Sublime

the human self too is inevitably disenchanted. Ultimately it becomes, like everything else, a mere object of material forces and efficient causes: a sociobiological pawn, a selfish gene, a meme machine,

As Sam Harris said:1 It is not enough that Jesus was a man who transformed himself to such a degree that the Sermon on the Mount could be his heart’s confession. He also had to be the Son of God, born of a virgin, and destined to return to earth trailing clouds of glory. The effect of such dogma is to place the example of Jesus forever out of

In fact, attributing emotions to pigs doesn’t humanise them. It ‘mammalises’ them.

Bluntly stated, the doing of good is not sin but the manner, methods, or motive in such good-doing may be surfeited with our self. Its source is man's natural goodness, not that supernatural kind given by the Holy Spirit through regeneration.

At least for the domestic animal (the wild animal is a different case) the good life, if we can call it that, simply doesn’t exist, cannot be achieved, apart from humans—apart from our farms and therefore from our meat eating. This, it seems to me, is where the animal rightists betray a deep ignorance about the workings of nature. To think of

If competence without comprehension is so wonderfully fecund—capable of designing nightingales, after all—why do we need comprehension—capable of designing odes to nightingales and computers?

Whereas theism justified traditional agriculture in the name of God, humanism has justified modern industrial farming in the name of Man. Industrial farming sanctifies human needs, whims and wishes, while disregarding everything else. Industrial farming has no real interest in animals,

From a purely naturalistic viewpoint, we evolve whatever beliefs make sure we keep propagating the species. This means that any beliefs in the real existence of human rights, values and morality are ultimately an illusion.