The Problem of Sentient Plants
by Cowboy Bob Sorensen
Animal rights extremists have been known to refer to the killing of animals as "murder," but that word does not mean what they think it means. Murder is the unlawful taking of a human life. Humans are sentient. We have consciousness, intelligence, awareness, and all that good stuff.
Plant consciousness would raise some questions of morality for some people. F'rinstance, many vegetarians and vegans choose their eating habits on what they consider to be moral grounds. If it turns out that plants have consciousness, they would have to be consistent and not eat those either! On the other hand, this scientist loves dandelions and points out that they are good food. Indeed, they have been used for food and other purposes for years.
Some critters have consciousness, but not on our level. Corvids (crows, magpies, ravens, blue jays, and the lot) are considered very intelligent, yet they do not write music. Consider panpsychism, where all living things supposedly have some consciousness. This includes plants.
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| Dandelions, Pexels / Egor Komarov |
I am suggesting the article "To Weed the Garden, or Not to Weed the Garden, That Is the Question." It is on an Intelligent Design site, and the author is not a creationist. Still, she makes some good points. The ending is problematic: "Now more than ever we need a sound philosophical perspective, to sort the wheat from the chaff." (I see what you did there.) From a biblical creation view, it is not immoral to eat plants. They may show signs of rudimentary consciousness, but the Creator gave them to us as our first food (Gen. 1:29-31). With the proper perspective, the problem of eating plants (or weeding the garden) is not a problem at all. There's the "sound philosophical perspective,"