h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

By the way, nicky, thanks for the invitation to the "God, Fact or Fiction" thread, which has now reached post 26,163.

My first posting in that thread was posting number 22, back in July of 2002. You might like to check it out. I more or less said everything I think I needed to in that thread by some time in 2004.

In the meantime, your responses here adequately answer my query about how much you pick and choose what to believe. Thank you.

SoRB

As usual much of the argument for this sort of thing revolves around context.

Maybe one of the reasons vegetarianism seems to be relatively common in the UK and a lot of people are quite squeamish about knowing the reality of where meat comes from is that we are a relatively urban society compared to many other cultures, even in Europe. I would have thought children growing up on a farm would become used from young age to seeing the animals around them disappearing regularly to be taken off to the abatoir. And of course in the not too distant past they would probably have seen hens killed on the actual farm; up until relatively recently chicken was a luxury. It's quite normal in rural Italy for the family to be around when an animal is killed on the farm for a special ocassion, I saw this recently on a Jamie Oliver programme set in Italy. If a child grows up with this it's not going to be a sudden trauma to discover the truth, let alone see the full horrors of industrial killing. I think for a typical modern fairly urban British child this information should be introduced slowly and appropriately. It's ridiculous to suddenly scare and shock a child into vegetarianism.

My dad took me fishing from a young age and I found it not the least traumatic to watch him bash it over the head and then eat it. But if one day I suddenly saw a film out of the blue at school seeing a load of fish being bashed over the head or left to suffocate on a boat I'd probably have felt much more upset.

A lot of these things seem to come down to the stupidity of some of our teachers. Maybe that's the problem in the UK and we should be demanding higher standards of intelligence from them.

Out of interest I came across this in the edited guide which describes how a chicken is killed traditionally.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A260281

"My dad took me fishing from a young age and I found it not the least traumatic to watch him bash it over the head and then eat it."

Unless he was an Esquimo I must assume you've left out the cooking part.

Yes I did. Either that or he was Gollum from Lord of the Rings

Or anyone who likes Japanese food, e.g. me.

SoRB

Haven't tried proper Japanese suchi, but would love to.

I'm rather fond of raw oysters, especially as they are actually alive when you eat them.

Also I like my steak the French way, dripping with blood.

But you can't have everything, bacon in a bacon sarnie should be done to a frazzle. Crikey how could anyone want to become vegetarian when there's all these delights to fill your life with?

A bacon and egg roll with the egg yolk soaking into the bread It's what i would have on my desert island (until the heart-attack)

I think however, the only reason bacon tastes better burnt to a crisp, is that you can't feel/taste the texture of the fatty bits anymore. If the bacon is on a plate i will cut the fat away and not eat it, but this is harder in a roll, so it really has to be well overcooked for me in a roll.

It's a bit like the reason cheap beer/lager has to be chilled. it's so you don't taste how awful it actually is

"Also I like my steak the French way, dripping with blood."

And consisting largely of horse?

Actually, here's a boost to the thread - would anyone object to eating horse, dog or squirrel on the basis of the animal having a different societorial status from the more traditional "food" animals, or would it be based entirely on taste?

for me it would be mostly based on taste.

However I'm reverting back to my vegetarian ways since I've remembered that most meat has some gristle or fat or other horribly chewy stuff that makes me gag.

although a lovely, thick filet steak is something I often dream about (bleu, of course)

I would have no more moral qualms about eating dog than eating sheep. I am a vegetarian primarily for health reasons, the activism against fur farming and the like came later.

The Christianity/Creationism/Etc debate can continue at F5712280?thread=3791756, if it wants to.

TRiG.

No moral qualms about dog, unless it was domesticated, but it's hardly healthy. Dog's eat all sorts of stuff, don't they?

TRiG.

So do goats and you can't beat a good goat curry from my local Carribean place.

I think the only meat i would actually blanche at eating would be another human, and that on health grounds as much as ethical ones.

A misplaced apostrophe!

I'm too ashamed to show my face here ever again.

TRiG.

Rat tastes pretty bad

"No moral qualms about dog, unless it was domesticated, but it's hardly healthy. Dog's eat all sorts of stuff, don't they?"

True - but it's not restricted to dogs, though is it? Farm animals are fed an outrageous amount of nasties - CJE anyone?

You damn near got away with that one. Exclusion is a little harsh though - couldn't we introduce a non permanent penalty system?

Offsoon (wondering if I'll get hung as a liberal for the suggestion).

You tasted rat and it was bad? On the bright side, there's not much meat on them.

And what there is is stringy and rank.

Oh I don't know if you spice rat up enough I think it could taste quite nice