Why would a loving god require us to eat other living things to survive?

Question

We have to kill to eat, that means for one organism to survive many others have to suffer death.

Not to mention all of the natural ways to cause living things to suffer.

I don't believe there is a god, but to those of you who do, why would he design something so evil?

You people are missing the point completely. If god is the creator of everything why did he set it up in such a messy way? He could have made it so that everything gets it's sustanence from the sun, there would be no killing. And you're missing the bit about natural suffering. Disasters and agony of death.

Answer 1

You don't have to kill to eat. What religion requires eating meat? Most don't prohibit it, but I am not aware of any that require it.

Answer 2

There is a pattern to evolution that causes one species to aet another. I don't believe God designed this. All living things eat in order to survive. Since caveman days men hunted and ate animals. There was not the info or means to have an " organic garden".All living things die eventually and many cultures would have died if they didn't fish and hunt
There no "whole Foods " in the aztec or mayan cultures. But now the balance of nature requires that this process goes on. What would whales and so on down the line. There are few whales, but many more species that they eat, and that continues on down the food chain. I feel it was a good was to have a balance in living things. I worry more why there so many evil people in the world that hurt and destroy each other.

Answer 3

I think people put too much stock in that whole "if God is so loving why does he let *blah blah blah* happen?"

If it hurts your concience to harm another living creature to survive then don't do it. No one, not even God is making you. As a matter of fact, there is a story in the bible where a man felt bad that the only meat available in the city had been used previously as sacrifices to false gods and he chose to become a vegitarian and God blessed him and he was able to do just fine.

But nature is nature and animals kill each other and eat each other and animals and people eat plants and insects and everything. There is no malice towards the thing being killed.

Death is not evil. I think people should kind of get that into their heads and get over it.

There are many ways to survive without causing pain and suffering to another.

But to a question like that, seriously, think about that next time you have your house treated for termites or kill some ants in your kitchen or swat a fly or pull weeds in your garden. I'm a vegetarian myself but I don't see an inherent evil in the demise of another living thing (plant, insect, animal, or human). It breaks my heart when I see a dead animal on the road or an ant stuck in a drop of water but I try not to pass judgment. When a person kills for the fun of it, just to release aggression or what ever, that is terrible and sick and it hurts me inside to think of it but there is a circular pattern to life (not to be too cliche) and things are born, live, and die and as long as there is not malcontent dictating one's actions, then I think the system works

Answer 4

In the beginning of the bible there was no death nor was there man eating animals. It is a part of the fall of man and was not ordained by God until Noah's time after the flood. We are living in a world that is growing further and further from God so we have as a result every thing that is not of God becoming more apparent. look at our world every day it gets a little worse. global warming war death hate. as sad as it is that is the way it is and the bible says it will get to a point where God will have to stop it because we wont. but this is no reason to sit inside and wait we have to live a good life to respect our gift, our lives.

Answer 5

I lived and thrived for several years as a strict vegetarian. What's more - before I was a vegetarian, God never instructed me to eat meat - I did it because I enjoy it. Suffering is part of existence. I bet God suffers. Perhaps he couldn't design a universe without suffering because there is no such thing? No one said God was perfect.

Or did they? I always mess that up. . .

Answer 6

#1 God didn't design it that way. In the Garden of Eden, plants were the only food source.
#2 We can still survive on a vegetarian diet, so we are not REQUIRED to eat animals as you asserted.
#3 Since sin entered the world, and death by sin, all people and animals will eventually die anyway. Animals are not equal to humans, and since they're going to die anyway what's the big deal if we eat them?
#4 They taste good.

Answer 7

"And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight. And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them." (Ezekiel 4:12-13)
Comment

Holy sheet cakes, Batman! How many good Christians today realize that their God has coprophilic tendencies?

One wonders what nutritional or moral value it would serve the people to eat human feces with their bread, as God ordered. God here has also ordered the voyeuristic operation without explanation. Although in verses 14-15 the poor Israelites complain about eating abominable flesh, God (in his "wonderful" grace) changes his mind and allows them to substitute human feces with cow feces. Gee, thanks a lot God! (as if eating cow excrement makes much of a difference). You'd think the Creator of the entire universe might have given his "chosen ones" a soufflé or a bagel or something. Please, anything better than sheet-cakes! One might also wonder: how can an all-knowing and perfect God (but a scat-God nevertheless), change his mind?

Answer 8

I accept the possibility that there could be an evil god.

I don't really think there is, but at least an evil god is possible (or perhaps more than one god and the good one can't defeat the evil one and the other way around).

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I agree that it is neither good not evil. Such is the nature of natural selection and evolution, not the creation of a thinking being.

Answer 9

God has provided every thing for human beings and has chosen them the best.If humanity fails to do what they are supposed to be doing they haven't done justice to God's trust in putting them up in the hierarchy.If you step out of home and your heart is beating to save some body's life.To try to be good to your wife and children and live up to your responsibilities in society who is to question your right to kill an animal to feed your family and yourself.

Answer 10

We dont' have to kill to eat. People just like meat, but in US society, there's no reason we still HAVE to eat meat. We have enough resources to be 100% vegetarian. In extreme climates or undeveloped areas, you may have to eat meat since not enough nourishign food would be avaliable, but at least in our country, that is not the case. I think God made meat available for if we have nothing else, I don't believe it was intended to be a daily occurrence.