why are we "shocked and appalled" at a person causing another person pain, yet we are not "shocked and appalled" at nature (such as tornadoes and hurricanes) causing people pain?
in both outcomes, someone is in pain...
why are we "shocked and appalled" at a person causing another person pain, yet we are not "shocked and appalled" at nature (such as tornadoes and hurricanes) causing people pain?
in both outcomes, someone is in pain...
Really?
A person causing another person harm is a premeditated act and makes a statement and we often feel sympathy towards the victim.
A tornado is... air that does what air does.
The real question is probably.. don't you have sympathy for the victims of a tornado?
I think we're shocked and appalled by malice and intent more than by the actual injury. The injury makes us sympathetic.
A tornado or a hurricane is something that occurs without malice.
'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
And there they lay I damn me eyes
All lookouts clapped on Paradise
All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
Last edited by Spriggan; 2012-03-07 at 03:38 PM.
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." - Aristotle
Because we're limited by our lack of understanding of the world. You can't feel emotions over something that you have no comprehension about... you can speculate, yes, but no more. If we ever discover that tornadoes do think, and enjoy attacking people who happen to live in tornado areas, than that would change
and we know perfectly well what causes a person to inflict pain on another person as well...yet we apply intent to the person but not to the tornado, why when we can hear neither of their thoughts?
---------- Post added 2012-03-07 at 09:39 AM ----------
that does not show intent - only cause
Because people have the free will to choose not to cause other people pain, where as nature is simply running its course and we're in the way?
Not that people aren't shocked and appalled at natural disasters.
Yes, we do, actually. What are you talking about? Some reasons would be greed, retribution, dominance, fight for resources of some nature, and just generally being a dickbag.
Intent implies intelligence. Intelligence requires a functional brain. A tornado doesn't have intent since it's caused by changes in air pressure. An earthquake doesn't have intent because its caused by the different pieces of the earth's mantle rubbing against each other.
.. I'm not sure if you're serious or just trolling us...
Because they're not alive, they're all a gathering of certain events which lead to something on a grander scale. We as humans, then give a name to this "something".
Natural events cannot have malice because they're not alive and thus cannot think, they just happen.
Malice from people is easy: we use reason. In your general situation where someone punches someone else in the face, it is logical to assume that the puncher is not doing this to help that person, he is doing it to hurt him/her. That is what we call malice.
Because tornados have no thoughts and therefore cannot have malice. They're created by masses of air moving in specific ways. If you're asking whether or not tornados can have malice or intent, you're really asking if tornados are conscious or not, to which I can emphatically respond NO they're not.
'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
Or a yawing hole in a battered head
And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
And there they lay I damn me eyes
All lookouts clapped on Paradise
All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!