1937)

Dr Bose showed vegetable tissues under stimuli like application of heat,

electrical shocks, chemicals, drugs etc. produce electrical responses. From

that he inferred that Plants are living beings, they go to sleep they also

experience pain and are subjected to death.

 

Now I suggest you to update your GK. The very basic argument to make your

theory doubtful now I ask you - " Why would plants need to feel pain? "

There is no evolutionary need for plants to feel pain; otherwise they would

have already developed mobility. I have never seen a moving plant, have you?

At least it is established that plants or vegetables that one eats are not

known to be moving from one park to another. Neither the plants have nervous

system, or nerve endings nor do they have any brain.

Now Presenting most common arguments and their explanation:

Argument1)

Yeah, very few Scientist argue that few plants move in the direction of sun

(Ex. Sun Flower). So what?

Does this mean they are afraid of the dark? (Few Scientist do argue so)

But MOST say No, it is the result of axing or growth-promoting chemical

concentrating on the dark side of a plant, which, in turn causes this side

to grow faster than the side exposed to the light

Argument2)

Plants do respond to injury.

(Explanation) When wounded, their respiration rate increases just as it does

initially when humans are injured. However, the increase is due to an

increase in the use of stored food reserves in an attempt to repair the

damage or to grow new cells. If the injury is too severe, the physiological

food-conversion responses are disrupted and death occurs. Often human

respiration rates increase as a result of the mind’s influence on perceived

consequences from an injury or a potential injury. Thus far, no one has been

able to identify a single structure or organ in a plant that can be equated

with the human brain, the organism responsible for human thought (some might

suggest that certain cell structures are analogous to the brain in that they

control cell responses, but that’s a real stretch).

Argument 3)

(Explanation) Plants such as the tomato also have been known to abort their

young!

Although these abortions are often the result of stresses, they are

physiological stresses and not emotional. For instance, fruit abortion is a

defense mechanism of the plant to insure it will have sufficient water and

nutrients to be able to mature a few fruit, rather than attempt to mature

all of its fruits and cause none of them to make it. Developing fruit have a

huge water demand. As a result of water shortages due to droughts, the plant

growth is essentially shut down and fruit-drop occurs. All plant responses

are a direct effect of chemical reactions!!

A tomato is still alive when removed from the vine. Evidence for this is its

ability to develop color. If it were in a state of panic due the trauma of

being removed from the vine and the fear of being eaten, I would suspect it

would refuse or be unable to continue to mature. It would probably just

shrivel up and die, at least that would be the human reaction.

 

This are not my explanations but of Dr. Frank Danielle, Professor and

Extension Vegetable Specialist (very recent July-Aug 2001)) who is one of

the many that do not support your argument.

 

Jai-ram Argument:

“So there is a fallacy in adopting a 'holier than thou' attitude merely

Because one is a vegetarian on that ground...”

 

Response:

Here I am in agreement with you, but then what is the SOLUTION?

Do you mean to say that one should be a Non-Vegetarian just because there is

FALLACY in adopting ‘holier than thou’ attitude?

 

It might be possible that whatever “BEYOND DOUBT PROOFS” you are presenting

are someday recognized unanimously and are established as “WELL KNOWN

FACTS”. Till that date I request you to please think from your heart over

and over again before making such statements over this issue

 

Jai-ram Argument:

“Perhaps non-vegetarianism gives rise to greater passions which is a

negative

Trait for the spiritual life, but then again so many GREAT ONES have been

non-veg and have attained the highest....”

 

Response:

I hade again and again said that there is difference between purposefully

harming and unintentionally harming (Due to Conditioning). Or if you want to

convey that people who oppose violence against animals in any form are

ignorant or have ‘holier than thou’

Attitude…………….please, I pray you again not to think that way… its not always

the case……………………………

 

Before you boldly deny my stand. I only suggest you to visit a place where

these farm animals are kept or go to a butcher shop or visit the web site:

anti-ignorance.net (NOT PROMOTING) and observe or read how these animals are

treated then think again and again before justifying your stand.

There is an opportunity for you to view things in new light. I cannot help

if you are unwilling to……………………or think I am biased or not honest…………..

 

If any list member wants to find more details, here are few sites. You can

also find few more through the search engines…….

 

http://www.anti-ignorance.net/contact.html

http://www.geocities.com/GoodRiddance408/issue2.pdf

http://www.geocities.com/GoodRiddance408/issue6.pdf.

http://www.animalaid.org.uk/campaign/vegan/frame.htm

http://www.indiana.edu/~educy520/readings/schwebs72.pdf

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/newsletters/hortupdate/julaug01/art\

5jul.html

 

With Love and Regards

Rahul Ganjiwale

 

 

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