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Davidson goose; feral cats



No doubt the killing of the goose by the Davidson frat boys was a vicious
act, and no doubt it's also ethically questionable to endanger one's
passengers as one swerves one's auto in an attempt to smash a feral cat. 
But it doesn't help us to see our way through the ethical underbrush when
one says, in response to such events, that we should "love all God's
creatures, great and small."

Birds and cats presumably count as such, but so, presumably, do wasps,
mosquitos, viruses, tomatoes, and nematodes.  (Not to mention both George
W. Bush and Saddam Hussein.)  What does it mean to love a wasp?  Does it
mean I can't swat it when it threatens to sting me in my car as I speed
down the interstate?  What does it mean to love the HIV virus?  Does it
mean I can't take my daily cocktail of drugs, for fear that I might injure
it?  What does it mean to love a tomato?  Does it mean I can't eat it?  Or
that I can eat it only if I apologize first?

Talking about "loving God's creatures" is, so far as it goes, ethically
empty.  If ethical issues are going to be discussed on this listserv (and
I would argue they should *not*), then let's don't rest content with
conforting but empty platitudes.

Jim Edwards
jim.edwards@furman.edu