PURRR: Why do we find almost every cat beautiful, but relatively few humans?
PURRR: Why do we find almost every cat beautiful, but relatively few humans?
We find almost every cat to be beautiful. But when it comes to other human beings, beauty is more the exception than the rule. When we admire a cat, we admire its proportions, coloring, movements, and general appearance. But when we look at another human being, our judgment is complicated by sexual desire, or the absence of it. Cats may be entirely without aesthetic judgment and respond merely to mating signals. Our feline friends have no conception of beauty, and certainly no ambition to be beautiful. Perhaps we should learn to look at people as we do at cats. They simply go […]
ANIMALISM: Our animal nature is not something to rise above, but to honor
ANIMALISM: Our animal nature is not something to rise above, but to honor
Some humans struggle to accept the fact that we are animals. Throughout history, many cultures and religions have expressed ambivalence and even hostility to the animal side of our nature. Some argue that we humans are mental and spiritual beings, in a way that animals can’t aspire to. But even our spiritual nature harks back to our animal nature. Two essential aspects of spirituality are presence and mental quietness. Animals live completely in the present and do not appear to experience the incessant mental activity that afflicts us. So, in a sense, spirituality also aligns with our animal nature. STEVE TAYLOR: […]
R.I.P. ‘Mad Cowboy’: Howard Lyman, former cattle rancher-turned-vegan activist is dead
R.I.P. ‘Mad Cowboy’: Howard Lyman, former cattle rancher-turned-vegan activist is dead
For 20 years Howard Lyman raised both dairy and beef cattle, pigs, and chickens. Diagnosed with a spinal tumor in 1979, and facing the possibility of paralysis, Lyman turned to organic farming. By that time, Lyman had begun to investigate ‘mad cow disease,’ and again was suffering health issues. Lyman credited turning vegetarian, and later vegan, with his recovery. In 1998, Lyman wrote the foreword to Erik Marcus’s book ‘Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating’ and published his first book, ‘Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat’. According to PETA, ‘Howard Lyman set an example for […]
