[continued from previous message]   
      
   “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing – five sparrows for two farthings –   
   therefore fear not, because you are of more value to God than many sparrows.”   
   [322] What is the consequence of this defective philosophy? Gradually people   
   grow callous and    
   violent. They become even more dangerous than the man-eating tiger. At least   
   tigers kill human beings only to fill their stomachs and preserve their   
   physical existence, but human beings kill animals mostly out of greed or for   
   their pleasure. Remembering    
   that a primarily vegetarian diet satisfies more than one-third of the   
   population of this planet, there can be little doubt that meat-eating is more   
   a habit than a necessity. But, even accepting some amount of carnivorous   
   conduct on the part of human    
   beings, that can never justify the sadistic sports in which some human beings   
   indulge, or the savage methods of slaughter which are condoned for the   
   production of luxury items such as fur coats and cosmetics. The ritual   
   sacrifice of animals and plants    
   was largely abandoned in favor of the modern form of prayer some time around   
   100 A.D., but that did not greatly reduce the murder of the innocent non-human   
   beings. For industrial profit or for military gain, forest after forest has   
   been destroyed without    
   a single thought given to the fact that those trees are also living creatures,   
   and that those woods are the natural and actual home of many harmless animals   
   and insects. At present we find that animals are more cruelly victimized on   
   the altar of science    
   in the name of laboratory experimentation than ever seems to have occurred in   
   any synagogue or Church. However, on this point no one should be mistaken –   
   today's wasteful and heartless treatment of animals and plants is the direct   
   consequence of those    
   earlier religious teachings and earlier religious practices.   
      
   To conclude this discussion, it must be emphasized that sadism is a real   
   disease which gets into the blood. One who is sadistic toward animals and   
   plants can also be sadistic toward human beings. By eating meat and   
   overlooking the sufferings of the    
   lesser-evolved members of our universal family, human beings have established   
   the perfect physical and psychological foundation for the phenomenon known   
   commonly as man's inhumanity to man. So it was that a Jewish Jesus could turn   
   to a non-Jewish woman    
   who was begging him for help, and offer her the nasty reply that it is not   
   proper to take the children's food and “cast it to dogs”. [323] So it was that   
   Moses and his immediate successor, Joshua, could commit so many war crimes.   
   [324] And ultimately, so    
   it was that Nazi scientists, who had been raised as good Christians, would do   
   hellish and obscene experiments on their Jewish, gypsy, Polish and homosexual   
   laboratory subjects with the remarkably unscientific rationale that these   
   people were actually    
   subhuman. In all these cases and countless more, one may or may not accept the   
   reasons for the intrahumanistic dispute, but under no circumstance can one   
   justify the needless cruelty that was simultaneously expressed.   
      
   Universal Humanism   
   Not just for their sake but also for ours, all forms of cruelty to animals and   
   plants must stop. Human beings must realize that all life is interconnected,   
   that all life is sacred. The wanton destruction of animals and plants, as with   
   the corollary of    
   pollution to our environment, is wrecking the subtle ecological balance on   
   this planet, and imperiling everyone's existence. No one has appointed the   
   human race as the executioner of animals and plants. We should use our greater   
   intellect rather to save    
   and protect our younger sisters and brothers, especially the various   
   endangered species. Modern farmers are not only mistreating their animals to   
   maximize production, but often, due to economic necessity, farmers are also   
   killing their cattle and sheep    
   simply because they cannot afford to pay for their feed and fodder.   
   Arrangements must be made so that these moral crimes need not continue. That   
   same society which can subsidize farmers for not planting the crops, can also   
   pay farmers for a lesser    
   production of eggs or dairy products, or provide food to them with which to   
   feed their animals. The greater health and humanitarian benefits of a   
   vegetarian diet must also be recognized and taught to human beings everywhere,   
   and people should always be    
   encouraged to restrict and, wherever or whenever possible, to forego entirely   
   any consumption of non-vegetarian food.   
      
   Humanism, as it is practiced today, generally does not incorporate the   
   non-human creatures. This is a grave defect, and its harmful consequences have   
   now been well-understood by many animal and environmental protection   
   societies. However, many even of    
   these well-intentioned persons have not carried the philosophy far enough into   
   their personal lives, by taking the trouble to reform their own unhealthy and   
   uncaring dietary practices. Hence it becomes necessary to replace this   
   outmoded and unsound    
   pseudo-humanism with a new humanism, which fully extends the love which we   
   commonly, or uncommonly, accord to other human beings, to reach out and   
   embrace all of the non-human creatures of this universe as well. This love   
   must go out not just to animate    
   organisms, but also to inanimate objects for, in the final analysis, all love   
   is divine. All love is from and for the one Supreme Being Whose presence we   
   find manifest in all the diverse forms of this cosmos. Ultimately, love for   
   this creation is no    
   different from love for the Creator, and true love for the Creator is always   
   incomplete in the absence of real concern for all of this creation – a concern   
   not just felt in the heart but also expressed in both word and action.   
      
   Human beings of today must stop thinking purely in terms of utility value,   
   recognizing in addition the even greater importance of the existential value   
   system – especially the existential value which each of the other living   
   beings place on their own    
   lives. Even those animals, insects or plants which have negative utility   
   value, or even negative existential value to human beings, should be   
   preserved, if possible, by creating for them a congenial environment that is   
   not harmful to us. [325] Today,    
   human beings must transcend all of the dogmas of a subordinated environment   
   conveyed in Judaeo-Christian philosophy. If there be one compelling message   
   and one urgent mission for all Neo-Humanists of the world, then that message   
   and that mission is this –   
    that we must break asunder all of the physical, psychic and spiritual   
   barriers enslaving the human mind and the human heart without any further   
   delay.   
      
      
      
   10         State Church and Church State   
   This effort to convert weak communities into satellites occurs in the   
   religious field also. And, being supported by the money of those who want to   
   create satellites, the propagators of religious faith idle away their days.   
   Most of these propagators of    
   religion are not even ware of the fact that they are helping the exploiters   
   create satellite  groups; but some are doing it consciously. You must awaken   
   those who do not realize this fact, and make them aware of it. Let the ideals   
   of Neo-Humanism reach    
   their ears and be implanted in the core of their hearts. With their liberated   
   intellects they will throw all their illusions into the dustbin.   
      
   Shrii Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar   
      
   The Liberation of Intellect – Neo-Humanism   
      
      
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)