Vegetarians and Religion

first please don't take this the wrong way, i'm not attacking ANYONES beliefs nor am i preaching so please don't attack mine

you can probabaly tell without it being said that i'm a Born-Again-Christian,
thing i was wondering is why is there such a lack of christians who are vegetarians?
there just seems to be like NONE around anywhere
it's weird but most other christians i know seem to be steak and potatos kind of people
i've always felt that being a vegetarian was the right christian thing to do since it shows respect for God's creation by not destroying his non-human children
and especially since a vegetarian society was God's highest ideal in Genesis
just curious what does everyone else think?

 

This'll probably come out badly because I'm not big fan of Christianity, but I do mean well.

Just a few of my theories.....

God gave man dominion over animals. He apparently meant 'you're smarter, so you should take care of them' but over the years it got twisted into 'you're smarter, so you can do what you like to them'

I think that at some point God said that people could eat meat in desperate times (after the flood, with Noah et all?) so people got a taste for meat and decided it didn't really matter.

Then there were animal sacrifices, waste not want not.

Of course the Bible is very ambigeous, it can be interpreted anyway you wish. So if people want to eat meat they'll fine something to back it up.

If people want to eat meat they will and happily turn a bild eye to anything negative about it. This holds true within any belief system.

TTFN
Sage

 

jesusdude, i agree with you completely on this.

i, myself, am not a christian. but, i do agree with you on this. christians always talk of love for God's creatures, yet they eat them regardless of the horrible, horrible conditions they're raised in. doesn't make sense.

 

OK J.D please please lets not start an agruement here after ive given you my point of view!

As a pagan I believe that all life forms including rocks and plants are all an aspect of the divine and should be repected as such.
although not all pagans are veggie most would believe that they should be slaughtered in a humane way.
nearly all the born agains ive meet believe that once animals are dead they're just dead as they can't accept or not accept christ in their life from their point of view, in that case it doesn't make any difference whether they're eaten or not.
again I would add i'm not stating this is the born again point of view per say just the point of vie wof most of the born agains ive met

blessings

S

 

don't worry i'm not going to start an argument, just because we have diffrent religions doesn't mean we can't have a civil peacefull discussion
i know some believers DO say that it doesn't matter about animals but personally i don't agree with that,
i mean it does say after all when describing heaven that The Lion shall lay down with the lamb
i believe animals have souls just like we do and will be in heaven, the thing about animals not being in heaven because they couldent accept christ is dumb too because it does say that basically if your not smart enough/mature enough to make a decision you will automatically go to heaven (this applys to children too young to make decisions for themselves and to animals as well)
i also agree meat was allowed on ONLY a few very rare instances, and those were life-or-death situations (like noah on the ark when they ran out of food)
i know that there are a LOT of hypocrits and people just looking do justify what they want to do who claim to be born again christians and honistly that's what gives us real born again christians a bad name which we really don't deserve, its just a bunch of bad apples that seem to get attention,just so you know thats not how the rest of us act
but the meat thing i still don't get, guess i'm never going to figure it out....
by the way i went vegetarian after i became a christian because i felt the spirit urging me to

 

i'm a christian too and always find myself in a pickle when arguing my point

Does anybody know any bible quotes then that support or at least discuss in some way a vegetarian lifestyle??

 

http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=99733#post99733

^^ I like that in the orginal genesis, animals are given same word as humans for soul.

I find ppl from different religons to be much the same when it comes to justifying killing animals. I know ppl who would call themselves spiritualists, they beleive in life after and that this can be proved with mediumship etc this is what i call myself i guess, and most of them who i have met are not veg*n. it amazes me and makes me so angry, i think they of all people (eg mediums) should be able to know animals have spirit and from that conclude eating meat when its not a matter of survival is wrong. But nope, most of these ppl i know just dont care about animals enough to stop stuffing their faces with the blood and corpses.

Its amazing to me. Some of these people have tried to tell me that animals dont have a soul, but have a group soul, because they are lower than humankind....of course. Others say to me that the 'animals agreed with God to give their bodies for humans to eat, so its ok to eat them. Same basic theme with all of them, is jsut dressed up with different words. its very sickening imo. I want to yell at them when they pray for peace and healing! they pray for these things, yet they claim it is moral to torture and kill for their tastebuds.

 

"Although not all pagans are veggie most would believe that they should be slaughtered in a humane way."

If i ask any meateater on the street, chances are they will tell me that animals should be killed in a humane way, but its not like they actually care enough to do anything about it. imo

yeah i dont want to start an argument either, i think i am on the wrong track so sorry if i am. i dont think wanting animals to be killed humanely is a non mainstream view, most religons including christians say the same thing all the time imo, its their get out of jail free card, to make their animal eating 'ok'.

 

Most pagans see all life has sacred, of course our ancestors hunted meat to live, but a lot of us see that as a sacred hunt, the animal gives its life in order for the human to continue to have theirs, in the sacred hunt there where no rules and the human could have easily have died too.
pagans see death as just the beginning of another journey so for a lot of us providing the animal is killed humanly its ok to eat meat.
I'm not sure whether the averge meat eater does care about humane animal killing, certainly I know people that do not have a religion and are happy to carry on eating meat and don't care where its come from.
Now I can't imagine my meat eating pagan friends popping into KFC or mac donalds as they know whats involued in the process of getting the meat on the plate.

I think if I could hunt and slaughter the meat myself I would be more inclined to eat it and when people argue that 'humans are born to eat meat' this may be true, but when Human kind was first eating meat it wasn't based on a whole corrupt indestry as it is now.

S

 

I remember starting a thread like this quite a while back, not specifically with Christians in mind but with people who considered themselves 'spiritual'.

There are several reasons that I don't eat meat but the ultimate one has always been the unwillingness to partake of flesh. I can survive without the need for another life to be taken on my behalf therefore I'm not going to inflict death because I desire meat. I feel that all life is sacred and it amazes me as so many of you have said, that others who view life as sacred interpret that as all human life. How can you look into the eyes of a cow and not see something beautiful and living?

I've known people from lots of different faiths that eat meat, and that includes Buddhists, Christians, Jews, 'Pagans' etc and I know quite a few 'pagans' who happily eat at McDonalds. It's pick n choose spirituality. If people really cared so much about the humane slaughter of animals then they'd either be strictly organic & free range (with a serious amount of research) or they wouldn't eat meat at all. People can talk about the cruelties of the meat industries all they like, but until they stop buying into it, it is just talk.

 

thats what i ALWAYS SAY! we had an equal chance of dying!!!!!!

i do believe that all life is sacred, my dad really gets mad when i refuse to fish with him, even hold the reel, i dont wanna be a part of it. when you say if people really cared so much about the humane slaughter of animals then they'd either be strictly organic and free range (organic is for plants) or they wouldn't eat meat at all.. i don't eat meat at all or any dairy and i try to buy as much organic produce as possible

 

I am also a christian. There is one passage which I think may go in some way to discuss a vegetarian lifestyle

Matt

PS Reading through the scripture again I must point out this passage is saying you can eat what you like. But if you are a vegetarian because of personal choice nobody should tell you otherwise. Conversly if you are out with an avid meat eater you should not pass judgement on to them and tell them what they are eating is wrong. Vegetarianism and Christiananity are two very seperate issues. Both of them I come to of my own free will. Vegetarianism can be linked to my Christianity in a way as I believe eating meat is a form of gluttony. When you think that 2/3 of the world are suffering because the remaining 1/3 are hogging everything you can see how you are "causing your brother to fall" by eating meat. Producing meat requires more land space than to produce vegetables.

 

Here's some quotes from different religions JesusDude (isn't your name blasphamy btw? )

 

(isn't your name blasphamy btw? )

no, it's not blasphamy. it's blasphamy to say that you are Jesus and that's not what the name is saying, most people in real life call me The Dude. i am a follower of Jesus, therefore TheJesusDude
Hope that clears that up.......

 

Great thread. I especially liked the link to the post of Genesis with the info on
Nephesh Chayah. That is one thing that just SUCKS, a crappy translation. People wrote what "seemed right" but isn't actually accurate. Anyone know of an ACCURATE translation of the bible?
Back on the subject though... check out http://www.jesusveg.com/index2.html
They have lots of info and may provide some answers when a meat eating Christian hassles a veg. A pastor friend of mine talks about how God wants us to have abundance. And that always leads to talk of steak. I never can get how one creature dieing a cruel death could be the starting point of a big ol' party for another creature.
peace
barefootnikki

 

Romans 14 === Excellent!

 

I believe there are some verses in Isaiah that could be considered pro veggie. The lion laying down with the lamb and such.
Good to know 14 years of religious education wasn't totally wasted

TTFN
Sage

 

Barefoot Surfer---Your response made as much sense as anything I've seen on the subject. Thanks.

 

Thanks.

I was reading a bit in the guardian today. It was a story about the archbishop of cantabury saying that the way we are living at the moment is a sin. It brought me back to the passage in Romans 14. You can read the article at http://tinyurl.com/27vcb

Matt