Why is it ok to eat fish but no other meat? Do the fish not have feelings???

Question

Some people, during Lent for example, give up meat, but consider fish to be ok. Same in some cases of vegetarianism.

Answer 1

If you are a vegetarian you do not eat fish.

:)

If someone is daft enough to think a fish is more like a cucumber than an animal (you know, if they eyes don't give them a hint), then they would eat fish.
However, they would not be a vegetarian, no matter how much they like to use the word to describe themselves. One cannot be a vegetarian and eat animals, but can only do one or the other.

Hope this helps.

Oh yes, and growing up Catholic, I often asked this question. I was told that it was ok because fish is not *meat.* I always felt that *animals* was the intent. In biblical times, they weren't really aware of our silly categories of things. You are supposed to do without for Lent, supposed to fast as a sign of faith and devotion, but I think eating fish is a bit of a lazy way out.

EDIT- Ok. I found out a bit about it. No-meat is a form of fasting. The 3 pillars of lent include: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. And the fish-thing is a sign of people becoming lazy. Not specific people mind you, I don't think anyone is attempting to *bend* rules or concepts... just over time the concepts lessened.

Quote:
" So, why abstain from meat? People like it and notice its absence. Christian fasting regulations once included milk and eggs. Fasting and abstaining show respect for God’s creation by using it more sparingly at times." E.G. Fridays http://studentaffairs.depaul.edu/ministry/lent2006.html

Answer 2

Yes, fish have feelings. They feel pain and experience fear just like all other animals- and humans. The pain and nerve system in fish is virtually the same as in birds and mammals.

Some people keep fish for health reasons, but any hardcore vegetarian knows that the flesh of fish can contain toxins up to 9 million times as concentrated as those in the water they live in. And some sea animals, such as shrimps and scallops, have MORE cholestrol in their flesh than beef. People who eat fish for heath reasons should think again. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 325,000 american people get sick, some eventually die, due to eating contaminated fish and other seafood every year.

Other people do not consider fish to be like a cow, or a chicken. I have been a vegetarian for many years, not eating meat, nor fish. Fish are our fellow citizens with scales and fins. They are so good-natured, so curious. Fish are sensitive animals. They have personalities, some belong to families, and they feel and know pain. Eating a grouper is no different than eating a Cocker Spaniel.

Thats the best answer I can give.

Answer 3

In terms of vegetarian, fish is an animal. Vegetarians don't eat fish. If they eat fish, they aren't vegetarian.

You have to think of Lent in Christian terms. And with that, look back to the Hebrew roots of Christianity.

5000 years ago meat was a luxury. Most people lived on the land. Grains, dates, camel milk, olives, a few veggies. Meat of the two and four legged kind was very expensive. A luxury.

We get this idea that fish is not meat from our early Hebrew cousins. Early rabbis did not regard fish as highly evolved. Thus, not exactly a "critter" as it were.

Along comes Jesus. For those who believe, he made the ultimate sacrifice.

Lent is our time of sacrifice. Our time to unite ourselves closer to what was given up for us. Jesus lived and breathed as a Jewish Rabbi. So the laws he and the very Jewish apostles asked us to follow as Christians come directly from Jewish roots.

Two and four legged meats were still awfully expensive. Fish being the less expensive and less enjoyed (for some) option: Having fish (vs having beef) is considered a sacrifice.

Still, it has to be done in the spirit of sacrifice. After all, Americans love sushi. Where is the sacrifice there? Lobster thermodor anyone?

I worked closely with my priest about my sacrifice as a vegetarian. Even more so going vegan. Don't worry so much about the "letter of the law" so much as what the law **intends.**

As a vegetarian, I went vegan on days of fasting and abstinence. As a vegan I'm giving up all sweets on days of fasting and abstinence.

Answer 4

Most vegetarians do not eat fish. However, there are some vegetarians who still eat fish in the "transitional" period between meat eating and giving it up. I think a lot of people don't see fish as "cute and cuddly" therefore have less feelings towards eating it.

Answer 5

Fish have feelings. How can they not have feelings? When you cut a fish, they bleed, same like other animals. If they don't have feelings, why would they bleed? they feel the pain too. So how is it okay for vegetarians to eat fish?

Vegetarians don't eat animals. and fish is an animal. We don't eat fish. The real and strict vegetarian don't eat fish, meat, garlic, onion and dairy products. that's as far as i know.

Answer 6

well thats mostly the choice of the individual. Vegetarians dont for various reasons. Fish have very short memories. (By the time they get to the end of the fish bowl its said they have forgot where they have been, and turn around and swim again.) and they are said supposedly not to feel happinees/sadness like other animals.

However fish do have a developed enough nervous system to feel pain. This is visibale from the moment they are taken out of the water and are flailing around desperatly, but schience has proven it also. They feel pain!

as well fish caught wild can be very detrimental to your health as the chamicals (mercury being a main one but not the only one) build up in their system.

But its also unhealthy for the earth, Fishermen's nets kill 10 times as many other animals as the fish they are hoping to catch. They sort out what they want to keep and dump the rest back but they don't do this in seconds, by the time it gets dumped back in its already dead 90% of the time.
Fishing boats creat pollution as well and often hurt larger marine mammal.

Answer 7

People who eat fish but no other meat are not vegetarian. Some people call it "pescavegetarianism" but dont buy into it. Fish are some of the animals that are treated the worse. I dont think anyone would like to know how terribly all animals are treated but it's afully and if you call yourself a vegetarian and you eat fish you are not a real vegetarian. I hope that helps.

Answer 8

in the case of Lent, it is done for religious reasons by people who may or may not be vegetarians for the rest of the year. people who are vegetarians but still eat fish aren't true vegetarians.

Answer 9

I think that is completely stupid. I guess it is because Jesus ate fish, but still.

Some self proclaimed "vegetarians" eat fish, but fish is still meat and it comes from a living breathing creature. And besides, in my opinion eating fish right now is even worse.. Do you have any idea how we are overfishing? Especially with sharks. It takes sharks years to mature and to have their own little sharks, so we are completely depleting our ocean.

Um. Yeah. I guess I ranted a little.

Answer 10

The fishing business was having trouble back in the day and so they went to the pope because religion and the government were tightly bound so the pope allowed people to eat fish on Fridays. It has nothing to do with anything except corruption in the church.