Comment Re:The motivation is religious. (Score 1) 305
Empathy is a necessary human function, empathy makes us feel "pity/sadness" as you put it when we recognize facial or other expressions of pain or suffering on another object (Of course empathy can also make us feel happy/hungry/tired, all sorts of other things too). Hell I even felt a twinge of sadness recently when I had to reformat a corrupted drive, as if the drive had actually died. .
Thus one does not need to invoke the concept of a "soul" to feel sadness for some organism. In fact if you ask me that kind of sadness is usually pretty fake, owing as it does to a rather vague and abstract idea.
The empathy function will make certain types of bio research difficult to stomach.
While the empathy function is present to a greater or lesser degree in different individuals (perhaps lesser in slashdotters?), it cannot be eliminated from the human psyche because it plays an integral role in reproduction.
Also, evolution is hardly "randomness".
Thus one does not need to invoke the concept of a "soul" to feel sadness for some organism. In fact if you ask me that kind of sadness is usually pretty fake, owing as it does to a rather vague and abstract idea.
The empathy function will make certain types of bio research difficult to stomach.
While the empathy function is present to a greater or lesser degree in different individuals (perhaps lesser in slashdotters?), it cannot be eliminated from the human psyche because it plays an integral role in reproduction.
Also, evolution is hardly "randomness".
