Religion and Vegetarian

Question

Ok, lots of vegetarians or vegans think religion  is to blame for making people rebel against vegetarian  ways. Let me just point out  that both Muslims and Jews refrain  from consuming pork, eat more mindfully,  and even Christians have Daniel the eater of vegetables  as an example  of a strong Christian man, FURTHERMORE  in Romans, where meat is allowed  and food law is demolished, Paul still admonished Christians to eat or drink nothing  that makes your brother stumble.  Automatically greed and gluttony  are ruled out, and meat eating or all consumption of animal products  could be ruled  out in a society  or time where meat consumption  is cruel or sinful/unethical. 


God actually  wants me  to be  a  vegetarian.  I feel this strongly  that my Bible  communicates  humane treatment  of farm animals, that God loves animals,  frowns on cruelty towards them,  and seeks to protect His Creation. 

Christian stewardship is real, it's a real environmental  movement  that also cares for farming animals. I  am  part of that movement. 

Some Christians care for their Fathers creation. Understand  the grave responsibility of the stewardship of the earth, and have empathy  for other life forms.

Please do not automatically discount  us as enemies. The real Jesus was a rebel, a homeless man who  did God's will. Please do not think we are not on your  side. My God more than anything  inspired me  to protect His Creation,  I  have been  called since childhood  to love His animals, please do not fear all of us. I  know some "Christian" people  actually  are just American  right wing cultural, but some of  us actually  believe the Bible and in Christ.

Love to you all, and to all living,  conscious beings of the earth.

Thalassa4 · Answer

By  the  way,  I am happy  to post verses from  the  Bible  that support this....there are  tons of verses which protect Creation...I own a  Green Bible I am a Creationist Steward, I am here on earth to
To serve God. The only motivation I have is to nurture  or protect Creation.

Thalassa4 · Answer

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9yEjT_pIkhU

Thalassa4 · Answer

In fact if anyone  is  unhappy  to read the  book of Daniel as a vegetarian  or support  it as a modern song, the point in still trying  to  make here is real! Don't count out your  7th  Day Adventist, Johovah Witness, some of  us  believe God called us to save the  earth, God meant to  appoint  us, we are  here and we are real....ChristIan Stewards  and vegetarians, we were called  to  be preachers. I sometimes  wonder if this is  why some vegetArians seen inflamed by the holy spirit.  It is holy. You  are  doing  God's  will.

Robinwomb · Answer

I don't think religion is to blame for making people rebel against vegetarian ways.  One can be vegan or vegetarian and any religion.  

However, when I first went vegan I remember that friends and coworkers and some family were far more accepting of it and less defensive than people at my local church and religious family members.  I was shocked at how dismissive the religious community was and how much they used the bible to justify meat eating.  They would literally pick up the bible, find specific passages, and read them to me.  I had not even argued with them beforehand, simply mentioned that I went vegan for ethical reasons.  I have struggled with religion all my life and after this experience I turned away from the church on many levels.  I still struggle to reconcile with Christianity and it's teachings regarding animals.  I did join the Christian Vegetarian Association for some time to try to figure this all out but there are still some issues I have a hard time with.  I don't blame religion in general though.  I think humans manipulate religion to suit their desires and jusify their actions and that bothers me more than anything.

ahimsa32fa · Answer

There's a lot more to being vegan than what we eat.

I've read the Bible (and many other religious texts).  The Old Testament is full of hate, sexism, genocide and bigotry.  Last I looked it was still attached to the New Testament.

If you go to my website you will find a few of my essays posted there, including two you might find interesting..."From Alter Boy (almost) to Atheist" and "From Veal to Vegan".

And if we believe what we're told in the NT, Jesus made it clear that he did not come to challenge the OT, but to uphold the laws of the prophets.

I respect your views and expect the same in return.

Before you begin your attack on my views, let me say that among my favorite authors are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and others, as well as atheists.

anahidscv · Answer

ahimsa32fa - I completely agree with you.  Somehow after I became vegan, it slowly drew me away from God.  I had family members who also did the same thing, quoting me the bible that God allowed or gave permission to eat animals.  What kind of God allows for sacrifice of his innocent animals? And also, I was shocked how cruel, jealous and hateful God was in the old testament.

Overunderit · Answer

When I first started practicing Buddhism, almost 10 years ago, I was a meat eater. I didn't think about the "suffering" correlation at first, but eventually, I saw it plain as day. Buddhisms main tenet is compassion for all beings, so how can one have compassion for an animal that has been slaughtered for meat, or taken away from their mother so we can drink their milk? That is not compassion. Today, I still see a good amount of Buddhists who eat meat or consume dairy, it's so hypocritical I cannot stand it. But, refusing to be the preachy type, I sit by and wait for the laws of karma to take course. I know throughout my life, and even today, I am dealing with the karmic consequences of my actions, but from here on out I can change that by making the right decisions and not harming animals by consuming them.

ahimsa32fa · Answer

"No matter what religion you profess, if you consciously contribute to the suffering of others, if you cannot say with sincerity 'I love all beings', your religion has failed you."

- from one of my books.

Not eating dead animals is not enough.  If you support cruelty to cows and their calves by eating dairy products, isn't that a bit inconsistent?

The Bible is chock full of inconsistencies and contradictions.  For every hint about not eating meat, there are passages that say the opposite.

In Joshua, God instructs his servant to go forth and destroy whole cities, killing all the non-believers, including their animals. (Let's not forget that humans are animals, too.)  And the Bible clearly condones using animals for slave labor.

Yes, there are some beautiful passages in the Bible, but they are more than counter-balanced by instructions to kill for a variety of "sins" and simply being a heretic.  They give strong evidence that the Bible was not written by any god, but by quite a number of authors with widely different views on life, death and morals.

Personally, I don't need religion or scripture to support my position of being anti-war, ant-racism, anti-sexism and anti-speciesism...

Thalassa4 · Answer

I just wanted to throw this out there, I was on a tangent haha...but my point still stands that veganism or vegetarian diet can be interpreted as the original holy state in the Garden of Eden, Daniel was an Old Testament character,  and Paul talks about the ethics of diet in the New Testament. ..I think the way people try to use the Bible to enforce meat eating is the same as people in the 19th century trying to use the Bible to uphold the institution of slavery just because slavery existed in the Bible. ..the Bible is grossly misinterpreted by fundie literalists and atheists alike, they don't get that many passages in the Bible are DESCRIPTIVE, NOT PRESCRIPTIVE ...just because genocide, sexism, slavery or meat eating exist in descriptive passages of the Bible does not mean it's prescription for how one should behave.

Thalassa4 · Answer

PETA and their interpretation of vegan Bible quotes...it's not far fetched either,  it's basically what 7th Day Adventists believe. .it appears to be the basis for fasting for God in Catholicism ...once my eyes were opened to these things I became just as disgusted that people would use Christianity to defend animal cruelty as they once did with slavery

www.peta.org/living/other/vegan-bible-quotes/

Thalassa4 · Answer

anahidscv...I want to specifically address what you are saying. ..the Old Testament God did not allow meat consumption until after the great Flood, and the purpose of animal sacrifice was to teach the people to value their animals MORE, not less. ..though that might be difficult for a 21st Century vegan to understand, by sacrificing an animal they otherwise would have eaten, these early tribes were confronted with scarcity and the value of life 

In the Christian Bible,  history seems to be a progression of people falling from perfection and God slowly trying to lead then back to it...secular humanists hate this because they believe people are good...people aren't good, they are naturally selfish and any observation of a two year old child illustrates this abundantly. ..the Bible depicts God as kind of an angry frustrated parent who became more understanding with human frailty over time

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