Hunting, and not for food!
We hate hunting. Period.
It’s sort of alright when the person needs to hunt to stay alive. But in the Western world the incidence of that is pretty remote.
So when author Jim wrote about coyotes and hunting I had to share it with you (and, for the record, both Jean and I are atheists). Published with Jim’s permission.
ooOOoo
The Incredible Coyote and Western Morality
How killing for fun is not only a Christian Right, but a value
By Jim, August 5th 2018.
Christian vulgarity has reigned it’s bullets down on the North American coyote for over 100 years. The longest standing extermination order in history has killed millions of coyotes and continues its bounty program in most states. Competitive hunts sponsored throughout the nation each year with cash prizes and trophies instill to our kids the right obligation to kill for fun.
“One morning in the late 1930s, the biologist Adolph Murie stood near a game trail in Yellowstone National Park and watched a passing coyote joyously toss a sprig of sagebrush in the air with its mouth, adroitly catch it, and repeat the act every few yards. At the time, Mr. Murie was conducting a federal study intended to prove, definitively, that the coyote was “the archpredator of our time.” But Mr. Murie, whose work ultimately exonerated the animals, was more impressed by that sprig-tossing — proof, he believed, of the joy a wild coyote took in being alive in the world” (1)
The majority of politicians have failed to address this with any passion, and being the good, high moral standard western value Christians that they are, continue the killing spree. A useless torture that drives the coyote without mercy and without effect. “Under persecution, the biologists argued, evolved colonizing mechanisms kicked in for coyotes. They have larger litters. If alpha females die, beta females breed. Pressured, they engage an adaptation called fission-fusion, with packs breaking up and pairs and individuals scattering to the winds and colonizing new areas. In full colonization mode, the scientists found, coyotes could withstand as much as a 70 percent yearly kill rate without suffering any decline in their total population”.
Hunters have their ultimate victim to hunt—one that can outbreed the continued onslaught. How fun is it? While the coyote is hunted for sport, they die in earnest. Leave them to experience their joy, and populations will mitigate in their own necessary way.
Christian values and morals once again are superior delayed in common decency and way off the mark—unless your talking killing for sport.
ooOOoo
I want to add a couple of comments that were left on the post:
Not many christians are bothered by this. Why should they, when you hear them quote from their holy book, that god commanded them to subdue the earth.
It is for this very reason that many christians are nonchalant when we talk about climate change
oooo
The price paid for pointlessly killing predators is a dear one. Moreover, all needless killing of animals is wrong, says the immoral, convinced atheist.
oooo
(to which Jim replied)
Part of the doctrine is to subdue and have dominion. To hell with inferior, soulless life. The ripple effect of what was once naturally flowing is tragic and painful.
Enough said!
Difficult to read, but worth it. Thanks Paul.
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Oh Val, that’s very sweet of you to say that.
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Thank you for sharing this Paul. It is difficult to think about these things very often for me. I was given a hunting rifle when I was 16. I never shot anything with it but once. Maybe that was my trigger to value other life as beauty and not an opportunity. Living in the culture I grew up in I became a tolerant observer of such practices. Not any more.
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Jim, the natural world is so beautiful, so precious, that it’s very strange that it is only in later life that we become such ardent protectionists. Well not every single one of us but you get my drift.
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After we’re dead and gone, what would you think will be important to us all then? Nobody will remember anything about me in a generation or two, so this is what I’d like my legacy to be; to ease a little suffering for future generations by living like the world 🌎 matters today. I could never think to be remembered by more than a few people. That’s just the way it is, but the future will either thank us or curse us. So far it’s not looking too promising.
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I am very afraid you are correct!
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Such a disgusting and yet typical thing for christians to partake in…one more reason why ‘religion’ should be abolished…
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I agree! Not sure abolishing religion would work though. In the book Denial by Ajit Varki & co, he writes that a thirst for religion comes from our awareness of our mortality. Everywhere there are religions. It takes some effort to stay away from them. I’m 74, getting older and sillier by the day, and Jeannie and I try very hard not to think about death too much. Thank goodness for our natural world!
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I can’t get the disgusting taste out of my mouth reading what so-called Christians think they are entitled to in this world. And don’t get me started on the whole judgment factor of who or what is ‘worthy’ to keep here. Who died and put them in charge? 😬I understand losses suffered by ranchers, but as a taxpayer that subsidizes their grazing rights, I’m more than a slightly offended by the superiority of entitlement.
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Said with real feeling! And rightly so! Thank you!
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Wagnificent! Pawerful! 🐾💜🐾
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🙂
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