Vegetarianism

[FourthBase]

Just wondering what everyone's deal is regarding vegetarianism. If you eat meat, please explain why you think it's morally justified to eat animals.<br><br>IMO, it's a moral abomination on the order of slavery and genocide, combined with the ghoulishness of cannibalism. Whereas meat-eating may have been necessary to survive once upon a time, the advent of vitamins and supplements and the existence of thriving lifelong vegetarians render all arguments of necessity moot. Today, humans eat meat for the sheer flavor and convenience.<br><br>Generations from now, meat-eating by today's humans will be universally seen as a crime against nature. But not before a turbulent moral epiphany ripples like a shockwave across the world. I assume this will happen around the same time humans begin to truly decipher animal communication and consciousness. <p></p><i></i>

[Floyd Smoots]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Today, humans eat meat for the sheer flavor and convenience.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :b --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/tongue.gif ALT=":b"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br> <p></p><i></i>

[FourthBase]

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[slimmouse]

<br> FWIW Im with you 4th.<br><br> I just need to cut out the fish, then im done. <p></p><i></i>

[Darklo]

I eay meat because I like it.<br><br>One day Ill get eaten by worms, and I expect they will enjoy that too. <p></p><i></i>

[slimmouse]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>One day Ill get eaten by worms, and I expect they will enjoy that too.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br> I daresay that wont bother me either.<br><br> I suppose its a question of the circumstances of my life previously, and the question of whether or not my slaughter was particularly neccesary <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>

[Floyd Smoots]

We could all get these nasty bacteria to stop gnawing on us right now! Who are these cheeky biotics anyway? Do they work for Big Pharma, or what?? Do they have a "hotline" to Uncle Donald Rumsfeld, or something??? <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :\ --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/ohwell.gif ALT=":\"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br><br>I mean, c'mon here, people!!! Why haven't we sent our All-Powerful, Military-Industrial-Complex after them? I believe they are far more dangerous than Iraqis or Iranis!<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START >D --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/grin.gif ALT=" >D"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br> <p></p><i></i>

[thumperton]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Just wondering what everyone's deal is regarding vegetarianism. If you eat meat, please explain why you think it's morally justified to eat animals.<br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.smiliesftw.com/!/redface.gif" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br>Genesis 1:26 <p></p><i></i>

[slimmouse]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <br><br> Who wrote that book ?<br><br> Same guy as the one who said "Thou shalt not kill ? "<br> <br> Or is that different ?<br><br> How many dumb caveats do we need to go into here.<br><br> Look within man ! <p></p><i></i>

[thumperton]

I believe the original word is 'murder'. <p></p><i></i>

[mother]

Ver interesting topic. Yes, the flavor and conveinience is great (in our country) I'm not so much concerned with the morality of meat-eating as to call it murder. But it makes sense on so many levels. I'll spare everyone the gross-out of colon health, but it seems likely that a lot of health issues could be avoided by vegetarianism. The slaughter industry is sckening(and I guess if I had to to keep my children alive I could bear killing the animal but blech) Many saints have been vegans, by the way. Abstaining and fasting from meat is helpful spiritually, in my opinion. I guess the hard part of it is the workload increase, because it can take a lot of time to make appealing meals for big families. But I could live on avocados, tomatos, salad, cheese and bread easily. But thumper, you are correct about the original word being murder. <p></p><i></i>

[Floyd Smoots]

In the original Hebrew text, the word is Murder, i.e., an unjustified "taking" of a human being's life without cause; not the "slaughter" of an animal, which, ever since the eviction notice was "stapled" to the Gates of Eden by a flaming sword, has actually been allowed, for sacrifice to God (and God alone), and for human consumption.<br><br>Why? Beause we had already lost the "innocence" of our race, and, bottom line, because God already knew we would quickly discover that: It tastes really really good!!! Stick with the fish, slim-bo, then...<br><br>Forget everything I just said about actually eating the meat of anything. I had forgotten that, with the exception of the so-called Third World, our meat supply is SO corrupted with growth-inducing-hormones, avian flu, mad cow disease, genetic-engineered-critters etc., that, even as a Christian, TODAY, I cannot in good conscience, advise any inhabitant of the "West" to eat any commercially-prepared meat.<br><br>Thank the Lord for beer!!!<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[marykmusic]

I don't eat animals, I'm too pure for that<br>I'm raising my "vibe" level-- as a matter of fact<br>Even the AMA grudgingly agrees with me<br>You shouldn't consume too much animal fat<br><br>But I'm not peprfect really-- I'm speaking to you freely<br><br>Chocolate is a vegetable and beer is too<br>Your doctor says you ought ter eat what's right for you<br>'Way deep down inside it's what you want to do<br>Yeah, chocolate is a vegetable, and beer-- is-- too!<br><br>You know that Agribusiness is just spoiling our food<br>But tell that to a farmer and he'll think you're rather rude<br>The chemicals they feed their hogs-- I won't give 'em to my dogs<br>I like my tofu marinated, scrambled, steamed, and stewed<br><br>But I'm not perfect, really-- I'm speaking to you freely<br><br>Chocolate is a vegetable and beer is too<br>Your mama says you're gonna eat what's good for you<br>'Way deep down inside it's what you want to do <br>'Cause chocolate is a vegetable and Beer-- Is-- Too!<br><br> (c)1988 MaryK Croft<br><br>If every fryer, those three- to four-pound chickens that you buy, that were butchered at 16 weeks-- were allowed to grow to adulthood, they would all get cancer. That's what commercial chicken feed and handling does.<br><br>The retired laying hens, burnt out at less than two years old, are generally what you find in chicken nuggets and soup. The have, by that age, little nodules (tumors) that are cooked into whatever it is that you're eating. Hens ought to live 10 to 12 years and lay eggs the whole time, not every day or in the wintertime-- but there are stumulating drugs given to maximize production... could that be what makes them cancerous?<br><br>Hot dogs and bologna? Stuff you probably wouldn't have touched in it's original shape.<br><br>Milk? Recombinant bovine growth hormone, massive antibiotics, cows that produce for two years and are then butchered. Here in Arizona, the most common breed of cattle butchered is Holsteiners. Those black-and-white dairy animals that should have a milk-producing life of fifteen years.<br><br>We have access to real farm eggs... milk is a bigger problem since moving away from the Jersey cow we'd bought "shares" of for access to raw milk.<br><br>Meat? Nope. We know too much about it.<br><br>We do eat fresh- and ocean-cought fish. As Steve Martin said, "I don't eat animals because I can't condone killing them. But-- I LOVE to kill fish." --MaryK <p></p><i></i>

[biaothanatoi]

Vegetarianism is just another form of "ethics as performance art" - big pious displays of eco-morality at the alter of a diffuse godhead ("gaia" ... "the future" ... "nature"). <br><br>Much easier and less difficult then dealing with all that that complicated, ambiguous and boring stuff like violence and poverty and inequality. And who cares about those poor people anyway? They probably deserve it, what with being uneducated and on crack and all. <br><br>Personally, I'm worried about the endangered parrots of Guatemala, whose habitat is being destroyed by filthy peasants who chop down forests and farm cattle to feed their equally filthy families. How dare they? <br><br>Don't they know that I might want to go to Guatemala to visit the parrots on that exciting eco-tourism package I've been eyeing off? The plane tickets alone will increase my environmental footprint fivefold, but I recycle and ride my bike to work on Thursdays, so it shouldn't make a big difference.<br><br>Yep, vegetarianism. Self-righteousness as a lifestyle choice. All the benefits of moral purity without any unnecessary effort. <p></p><i></i>

[BajaSur]

I have to agree with Mary, its all about what they inject and feed the animals.<br> Personally I havn't eaten beef in 7 years and have cut back dramaticlly on white meat.<br> My wife is a meat eater and we make changes that we both can agree on. Its been a challenge.<br> Its not easy finding chemical free meat in todays society. <p></p><i></i>