In regards to eating meat

[Bring4th_Austin]

Some plants have some pretty obvious defense mechanisms.

For instance, a healthy and natural kale plant will grow thick little hairs on both the stems and leaves. This is to prevent bugs from eating it.

Is this a natural method of selection? Say to allow for the chance of a mammal to eat, rather than the insects? It may be that the natural habitat would allow for the insects to get their sustenance from all the neighboring plants, while keeping an extra level of defense in order to keep sustenance available for another species that coexists in the same area. The word Flourish comes to mind.

I would assume that it would be hard for species overlap if everything was eaten by insects. While at the same time, if the insect predators are eliminated the insects would be able to overpopulate and eat everything, including all mammals/us.

That's logical if we subscribe completely to divine design and throw away everything we know about how things evolve through genetics.

Things evolve to where they have a better chance for survival. The better a being survives, the better chance it has to reproduce. It passes on whatever genes allowed it to survive to the next generation. The whole point of passing on genetics is to allow for a better chance of survival to the next generation.

The hairs the kale grows is simply a mechanism for survival, not survival against bugs, though that is the particular circumstance it allows the kale to survive.

Given another few hundred thousands years, the hairs could become thorns, preventing even humans from eating it. This is what really prevents us from killing and eating spiny amaranths and other spiny plants.

While I realize not everyone has the same beliefs regarding genetic evolution and divine design. But it is undeniable that a living being will continue to evolve to better suit itself for survival. Weak genetics = lesser chance to survive = less chance to reproduce = those genetics disappear. Strong genetics = greater chance to survive = more chance to reproduce = those genetics are passed on. It's the nature of nature, to strive to survive.

Plants have genetics, they strive to survive. I believe that just because we can't relate to their existence doesn't mean they have a different purpose in life.

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The perpetual and rather non-sensical parallels being drawn with regards to eating plants however, is fruitless (pun intended)!

It's your opinion that such parallels are non-nonsensical, which is what drives this discussion.

I personally feel it's nonsensical to cherish an animal's life and not a plant's to such a degree that one would choose to kill one over the other.

(Response directly to Namaste, no need for a response from someone who I have already discussed this with.)