Quote Originally Posted by badassbob View Post
I honestly don't know. I understand why some people would feel guilty, but I just don't. To me it's just an animal. It doesn't seem to matter wether it becomes road kill, gets eaten by a fox, shot by me, or dies of old age. In the end it's going to die eventually, and it's not as though they can appreciate life in the same way humans do - it's just animal instincts. Eat, sleep, drink, look after their young, go find food, then sleep again.

It's not like there aren't people who don't feel guilty about killing humans either is it? I know plenty of people in the army who if anything are proud of their "kill count" in Iraq. And as I'll be joining the Royal Engineers as a combat engineer in a few months time, I may end up being one of them - although I doubt I would ever be proud of killing someone, but I can't see myself upset about killing someone who I don't know who was just about to kill me.
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That makes sense. I guess there is some kind of threshold involved. It is only at a certain level of perception of mind complexity of the animal that remorse can kick in. I have ZERO guilt over killing roaches, mosquitoes, and flies, although they have more mental experience than zero experience. Come to think of it, I don't really feel bad about killing mice.

There are some humans I wouldn't feel the least bit bad about killing. Lack of someone else's innocence is something that can make my conscience completely disappear in regard to that person. I would kill Bin Laden and actually enjoy it. If I went to war in Iraq, I wouldn't feel at all bad about killing insurgent terrorists. It would make me happy. I guess certain factors really go a long way.