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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Our View: Cajoling City Hall ... Jeffrey Gillespie: The demise of Cecil the lion ... Ashland Calendar, Friday, Aug. 7 ... Our View: Cajoling City Hall ... Jeffrey Gillespie: The demise of Cecil the lion ... Ashland Calendar, Friday, Aug. 7 ... RELOCATIONS Herb Rothschild Jr.: How we treat animals Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Jun. 13, 2015 at 12:01 AM Posted Jun. 13, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Teaching texts like the Iliad requires explaining polytheism, and explaining polytheism requires us to abandon certain cultural assumptions. What almost all my students believed is that polytheism was an attempt by peoples who didn’t possess the scientific knowledge we have to account for the operations of natural phenomena. Those poor benighted souls attributed the workings of nature to the agency of divine beings because they didn’t know any better. I would propose to them an alternative: that polytheism arose, not from an effort to figure out how things worked, but from a response of awe — that primordial blend of wonder and fear — to a living universe. The belief that all being was full of gods was a belief in the inherent and powerful vitality, not only of humans, not only of all fauna, not only of all animate beings, but also of earth and sky and water and wind and all that is. For a full-blown polytheist, there are no things, only beings. And I would go on to point out that if we believed that animals and plants and earth and sky and water are full of gods, we wouldn’t abuse them as we do. And therefore we would not be facing ecological disaster despite all our knowledge of the workings of the natural world. But we aren’t polytheists, and we do have extraordinary understandings of the operations of natural phenomena. Nor would I wish it otherwise. Humankind’s patient and cooperative accumulation of scientific knowledge is itself an awe-inspiring phenomenon, quite apart from the many wonderful benefits it has brought to humanity. To appreciate a different culture, as I have been arguing recently, doesn’t require abandoning all confidence in one’s own. What it does require is foregoing arrogance and thus positioning oneself to adjust and expand one’s awareness. The foregoing remarks are a prelude to considering our treatment of animals. What we do to them in our factory farms, many of our laboratories, and certain of our entertainments (e.g. greyhound racing) is a logical and terrible conclusion of regarding nature as an assemblage of things rather than a diversified unity of sacred being. There is no need for me to alert readers of this column to those realities or to persuade you to oppose them. That you make time for my musings means that you are marked by moral intelligence. And many of you have made greater efforts than I to end your complicity in the mistreatment of animals. What I aim to offer, in this column and the next, is not more knowledge of these abuses or calls to more energetic action, personal or political. Instead, I’ll consider with you how to think about the moral basis of our relationship to animals. But why think about it? Just do it. But what is “it”? Kill no animals at all, even mosquitoes? Domesticate no animals for food or fiber even if we treat them well? End all research that involves animals? Abolish zoos even if their programs assure the preservation of endangered species? Working from fundamental moral premises, very smart people have put forward answers to such questions. The differences in their answers aren’t as important as the differences in their premises, because their premises generate a whole range of questions that bear on our treatment of all beings, including humans. Next week I’ll have a go at this challenging task, but only in the spirit of eliciting your own thoughts, which I urge you to share in these pages. Herb Rothschild Jr. is chairman of the board of Peace House.         DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Jun. 13, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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