\u201cYodelay Cuckoo: The Swiss Go Crazy\u2013Literally\u2013Over \u201cDignity\u201d\u201d<\/a> by Michael Cook.\u00a0 See, with a title like that, you need to read the article.\u00a0 Here\u2019s an excerpt from the amusing and enlightening piece:<\/p>\n\u201cTheir penchant for yodeling notwithstanding, the Swiss must be counted among the most dignified people on the planet. Now their parliament has decreed that Swiss goldfish, too, must be treated with dignity. And not because they are gold, but because they are fish. Beginning in September, a new law will set rigorous standards for the treatment of all \u201csocial animals.\u201d Swiss aquariums must have an opaque side to allow the fish to live in a natural cycle of day and night. It will also be an offense to keep a lone goldfish, guinea pig, or budgerigar. Or one rhinoceros, apparently, because the law also covers pet rhinoceroses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another shocking report:<\/p>\n
\u201c[Some believe] that \u201cdecapitation of wild flowers at the roadside without rational reason\u201d is essentially a crime. In fact, the committee was unanimous in its agreement that any \u201carbitrary harm caused to plants [is] morally impermissible.\u201d Genetic modification of plants would be permitted\u2014but only if their \u201cindependence,\u201d including their reproductive ability, is ensured. This could mean that producing sterile roses or seedless fruit will be an offense under Swiss law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dignity is losing all semblance of coherence, according to Cook:<\/p>\n
\u201c[T]here seems to be no bottom to the ever-deepening spiral of non-human dignity. Somewhere above spiders and slugs, perhaps. But the Swiss experience suggests otherwise. Once the DNA of human dignity has been tampered with, it keeps expanding by some crazy logic, unfettered by common sense, until it includes plants and even \u201cother organisms.\u201d Now it threatens to turn treading on wildflowers into a crime. And it might not stop there. What constitutes respect for the dignity of bacteria and viruses must send shivers through the Swiss pharmaceutical industry. The Swiss need to recover the conviction that human beings deserve a special status because they are unique in the universe, the only beings with reason and free will.\u201d<\/p>\n
So there you have it.\u00a0 Ladies and gentlemen, you need a \u201crational reason\u201d for plucking or \u201ccrushing\u201d a flower in Switzerland.\u00a0\u00a0 Also, you need at least two goldfish in your tank; one alone threatens the goldfish, a \u201csocial animal\u201d, with paranoia.\u00a0 That, after all, is why goldfish swim in such unpredictable patterns, their eyes bugging out, mouths open.\u00a0 It\u2019s because they\u2019re alone, desperately alone, racked by angst, devastated by loneliness, unable to do anything but swim, and swim, and sometimes eat little flakes of fish food that smell a lot like old pepper.<\/p>\n
All jesting aside, there are serious theological issues in play here.\u00a0 The Swiss have lost all sense of the imago dei <\/em>and thus are extending rights due humans to all kinds of creatures, including socially depressed rhinos.\u00a0 This sounds crazy, and it is, but it is also a sure sign that the Swiss have lost the gospel.\u00a0 We should read stories like this and laugh, yes, but we also should pray that people will give up their lives in their home country and go to Switzerland to witness about God and the truth of His world (start with Genesis 1 and Romans 1 on the imago dei<\/em>).\u00a0 We also should hope that the Swiss church will faithfully proclaim the scriptural foundation for human dignity, namely, the fact that humanity is the creation of God and thus invested with certain unique abilities and features that set it apart from plants, animals, and all else.<\/p>\nSo there you have it.\u00a0 Pray for Switzerland, teach the image of God in your churches and homes, and sprinkle fish food liberally.\u00a0 That\u2019s all the goldfish have, because they can\u2019t read Salvo magazine like you and I can<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m making it my mission to publicize a very good though little-known conservative magazine: Salvo.\u00a0 I\u2019ve mentioned it on this blog before.\u00a0 There\u2019s a new issue up that\u2019s well worth reading.\u00a0 Check the site out, and give it a bookmark or a notice on your blog in order to spread word of this punchy thought-mag. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[498,1399,13169,13329,13259,2768,3122],"class_list":["post-954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animal-rights","tag-godlfish","tag-human-dignity","tag-image-of-god","tag-salvo-magazine","tag-switzerland","tag-yodelay-cuckoo"],"yoast_head":"\n
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