Quote:
Originally Posted by borisg  By your argument, the civilizations that have practiced cannabalism in the past were justified in killing and eating human beings as long as the humans they killed for food we're slaughtered humanely? Is this correct? |
No.
First of all, your statement doesn't make any sense. Those indiginous peoples who ate human flesh normally did so, not as a form of sustenance, but rather as a form of worship. Eating a deceased relative - or more specifically certain parts of that relative - ensured that their essence would remain active and that their soul would remain tied to the community in order to serve the People. In the alternative, an enemy may be eaten in order to imbibe that enemy's power and make it your own. Anyone throughout history who consumed human flesh for sustenance was in a desparate strait and their own survival likely depended on it.
Secondly, "justified" is a subjective term and is predicated on a set of morals and values that not all cultures - let alone individuals - share. To say that any act is "justified" has to assume congruent belief systems.