Myth #30: “But eating meat allowed our brains to evolve.”
While the sociological & anthropological communities are not in agreement on this theory (many social scientists believe that it was actually the complex multi-tasking and high-level community interaction mandated by plant-based food gathering that led to the development of our neocortex*), it is important to remember that we are talking about EVOLUTION here. Namely, that if our primitive meat-eating ways did indeed allow our brains to evolve to their current state – and if meat-eating did indeed allow us to become not only no longer dependent on meat for our survival, but to feel compassion for our animal cousins, then why would we abandon that hard-won advancement by continuing to harm ourselves & others — and thereby stunt our further evolution — by eating meat?
In other words, if evolution is a good thing, then why on Earth would we choose to stop evolving by continuing to eat animals? If evolution is a good thing, allowing us to “evolve” into hunters during times of starvation & ignorance, then why would we deny that same engine of development that is calling for us to abandon hunting (and all other forms of animal exploitation) and become stewards of our planet’s citizens instead? If evolution is a good thing, then why do non-vegans abandon it by perpetuating a diet that makes them far more sickly and noticeably less intelligent? If evolution is a good thing, then why do non-vegans discard the most advanced & potent benefits thereof – namely, reason & justice & morality & compassion?
My Friends, evolution only becomes a positive when it is applied positively … so if meat-eating did indeed cause the evolution of the human brain, and if that evolution is truly a good thing, then we should honor that gift by ensuring our continued evolution … by now choosing to NOT EAT ANIMALS!
None of us live in prehistoric Africa anymore – and no one is currently suffering through an Ice Age. As such, none of us need to eat meat or consume animal secretions to live long (actually longer) and healthy (actually healthier) lives. Thus, since it is not necessary for us to cause others suffering for our survival, it is immoral – and indeed, borderline despicable — to continue to choose to do so.
We have come a long way as a species, my Friends — far enough that most of us no longer support or engage in slavery, rape, incest, wrongful imprisonment, torture, bigotry, injustice or cruelty in our relations with other humans … As such, it is high time we started “acting our age” — by extending the same basic decency to all other sentient animals as well.
Current status of this Myth: Cleansed
Justification it provides for eating animals: NONE
(*A comprehensive study by lead researcher A. Navarrette — published in Nature magazine in November of 2011 — soundly rejected the “meat as human brain developer” theory, concluding after rigorous examination & testing that “human encephalization [i.e. brain development] was made possible by a combination of factors”; including the stabilization of food sources, a redirection of caloric energy via the use of a more efficient two-legged upright form of locomotion, as well as shifts in the overall human dynamics related to growth and reproduction” … In addition, the theory that we have only evolved as a species via hunting, aggression and violence is an outmoded one at best. Actually, it is far more likely that we were able to survive and thrive as a species because we were the hunted, not the hunters. Consider the wisdom of Robert Sussman, PhD: “Our intelligence, cooperation and many other features we possess as modern humans developed from our attempts to out-smart predators … [The idea of humans as hunters] developed from a basic Judeo-Christian ideology of man being inherently evil, aggressive and a natural killer. In fact, when you actually examine the fossil and living non-human primate evidence, that is simply not the case.” … Finally, considering the fact that the human brain’s neurons run on glucose – and not the protein & fat found in animal flesh & animal secretions – consider the words of Peter Ungar, professor & chair of anthropology at the University of Arkansas: “The argument is that meat eating provided the calories needed to power other parts of the body, freeing available carbohydrates to focus on the brain… Even in that case, it’s the carbs eaten before, with and after the meat that powered the brain, not the meat itself.”)
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