Arguments with my brother Part 2: Vegetarianism

Bro: Humans are more suited to be vegetarians!

Me: What makes you say that? (Seri kottu...)

Bro: The biological structure of a human being shows that humans are supposed to eat plants and vegetables. For example, the human saliva is basic which matches with that of herbivores, while that of carnivores is acidic. It makes it easier to digest meat.

Me: That doesn't make any difference. We produce acids in our stomach which is enough to digest that meat. What about the incisor teeth we have. Doesn't that help us to tear meat better? Doesn't that match with carnivores?

Bro: We have 4 incisors out of 32 teeth which is not a big ratio. Plus, incisors help to tear vegetarian food as well. In cows there is a forestomach which helps do this. This is substituted by the incisors. Also the eyes of humans are very calm and round in shape like those of herbivores. Carnivores have sharp piercing eyesight which helps them see far for hunting and many also see well in the dark.

Me: We don't need far eyesight for hunting because we have been given the brains to hunt them with tools and cook meat for better digestion.

Bro: Don't include the brain in this. We have been given the brain to stop and think if we should eat meat like the animals or make ourselves different from them by not hurting other organisms and lead a civilized life. The brain is for us to realize ourselves. I 'm talking about the human anatomy and what it is better suited for.

Me: Doesn't the fact that we are able to survive eating meat show that we can eat meat. My point is we are neither herbivores nor carnivores but omnivores.

Bro: That's a stupid argument. Anyone can survive eating anything. It's what we are more suited to eat that I 'm talking about. You give a lion in a zoo only grass and no meat. After a few days it ll start eating grass.

Me: No it won't! It would die after a few days. By evolution humans have the power to survive forever on any type of food.

Bro: Don't get me started on evolution. For all you know, it just a theory based on the 10% information that we have got. There is still 90% information that is yet to be discovered. Science is based on vague theories which can never be proved, like the big bang, evolution etc.

Me: No! Science is based on strong facts from which the theories have been put forward. There is a framework of proven facts like fossils collected, radio carbon dating etc., and the concept of evolution fits perfectly for the given data.

Bro: That's my point. Science has got a framework only. There is still much more left undiscovered. What if they find a human fossil tomorrow that dates back before the monkeys? Then they would have to throw away all the evolution theory and come up with a new one. Science has always been proved wrong in history. People would come up with some idea and they would get a contradicting evidence and everything would be rewritten.

Me: At least science has been proved wrong by science itself and nothing else. Are you telling me that humans just appeared on the earth? That they were created by God?

Bro: Yeah! At least that answers more questions than evolution does! About the purpose of life etc. The way God created our biology goes on to prove that humans were supposed to be herbivores.

Me: Now that's argument for argument's sake.

Bro: Look, forget about evolution. Let's talk with what we have now and not how we evolved. Take our intestine, for example. We have a very long intestine like herbivores. Meat spoils quick. Worms and bacteria grow quickly on dead meat. And with a long intestine which takes a long time for food to get excreted, the dead body of an animal in our digestive system doesn't support our eating meat. Carnivores excrete 9 kg for every 10 kg they eat and that too quicker than herbivores. They have smaller intestine.

Me: Again, we have brains to cook food, destroy the bacteria and make it suitable for our consumption. We have "evolved" from monkeys. Okay, forget that! We are scientifically closer to the monkeys in our biological structure. Monkeys eat both meat and vegetable. Monkeys are omnivores. So why can't you accept that? If you want biological proof, consider the limbs of herbivores. Cows, horses, goat, elephant etc., haven't got fingers or hands like us. They can't hunt food. They can't even hold things without opposable thumbs.

Bro: Exactly, whereas lions, tigers, eagles etc., have got claws with sharp nails... to kill and tear flesh. Another proof. We can't strike that hard or tear flesh with our bear hands.

Me: That's what I 'm saying. We are neither here nor there. We are halfway between the two. We are omnivores.

Bro: Look, I'm not going to accept what you say and you're not going to accept what I say. I've given you biological proofs. You've got the brain to think. With all the facts proving that we are closer to herbivores decide if you really want to eat meat that badly.
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Disclaimer: The ideas and views expressed above are not my own. They were just to irritate my brother. I fully and strongly support vegetarianism.