Can we expect Peace and an end to War while eating meat ?

Question

Is it hypocritical and a paradox for people to protest against War, but eat meat & support slaughterhouses ?

Living Graves - by George Bernard Shaw

We are the living graves of murdered beasts,
Slaughtered to satisfy our appetites.
We never pause to wonder at our feasts,
If animals, like men, can possibly have rights.
We pray on Sundays that we may have light,
To guide our footsteps on the path we tread.
We're sick of war, we do not want to fight -
The thought of it now fills our hearts with dread,
And yet - we gorge ourselves upon the dead.
Like carrion crows we live and feed on meat,
Regardless of the suffering and the pain
we cause by doing so, if thus we treat
defenceless animals for sport or gain,
how can we hope in this world to attain,
the PEACE we say we are so anxious for.
We pray for it o'er hecatombs of slain,
to God, while outraging the moral law,
thus cruelty begets its offspring - WAR.

Answer 1

There will never be peace if people continue to eat meat. How can we expect to maintain good relations with other countries, when we behave so violently against our own citizens? If you ask a doctor what the most toxic substance is, he will tell you that it is blood. Not only is it toxic, but it is intoxicating as well. Eating meat increases aggression. This is why in some sports, contenders eat meat before a competition. Also, in the slaughterhouse industry, the incidents of domestic violence and suicide are higher than almost any other occupation. There is definite scientific correlation between meat eating and violence. Even in modern criminal profiling, one of the symptoms of a serial killer is a tendency toward cruelty to animals. Deliberate cruelty to animals is considered anti-social behavior. Meat-eating is simply one more cruelty. If we can become insensitive to the suffering of an animal, showing no mercy to our neighbors, our fellow citizens, how can we ever have peace with another country? A wise man said, "If you want to know how civilized a society is, then look at the way they treat their animals".

A cow shares her milk with her child, and us, just like our mother. From milk we can make so many good, nutritious foods. But, if we kill her to satisfy our stomach, it is like killing your own mother. If you can kill your mother, you can kill anybody.

Yes, animals sometimes do have to be killed. Animals are killed by other animals for food. An animal who attacks people must be killed. But, there is no cause for this wholesale slaughtering of animals, for simply gratifying the stomach, because it is not economical, it is not healthy, it is not safe, and it is abhorrently cruel. If we can do this to a defenseless animal, simply for the taste of it, what can prevent us from making war for a bigger cause? If we don't value the lives of our less intelligent creatures, then how can you value the life of he who hates you?

No, peace cannot be had with the world until peace can be had with the individual. The individual who eats meat is either directly or indirectly responsible for the death of a living being, and slaughter is not peaceful.

Answer 2

my native american sign is the crow, & im a vegitaian have been for eleven years or so by choice, every so often ive had a little meat. my mother was attending to the state hospital (nut house) & i sat with the guests. before i knew it someone sat down a plate of green beans with bacon, corn, some mashed poatoes (my favorite) & chicken & noodles. Thats just once in the last year. I had a little BBQ goose a year after i had become a vegitarian. & there have been the soups that had broth with animal in it. I normaly prefer to not consume fleash of another. Consumption of meat is in grained in so many cultures. its a shame that the animals that are herbavores arent more inteligent. & if man can stop treating each others like their meat, yeah then we could end WAR...but till then eat up......

Answer 3

I'm afraid it's not quite that simple Geroge Bernard. Eating meat is not what causes war! But George is close when noting that cruelty begets this offspring. And cruelty itself is caused by sin - a devotion to self and all the lusts of the flesh. Man who is no longer able to not sin as a result of his having sacrificed his full freedom of will for the scant ability to only sin freely, is thereby unable to do what he would love to have back - love without limit and desire only one God. Real peace afterall is not of this world. It is to found only in reconciliation with that one God that we turned away from in His Garden.

Answer 4

Hey, I totally agree with you (if you feel the way George Bernard did)! I'm against meat and the whole meat industry that treats poor, helpless, innocent animals like trash. I dedicated my life to fighting for animal rights. Until every cage is empty.

And how dare you - "nice"q say that people are better that animals, how dare you? The world is falling to pieces because of people like you.

Answer 5

How can you compare Human to Animals? We need and want to eat meat, and that's simplly that. But killing another human and eating a pork chop is totally a different thing. You need to know where to draw a line when making an argument. The worth of one man's life outweights infinitively than animals.Can you compare historically famous and intellegent man like Einshtein to a farm pig?

Answer 6

It has been one month since I have eaten any meat. I ask people all the time. If you had to kill the cow yourself, would you eat that cheeseburger, steak, etc? The majority say no. So I made a decision to refrain from eating meat until I am willing to kill the animal myself. I do not think that our meat eating is causing us to be violent, I think our tendency to wash our hands of our responsibility is the problem. If you are going to eat meat, kill the animal. If you support a war you better be willing to kill another human. Here is another instance of hand washing that must cease. The support of abortion. We wash our hands by saying we are not actually killing a baby, we are killing a fetus.

Answer 7

Eating meat is biological. Herbivores eat plants, carnivores eat meat, omnivores eat both. Humans are omnivores, so I don't see any problem with killing animals for food. We're not the only species that does that.

However, we seem to be the only species to engage in wars. That's comes from our more developed senses, (greed, pride, etc). I don't see the parallel between these two.

PETA is insane.

Answer 8

was that a question or a statement? Usually, wars have economical reasons. Raising cattle costs more than growing vegetables or roots. However, to make a parallel betweel wars and eating meat is kind of far fetching.

Answer 9

Animals eat other animals, thats how nature works. When we eat another animal it is so that we can support our bodies and continue to live. War however is vastly different. We do not kill in war to satisfy our hunger, rather we kill because our government tells us to do so. or something like that.

Answer 10

the Human is omnivirous. Not eating meat would upset the food chain and disrupt the circle of life. No more akuna matada. No more top of the food chain.... wait... I lost my train of thought....what was that previous answer about intake of protein?