Originally posted by: torpid
Originally posted by: mattpegher
To debate the complete definition of murder is useless.
The definition is not all that mutable. What is debated is whether a particular act fits the definition or not. Killing animals never fits the definition of murder. Killing people sometimes does, sometimes not. If the definition were mutable then we would never be able to have a viable justice system because courts could just decide that murder doesn't mean what it did the last time they had a case where one dude killed another.
Ah, but our justice system does not use absolutes or definitions to determine whether an act is murder. They have these definition somewhat worked out but the charges are determined by the prosecuters office then modified to what they think a jury will find. The jury gets instructions which are supposed to guide them in order to determine if the criteria are met for the charges levied.
My statement is that the ethics of killing another living thing are subjectively determined by the circumstances or justifications and an arbitrary classification of the level of complexity and or intelligence of the being.
Definitions of such things assume no mitigating circumstances, and are never complete enough to be absolute. But to follow your thoughts, i agree man created a word for a deed which we defined as killing with premeditation another human being and by our own definition killing an animal whether it be for food/clothing or just for pleasure will never fit that definition. It is only in question when a human has been killed.
I personally like the commercial of the monk who sneezes into an antibiotic kleenix killing all the microbes in his sputum, and feels quilty. It reminds us that the morality of killing is based on necessity.
Bugs on our windshield - hardly avoidable in modern world
Plants to eat, lawn to cut, trees for lumber - very difficult to avoid
Animals killed for food - currently still necessary to the species as a whole- may change in future
Humans - in defense of self or others when not avoidable
ah but canabalism was quite accepted and questionably justified in certain societies in the past