How can Christians justify eating meat?

[razeontherock]

Yeah you're right they would get a special diet plan.
Apparently certain legumes have higher amounts of protein per serving, and I thought all food had carbs or am I wrong?

Yes, beans are higher in protein than most other plants. The real trick to a healthy veggie diet is a wide enough array of amino acids, to get the full complement. This exists in basically any meat, and can in fact be done through veggies; it just takes careful planning.

The healthiest I've ever been is from eating almost no food, but nourishing my body via supplements high in protein, engineered nutrition in terms of other macro-nutrients (fat and carbs) and lots of nutritional supplements to get the micro-nutrients. (Vitamins, minerals, and etc) Plants are still fiber, regardless of how much processing has stripped it's nutrition away.

Lots of body builders do very well on mainly chicken breasts and veggies.

No, not all food has carbs; meat being the exception. For me personally, the biggest problem animal product is milk, and I'm not lactose intolerant. Milk has TONS of carbs, as well as fat, and comparatively little protein.

Have you ever looked into the "paleo" diet? Lots has been discovered about digestion

 

[razeontherock]

* What kind of animals would be for food?
Would you kill a kitten for food or would you kill a calf for food? Why?

Yick! But full grown? I don't know where you live, but here jokes about oriental restaurants serving cat are commonplace. And not entirely unfounded, but that's mostly due to extreme poverty, during time of war, in like Viet Nam

 

[eckhart]

Yick! But full grown? I don't know where you live, but here jokes about oriental restaurants serving cat are commonplace. And not entirely unfounded, but that's mostly due to extreme poverty, during time of war, in like Viet Nam

Yes I've heard those jokes about cats and dogs.
Why Im asking is that it has always fascinated me that there is a difference in animals, what stops people from using pets an companion animals for food?
Except in extreme conditions as you mentioned

 

[razeontherock]

A different angle: my Brother's younger son, part American Indian and quite athletic, asked about the soul at about the age of 5. Upon discovery that animals are different in this regard, he concluded that that's why it's ok to eat animals, and fish.

 

[eckhart]

A different angle: my Brother's younger son, part American Indian and quite athletic, asked about the soul at about the age of 5. Upon discovery that animals are different in this regard, he concluded that that's why it's ok to eat animals, and fish.

I don't disagree with this argument. You could justify it but it would be hard to prove the soul, its very metaphysical.
If the animal doesnt have the soul it still has a nervous system and pain, that is what I disagree with

 

[americanvet]

I've never eat cat or dog. But told my wife when we go to Asia I am ordering some.

 

[Halossellar]

(Keep in mind I am a Christian)
I'm a vegan and became vegetarian when was eleven. I read "Animal Liberation" at twelve and decided that there is no reason for eating meat. Eating meat/animal products yields little advantage (nutrionally) for the body, damages the environment and inflicts suffering on the animals involved.
I find no grounds for which I can justify eating it. We live under the New Testament and have methods of farming that allow fruit and vegetables all year round.

Christmas for the cows - New Orleans vegan | Examiner.com

Science shows that eating meat leads to larger brains. Perhaps your eating habits are the very reason you didn't know this.

 

[americanvet]

In the article you posted I made it to "if we truly loved cows". Decided it meant the way I love people and in that sense the answer is a resounding "no I don't love cows".

 

[Jane_the_Bane]

Why is there nothing wrong with killing animals for food?

Well, I could make an argument-from-nature here, if I didn't believe that it's fallacious to equate an "is" with an "ought".

Physiologically speaking, it's undeniably true that our species is adapted to eating meat, and there are some compelling arguments to support the notion that our brains (and, by extension, our intellects) would not have grown to such prestigious size if our ancestors hadn't had access to animal protein.
Our upright gait and our social structures made us the perfect pack hunters, hounding potential prey over extended periods until it dropped from exhaustion.

But as I said before: this merely describes an "is", not an "ought", and although sustaining our health on a herbivore's diet is a lot more difficult than doing the same with a litle meat intake, it's certainly possible in these overabundant times.

So - how can I defend eating (and, by extension, killing) animals on a primarily ethical basis?
Well, I'd say that killing in and of itself is not ethically problematic. A fox plundering a nest, a lion snapping a gazelle's neck, even an orca whale drowning a young whale: none of these are morally questionable actions, because life has a way of sustaining itself by absorbing other life. More than that, the cycle of eat-and-be-eaten is of fundamental importance to the sustaining of viable ecosystems. If predators disappear, the resulting population spike in the prey turns out to be disastrous for everyone involved - including the species that first seemed to profit from the disappearance of their stalkers.

In short, being a peak predator and thus eating other animal species is not only ethically unproblematic, it might actually be commendable - at least under ideal circumstances.

Right now, our species has grown to such prodigious size that our very existence endangers the diversity of life and the health of the ecosphere as a whole. But that's true regardless of whether we eat (small quantities of) meat or not. Agrarian monocultures are almost as disastrous as factory farms.

 

[eckhart]

^ I like this answer it is justified very well. you really made me think about it

 

[Eudaimonist]

I am at one with my omnivore nature. While I don't go full Paleo (I like dairy products), I eat a low carb high fat diet. This involves eating meat and fish, and plenty of vegetables. I do this for health and as a lifestyle choice.

I personally find that the meat is good for my mood. Only a year ago, I was almost a vegetarian, making an exception for some fish in my diet. With the introduction of meat in my diet, I not only enjoy the meal more, but I feel better more often. I doubt that I would get that with a vegetarian diet. This is not a complete ethical justification for meat eating, but it is a reason for my preference for a diet that involves meat.

I'm not a Christian, but I don't see any convincing moral principle that we shouldn't eat meat. We don't seem to exist in an ethical relation with other animal species that we are obligated not to eat them. The only exception I can think of might be dogs and cats, and specifically because they are not only excellent pets, but because we may even have co-evolved with them in such a way that they naturally serve that function, unlike cows, sheep, and the like, which have been selected to be food animals. Animal rights (that is, pet rights) exist in a kind of penumbra of human rights. Our obligation not to treat dogs and cats in certain ways is actually something we owe it to ourselves, and perhaps other human beings, not to do.

I am sensitive to is-ought issues, so I'm not saying that discerning the ethical relations with have with others is as simple as noting what "is". I don't believe that the is-ought divide is unbridgable, but a good deal of argumentation is needed to cross that divide. So, I look to what is required for human beings to flourish, and our ethical obligations are a reflection of this. Perhaps we are obligated to show some respect for dogs and cats in virtue of the role they play in human flourishing, but I don't see how to extend that to cows, for instance.

But I will agree that, for our own sakes, we should try to treat food animals at least reasonably well. We owe it to ourselves not to cultivative cruelty in our own psyches.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[TheyCallMeDave]

(Keep in mind I am a Christian)
I'm a vegan and became vegetarian when was eleven. I read "Animal Liberation" at twelve and decided that there is no reason for eating meat. Eating meat/animal products yields little advantage (nutrionally) for the body, damages the environment and inflicts suffering on the animals involved.
I find no grounds for which I can justify eating it. We live under the New Testament and have methods of farming that allow fruit and vegetables all year round.

Christmas for the cows - New Orleans vegan | Examiner.com

The answer to your original question is : Because Jesus himself said that 'its not important what goes into our mouths (food) , but what comes out of our mouths' . Further, we are no longer under the Dietary Laws of the Old Testament and we have a tremendous liberty as found in our Freedom of Christ , for daily living -- this includes decisions about what we eat, what we wear, where we live, what activities we desire .... all within boundaries of morality and ethics .

While i eat red meat perhaps two to three times per year , i do regularly partake in poultry and alot of fish including tons of salad, veggies, and high fibre products like granola bars and Wheat cereals. While we are free to eat what we like not, we need also maintain good common sense regarding eating foods that are potentially harmful to us ...such as going overboard on red meat , high fat foods, and the like. Our Bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit so we should take care of them applying sense, wisdom, for proper choices.

So, i hope that gives you a balanced view which is biblical . Another important teaching from the Bible is that God has given Man dominion over the earth and the animal kingdom ; that would include deciding on what animals to kill for our own survival so we can be sustained in giving God his rightful praise, glory , and worship.

David.

 

[ebia]

There's a fatal flaw in this reasoning: the larger brain was required BEFORE the successful hunt.

In fact the really big step in our development that set us obviously apart was learning to farm. Lots of animals successfully hunt in teams.

 

[ebia]

But that's true regardless of whether we eat (small quantities of) meat or not..

Quoted to emphasise small.

 

[Steve Petersen]

If God didn't intend for humans to eat meat, why did He give us four canine teeth?

 

[ebia]

If God didn't intend for humans to eat meat, why did He give us four canine teeth?

Are we talking original intention?

 

[Steve Petersen]

Are we talking original intention?

Adam didn't have canine teeth?

 

[TheBear]

This thread is a good reminder for me that I need to get more fruits and veggies in my diet. (I've been slacking lately, got to get back on track.) Thanks for the OP!

 

[grasping the after wind]

I wasn't aware that eating meat required some kind of justification. Does eating a plant need justifying as well? I am an omnivore. If you want me to justify what I am should you not, as a Christian, first justify what you are ? The whole speck in the eye thing.

If I say I eat meat because

1) I believe that plants have feelings that are as strong as animal's feelings but since animals can express themselves in ways that humans can relate to many assume that plants have no such feelings.
2) If I am willing to eat a plant and cause it to suffer for reasons of self preservation why would I not also be willing to do the same to an animal for the same reasons?
3) Many animals and some plants are very tasty others are not. Many plants and animals are poisonous. I would say one can morally eat all the tasty non poisonous food one can healthfully eat and one ought to refrain only from eating the poisonous food and cannibalism because that would be in direct violation of the idea of self preservation. The one as an individual the other as a group.

Why is that less reasonable than believing that plants , though they are living creatures just as surely as animals are, are in some way more morally acceptable as food?

 

[ebia]

Adam didn't have canine teeth?

Then God said "I now give to you all the plants on the earth that yield seeds and all the trees whose fruit produces its seeds within it. These will be your food."