mgill said:
humans also have no need for flesh or any other animal product and in fact the consumption of them is directly connected to many diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
Humans have no NEED for a lot of things, but I bet you take part in things you don't NEED to survive, now don't you?
You can't get every nutrient you need from a vegan diet. "flesh" and other animal products provide those vitamins in an easy way. Vegans usually require additional supplements in order to get what they need.
Look how many veggies are being recalled in the US for listeria and ecoli. Don't act like vegans are oh so healthy and superior, because they aren't always. There is just as much crap food in a vegan diet as there is in a non vegan diet.
mgill said:
the question is since humans have no need of flesh, dairy or eggs to thrive and be healthy and it is instead a mere palette preference, how can we justify harming and killing other sentient beings for what amounts to a momentary taste sensation? is taste more important that the entire existence of a non-human animal?
Again, the fact that flesh, dairy and eggs offer nutrients you can't get from a vegan diet alone, suggests that there is a need for it. And you are aware that if no one killed animals, the world would be overrun with them and it would be a much more dangerous place to live.
"Entire existence of a non-human animal" Wow, dramatic much? lol Pretty sure animals that are on the verge of extinction and even when their numbers are just low are protected. More things than just shooting an animal can lead to their extinction. Such as deforestation, which has NOTHING to do with eating meat.
mgill said:
even if the consumption of flesh was a factor in our evolution (and even this is now considered not to be correct-instead it was the cooking of food which allowed for increased caloric intake and increased brain function) that does not mean that we should still be doing it today.
Also doesn't mean it shouldn't.
mgill said:
Plants have no central nervous system and no sentience. it does not make any sense biologically for them to do so since the reason animals feel pain is to avoid danger and death while plants are stationary an unable to move to protect themselves. even if plants did somehow feel, one would still kill far fewer plants by being vegan as far fewer plants are killed by eating them directly rather than filtering their nutrients through someone else's body.
There are SEVERAL studies from well known sources that show that plants CAN feel pain and feel emotions.
Also, as for the "plants are stationary, so they don't matter" argument. Might I remind you that there are actually stationary ANIMALS. Barnacles, coral, anemones and sponges are all ANIMALS that are stationary. But I'm sure you have some explanation as to why that doesn't count.
You came in here preaching, but yet you only want to look at it from the perspective that YOU choose to believe. You can't possibly expect the side you wish to believe has all the answers and gives them in a wholly honest way, can you? In order to have ALL of the details and information, you need to look at BOTH sides. It's pretty clear that you haven't done that since you don't mention on bad thing about being a vegan and sorry, but you know damn well that a vegan diet is not cure all, end all.
You mentioned being treated how you would want to be treated. So you want to be preached at and told everything you choose to do is wrong and you want people to act like they are superior to you?