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

[FPLOON]

Honestly, I only step/kill bugs/insects if they're in my living space unless they are a ladybug or a butterfly, then I do [almost] whatever it takes to get them back outside unharmed...

Other than that, I'm indifferent to the many common bugs/insects as long as they don't try to pick a fight with me, especially if I'm outside my living space...

 

[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.

 

[Astoria]

It's a bug. There are literally millions where it came from. Hell creatures like us killing them all the time is expected that's why the reproduce so dramatically. There's nothing sadistic about killing a bug every now and then. Going around and wiping out nests though that's another matter.

litterally millions, huh? That's your logic? You realize there are billions of humans (way more than your millions of insects) and in actuallity, probably trillions of insects. If not more. I mean... ants alone.... there are so many.....

Don't be pedantic. A billion is a thousand million so yes millions. And by where it came from I meant it's nest hense why I said wiping out a nest is bad.

 

[And Man]

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.

 

[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.

So whether something is ok to kill depends on whether or not we consider it sentient, bearing in mind changing human views on sentience and limitations and bias of the human perspective.

Even accepting this terrible basis for life-or-death morality, what about evolution? Every living species could develop into a species that you would describe as "sentient". But if a creature is killed, he or she provides less aid in that development and any such death of an insect could be the very death that prevents such evolution.

Considering it anything other than wrong to kill creatures less powerful than ourselves with no ability to fight back is nothing other than a justification for sociopathy.

People might quickly change their tune if a powerful alien species decided humans weren't sentient (they had no proof of human sentience, which is all that matters to them) and randomly squashed humans. Sure, many of the ones squashed would be poor Africans that noone cares about anyway, but what if Stephen Hawking got squashed, or your favorite game developer? Your grieving would be no more witnessed by the Amazing Alien Species than your sentience.

It's part of sentience itself to fully appreciate the world and living creatures within it. Perhaps the aliens who would squash us have a bit of a point in not recognizing our own sentience.

Yes, sentience is a fairly good measure for whether some sort of morality applies. Do you feel obligated to act morally to your phone, or a rock? No, of course not, because they can't respond, they don't have a mind in the first place. A non-sentiment living being is exactly the same, they're ultimately just a self-replicating arrangement of molecules. So are we of course, but we have the 'ghost in the machine', something which is aware of it's own existence and can do unto others as it would like done to itself. As a biological sciences graduate, I can confirm that the general scientific consensus is that insects are not sentient. Obviously we are not infallible and if convincing evidence was presented to show that they were, I would change my views accordingly. I won't comment further on your alien analogy since it relies on the assumption that bugs are sentient in a way we don't understand and your evolution point is a little bizarre to be honest. Putting aside the unlikelihood of true intelligence evolving in an insect (for reasons I can explain in more detail if you really wish to hear), an equivalent argument would be that you should never use contraception and have sex whenever possible, because there's a small chance one of the many offspring produced would be the person who found a cure for cancer. Obviously this is a silly line of argument.

Anyhow, my question to you is what would you suggest as an alternative red line for when morality applies or not if not sentience? If you don't harm anything living at-all then you must have a very limited diet considering plants are just as alive as bugs and indeed, your very existence is fatal for the unfortunate microbes who end up in your stomach.

 

[jakeyjakey]

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?

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

Of course it is, you sick and twisted monster! Why would you ruin a perfectly good pair of shoes like that?

If they're in your home then you should just do what I do and immediately get the vacuum cleaner and start whistling the Ghostbusters theme while you hoover them up.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

I'm going with Lilani on this one. As a arachnophobe and an insectophobe who grew up living with cockroaches, the fuckers cannot die fast enough for me. If I could, I would go Ragnaros on their asses and take them all out in a flurry of flame. Fuck bugs and anything like them. There's a reason that I dread New Vegas' Cazadors and Queen Ant. 8(

Now I get the whole "taking time to kill a bug as slowly and / or painfully as possible" sadism being disturbing, as well as going out of one's way to kill a bug that's not anywhere near one's home and isn't being a potential threat. However, the idea that squashing or killing bugs in general is somehow bad.... well, it's laughable to me.

 

[MintSM]

I'm normally against killing bugs, but considering that there are more insects out there than people and how creepy they are, I usually swat them out of a combination of reflex and fear. I know, I'm probably a horrible person.

 

[jakeyjakey]

Of course it is, you sick and twisted monster! Why would you ruin a perfectly good pair of shoes like that?

If they're in your home then you should just do what I do and immediately get the vacuum cleaner and start whistling the Ghostbusters theme while you hoover them up.

Hah, those running shoes are already gunked up with mud from hundreds of miles of training. Another squashed bug ground into the treads won't matter. Wouldn't be close to being the only one.

Also, vacuuming is kind of anticlimactic.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

I'll squash bugs if they're bothering me, never thought or felt sad about their little bug families either. There's lots of snails in the garden too, and I literally kick them out. I guess they can take it, because I painted one one day and the next day there he was in the garden again. I'm worse than [historical figure], I suppose.

 

[seris]

if they are inside where i live, they dont deserve to live. they can stay outside where they belong. having bugs in your house is disgusting, nobody wants an infestation of spiders in their house, let alone anything worse like cockroaches.

 

[DugMachine]

The only bugs that I will actively try and kill if I see them are roaches, specifically the big flying ones because I have a huge phobia of them and moths if they're especially large because I also have a phobia of them.

Most other bugs I'm okay with as long as they aren't touching me or in an inconvenient place. I actually love spiders and find them very interesting so I let them live as long as they aren't in the way, even if it's a dangerous one. I often have to kill bees/wasps though because they love to set up nests in a bush right next to my water hose holder and I don't want to get stung.

I really don't see the problem though.. they're just bugs. There are millions of them and as far as we know they aren't sentient or even feel pain.

 

[omega 616]

Is that sadism? I see it as not much different than kicking a rock -- which there is also no point in doing.

But insects are alive. Rocks aren't. Killing "because I'm bored" is sadistic and more than a little childish, what can I tell you. You think killing bugs is natural, I think unless they pose some sort of threat to you it only shows a lack of basic empathy towards other living things. Like the replicants in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

So you really think that stepping on a spider that's already crawling by my feet is a sadistic act? Getting instantly crushed doesn't seem so bad, does it?

Yes they are alive, but in the end they're just bugs -- little more than robots. Would you consider it to be sadistic to step on tiny robots zooming around on the floor? 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. Is any significant harm done, considering how fast they reproduce?

So, it's a matter of scale? 7+ billion people alive today, so the holocaust wasn't anything really. On the other had, if something 2000X bigger than you came along, are you ok with it stomping on you?

Look, I am no "do no harm to animals" type, I'll hoover a spider, spray a wasp and poison ants if they are getting into my personal space ... I'm totally ok with eating a bacon sammich or chomping down on a steak but "if I saw an ant hill, I'd stomp on it just to see chaos" is like Cloverfield scaled down ... it's just a little messed up.

And remember, the urge to sing "the lion sleeps tonight" is just a whim away, a whim away, a whim away ...

(trying to lighten the mood)

 

[deathzero021]

I never kill insects unless they invade my home, in which case, i'm protecting my territory. Even than, many times I'll just grab the little thing and put it outside. (usually for insects and animals that I know only accidentally found their way in - but i don't treat invaders like roaches the same way, they get the boot)

That being said, I do think it's wrong. It's murder no matter the size of the life. I'm actually OK with killing to survive, such as farming and hunting for food, but I don't believe in killing for sport or for pleasure, or for convenience. My opinion on this can be summarized as only accepting it when it's necessary and never doing it when it can be avoided. Life eats life, that much is natural fact but there is no reason to torture or kill for sport. that is disgusting and I think it's below humans.

 

[happyninja42]

I don't go out of my way to kill bugs if I don't have to. But I also don't have any problems with killing them if they're in my house and I don't want them there, or I feel they are a problem/danger. I don't take any enjoyment from it, I just do it quickly and be done with it.

Life kills life pretty much anywhere in the world/universe. That's just the reality of it. I don't feel like a monster because I killed something, especially when I know there are so freaking many bugs on this planet as to be insane. It's not like I'm going to endanger a species by squishing the wolf spider in my bathroom. That being said, I don't like killing things, and try to avoid doing it whenever possible. But I don't have a 100% no kill policy, it's a case by case basis.

 

[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.

 

[Aleenik]

Unless the bug is harming me in some way, then yes, I feel it is 100% wrong. I am a vegetarian for ethical reasons, so I try to avoid causing as much harm to animals as I possibly can. But make no mistake, if I were to have an infestation of some sort, they would all be as good as dead.

 

[Aleenik]

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.

 

[babinro]

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