Do you think its wrong to step on bugs - why or why not?

[DementedSheep]

Well I don't particularly like that you killed it for no reason other than being bored and then got a kick out of it dying painfully and I'd be a wary of someone who goes around doing shit like pulling wings of moths but just killing them when their in your house or something no and you don't have to look out for them or feel sad for them.

 

[SweetShark]

Jesus Christ, now we must feel guilty for killing bugs?
Let me ask you something:
Does the Tiger feel bad when it attacking something?
Does any kind of animal/bug feel "guilty" for their actions?
I don't think so.

A don't f*cking tell me the animals don't do bad things....don't you dare.

Tigers and other animals do not have the ability to think the way we do. We have the ability to contemplate our actions and decide whether or not what we are doing is right or wrong. Many animals act on instinct and instinct alone, but we don't. It is up to each of us to decide whether or not killing other animals is wrong, and there is no comparison needed to other animals because that just doesn't make sense considering their goals are simply survival and propagation of their species while we have evolved to want more than just that out of life.

Sorry, sorry, I need to be specific.
I am not saying is correct to kill the animals/bugs just because we can.
But if a specific animal/bug cause to me fear or is ready to hurt me, well, sorry, but I will be this guy.
Also as I said, sometimes you see some things you question if it was just the instinct of the animal....

I remember a boy told me a story of two cats his family had. a female and a male.
At some point the female become pregnant and bring to the world cute little kittens. AAAaaaaaaa, so cute :3
The male killed them immediately, just like that. Reason? Wanted to f*ck again the female and the kitten annoyed him. That it. Not something complex. The male just wanted to f*ck!
So the male f*cked the female again and once again the female gave birth to other kittens. The male once again started eating them. I am serious, the male ate the kittens. However this time the boy happened to be here when he was younger and he start crying from the sight he saw. His grandfather heard the crying and he saw this as well.
What happened? He immediately took a shotgun and shoot the male cat f*cker and explode!!!!! "BOOOOOOOOOM" as he said to me.
For that reason also he hate cats.

 

[mrdude2010]

I don't think it matters if you step on a bug, but it kind of bothers me when people go out of their way to kill insects that don't do any harm. I mean, how would you feel if you were just minding your own business and someone curb stomped you? Plus, I mean, it's kinda messed up that you get joy out of killing a living thing.

 

[COMaestro]

Accidentally stepping on bugs is pretty much unavoidable, but I try to not do it in general. I will avoid stepping on a bug if I see it while I'm walking outside. Inside is another matter as the bug is invading my territory and I would prefer it not do so. Some bugs I will catch and release outside in this case, but for the most part I just kill them as they would likely find their way back inside given the opportunity.

That being said, I tend to keep a live and let live mindset when I'm outdoors or not in my own home, as I would hate the idea of some creature bigger than me just snuffing the life out of me on a whim. And any time I do kill a bug I try to make it as instantaneous as I can so that it doesn't suffer. Just because they aren't sentient does not mean they don't feel pain, and I would prefer that their last moments of life were not spent in horrible agony.

 

[McElroy]

I heard that having an arachno- or insectophobia is the Mark of their respective deities: The Spider God and Ant Man, and thus instead of fearing them you should work towards conquering your phobia, after which Spider God or Ant Man will visit you and uplift you to a higher plane of existence. I'm an archnid whisperer myself, so I'm against killing or hurting them, but there was this one time Martin (my spider friend) brought his girlfriend home with him and they mated with Martin dying in the act. I was really angry at her, but she just said "your too late, it's all ogre" and gave birth to a bunch of little spiders and died. I had to abort the little guys. I'm sorry, Spider God. I truly am.

Just kidding. I deal with them like I deal with people: if they annoy me I'll k- Oh, wait. I think I know where this is going...

Okay, for real. There was a little news article maybe a week ago which told that hoovering up a spider is animal cruelty and a finable offense (though nobody will ever get caught, but in theory you should only instakill bugs). Spiders are cool so I try to spare them, but anything out for my blood dies. I mean, I see it that they're playing the Game of Life and simply risk playing on a hard difficulty (sucking my blood). Mosquitoes seem to have an infinite lives cheat every summer, so I try to slap-kill as many as I can. I didn't make the rules. Sometimes with mosquitoes and horse-flies I try to catch them straight from flight and the tear their heads off. I mean, you gotta have different death animations. Ants are fine, but inside houses I don't use the present tense when talking about them. I've had to deal with so many annoying ant colonies inside the floors and walls that I've developed creative ways of killing them. For example rolling them over (little ants only) with an A-size battery is super effective (the colony itself must be poisoned, but what the heck). But y'know, butterflies are often really pretty and their larvae are cute and pudgy and fuzzy. I have a picture of one as my phone background too. Then there are some larvae that eat ALL THE LEAVES. They die.

 

[jakeyjakey]

Is it wrong? Yes.
It's an unnecessary and intentional act of murder on another living being.

Does this stop me from doing it? No.
I'm afraid of spiders and my reaction to seeing one in my home is to kill. My reaction to a mosquito biting me is to kill it. I'll drive my car knowing full well that I'm killing many insects in doing so.

Will it build bad karma? I don't know but it should.
Just because it's not against the law and society as a whole doesn't frown upon killing insects doesn't make the act itself okay. Here's hoping that humanity is never seen as insects to an alien race

If I were a giant alien who found a race of tiny beings, I wouldn't wipe them out. I'd probably try to establish dominance over them. Just saying, being revered as a giant god sounds pretty sweet.

 

[Souther Thorn]

I'm 22 years old, was in class two days ago... saw a spider crawling under my desk. I was bored so before it got away I slid my foot over and quietly crunched the little guy.

I tilted my foot over to show the flattened spider to my buddy sitting across, and we sort of snickered when we saw that he was sticking to my muddy running shoe and half alive. As I was doing this from behind me a five foot tall kid behind me called me a bully because I step on bugs. I told him to bend down and kiss my stinking feet. I know, I know... not nice heh. I'm actually a pretty good guy.

Why do people get upset about stuff like this? I've been stepping on bugs my whole life. If bugs are reincarnates of people, well... my thinking is better luck next time. Probably did the little guy a favor... maybe uncle bob or grandma jane shouldn't crawl next to a giant white sneaker unless they want me to crush them.

What are your thoughts? Is it wrong to step on bugs? Why or why not? Will it build bad "karma?"

First, I don't know if this is poor trolling.
Second, if it's not you're a douchebag and no, you're not a 'pretty nice guy' if that's your reaction to someone calling you on an act of cruelty (the laughing at the half alive, not the stepping).
Third, see a therapist if crushing animals or bugs gets you your jollies, seriously.
Fourth, no I step on bugs all the time if they're in my way or I don't notice them. I have never gone out of my way to purposefully kill anything that hadn't taken a stab at me first however. Again, get some help.

 

[Aerosteam]

If you're scared of the bug and you crushed it as a form of self defence, then fair game.

Killing it for the sake of killing? Not cool.

 

[Augustine]

As far as we know, insects aren't sentient, so I can't see a moral reason why it'd be wrong to kill one. Personally though, I think bugs are pretty cool and so I won't set out to kill one unless it's something like a mosquito which intends to make me it's next meal.

Non-sentience absolving one from moral responsibility seems like a rationalization of those who wish to see themselves moral, yet know they need to kill to survive.No offence.

 

[Mister K]

Well, if it's just a bug, then I either walk by it (on the street) or try to get rid of it without killing it (at home).

If it is a bloodsucker or noize-maker, or bloodsucking noize-maker I will try to squash it with everything I got.

 

[Dagda Mor]

I don't think that going out of your way to crush small insects is too bad, but it is really... well, weird. Seeing larger bugs die is really gross and hard to watch, though. I'd rather just see them leave.

 

[JoJo]

As far as we know, insects aren't sentient, so I can't see a moral reason why it'd be wrong to kill one. Personally though, I think bugs are pretty cool and so I won't set out to kill one unless it's something like a mosquito which intends to make me it's next meal.

Non-sentience absolving one from moral responsibility seems like a rationalization of those who wish to see themselves moral, yet know they need to kill to survive.No offence.

So out of interest, do you feel moral responsibility to your laptop, or to a rock? Life is just a system of self-replicating molecules, without the 'ghost in the machine', i.e. sentience, there's no reason in my eyes to be moral to a non-sentient life-form. A jellyfish doesn't care whether it lives or dies, because it isn't capable of caring about anything at-all, so why should I care?

Though, for the record, I don't object to the killing of sentient non-human animals either, as long as they don't suffer too much in the process of dying.

 

[Harleykin]

i don't kill insects for fun or out of boredom but i might do it out of...hate?
basically i really got a "don't annoy me" rule going on and i don't care what it is...
everything can crawl and walk and what not unless it's not "near" my bed or on me.
if i have to scare away a fly or sth like 10 times i'll consider it war and kill that thing...other than that i don't mind.
but if try to kill it and it still wiggles i really get a bad feeling...i know they can't help it and i can't talk to them to go away so when i crush'em i actually want them do be dead and mostly painless...i don't even know if they can feel pain...but i don't care even if someone would tell me they don't feel anything i'd feel bad about torture

and i really alway try to go glas+paper method on anything without wings.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

To me, stepping on an anthill is like stepping on a tiny automated robot factory that will self-repair. Watching them scramble like all hell afterward is actually interesting.

Yeah, and Mengele was also very interested in his work.

Did.... did you really just compare a guy stepping on an anthill to the fucking atrocities committed by Mengele? Like... seriously?

No, I compared their emotional responses or lack thereof.

While the fact that he "sort of snickered when we saw that [the spider] was sticking to [his] muddy running shoe and half alive" is a bit... off, that's still a really extreme comparison.

Maybe but I can never condone killing anything "just because it's interesting".

To me, stepping on an anthill is like stepping on a tiny automated robot factory that will self-repair. Watching them scramble like all hell afterward is actually interesting.

Yeah, and Mengele was also very interested in his work.

Did.... did you really just compare a guy stepping on an anthill to the fucking atrocities committed by Mengele? Like... seriously?

No, I compared their emotional responses or lack thereof.

Do you think it's that unusual to have a lack of emotional response to some crushed ants?

Yes, see above.

 

[Risingblade]

Killing something then laughing at it then insulting someone who says killing is wrong, you sir are sick. .-.

I don't believe in killing spiders, they're our friends and kill mosquitoes and flies.

 

[Aramis Night]

I prefer not to squander my empathy by putting it to use in cruelty as a default. As humans we have the singular ability to minimize the suffering of those around us due to our capacity for superior understanding of cause and effect. It is one of the few evolutionary traits we possess that grants us superiority over the other creatures of the earth. I choose to behave as though I deserve such a distinction by not instead acting as a sadist unless a situation would benefit from my being one.

Besides, spiderbros have our backs.

 

[Flutterguy]

"If you're always worried about crushing the ants beneath you...you won't be able to walk."

I will throw them outside if I have the opportunity, and I don't go out of the way to kill or displace anything that isn't in my house.

 

[jpoon]

I don't kill bugs unless it's necessary. Any bug that attacks me or fucks with me repeated however has signed their own death warrant.
I typically like to save benign insects when I can, I find them to be amazing little critters so it can only help to spread a positive message to the rest of the universe and spare them from a crushing death.

 

[ultrabiome]

I generally avoid killing any non-dangerous predatory or helpful bugs in my house, so I will try to move any spiders or crickets or bees outside. Now sometimes that's not possible, so they die. Ants, roaches, wasps, flies and mosquitoes are immediately killed if they are in my house. Outside, I will avoid killing bugs that aren't attacking me.

Do I feel that bad... not really. There are so many bugs, so so many bugs, that humans killing them isn't causing their extinction. I mean, roaches will be around to eat shit until the end of the earth. If humans could exterminate mosquitoes we would. Flies are gross, ants are annoying, and wasps are just aggressive pains in the ass. At least spiders and crickets and mantises kill other annoying bugs and are generally not dangerous to humans (ok, spiders near my bed is a different story), and spiders usually won't go out of their way to attack us, like wasps will sometimes.

Ok, I would feel a little more bad about killing a bee. Bees are highly important to us because they pollinate our food, aren't aggressive unless provoked, and are in decline.