How can you be Christian but murder defenseless animals?

Question

I have often wondered how someone can consider themselves christian but the fill themselves with decayed animal flesh every day. How can you cruely murder defenseless creatures yet still say that you live god?

VEGAN AND PROUD

Answer 1

God gave me K 9 Teeth for a reason, homey

Answer 2

Although I am not a believer of every single word the Bible has in it...I would ask that you show me even one example that says man is not to eat animals. Don't you think that God would have commanded it to Moses if that had been the case...and how about the stories of the other people...such as the prodigal son...his father killed the finest fatted calf. That sounds to me as if eating meat was the common practice.

Yes, butchering animals for food may sound horrible to you...but is it any worse than to kill them for sport as many hunters do? Or is it any worse than you setting a mouse trap to kill a poor little defenseless mouse to keep him from destroying things? Or to tear down a spider web with baby spiders crawling all over it?

I am not arguing the benefits of being a meat eater...only your thinking that somehow it means that we are committing some horrible sin.

Answer 3

You've gotten a ton of good answers here, I would hope you'd change your backward thinking. If animals weren't consumed they would over populate and become sickly, kinda like what's happening with humans. Over population causes violent acts to become committed. That's why your using the word murder so easily, its an every day thing, something which use to shock people to hear so badly they wouldn't speak it let alone write the word so carelessly.
If you don't wake up and start helping us to eat the pork, and more vegans get their way, the farmers will let them run free. Free ranging piggies become wild boars that grow the nastiest looking razor sharp teeth which you can't possibly be able to our run such a beast. You then my dear will become consumed. You can't fool mother nature, she's watching your back side, and you should likewise keep your eyes peeled. If it wasn't for us consuming beasts, you'd be a sure goner by now.

Answer 4

Veggie here too...

But your answer is in your question - Christians are actually taught to have a profoundly "different" kind of respect for nature in the Bible...

If you believe in the Bible, then you believe that God put all the plants and animals here for your benefit... and told you to rule over them... true.

However, some intelligent Christians have seen that "ruling over nature" also involves responsibility... that a good "ruler" would protect what God gave them...

It just boils down to reponsibility... don't eat things that are endangered... plant more of whatever you harvest... don't abuse animals because they DO have feelings...
If you have to kill something... then use ALL of it... don't waste life.

You can be a good Christian and an Environmentally sound person at the same time if you care enough.

Answer 5

If everyone was a vegan, cows, chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, and many other species of animal would all be on the verge of extinction.

Without humans to raise them for food. leather, etc., there is no reason for humans to raise them at all. And releasing domesticated animals into nature is destructive to both the animals released and the rest of nature. Invasive species released into foreign environments by humans are some of the worst destroyers of the environment.

Answer 6

Well it seems to me that Jesus loved God quite a bit. Yet He was a Jew, which means He was required to slaughter a lamb every year, and eat its roasted flesh, according to the specific instructions provided in the Old Testament Scriptures. If you want to be a vegetarian, by all means go ahead. Nothing wrong with that. But don't try to force a spiritual meaning into it that simply isn't there. And don't condemn people whose diet happens to be more like that of Jesus than your own diet is.

Answer 7

Okay. I will assume that as a vegan (and based upon your question) that you are a nature lover. The fact is that, in nature, you must have carnivores as well as herbivores. If you were to remove the carnivores, the herbivores would starve and suffer from disease as a result of over-population. Thus, how can eating meat be evil?

Humans are omnivores, thus built and programmed, if you will, to eat both veggies and meat. With that said, Christians--or any other humans--are simply living to their nature.

You chose to be a vegan, and I respect that choice. But why do vegans, christians and atheists always try to push their choices off on others?

With that said, I do not agree with modern agricultural practices (both in meat and vegitables). The meat industry forces the animals raised to live in ways other than the way they are supposed to exist in nature (force-feeding cattle grain and meat by-products for instance).

Answer 8

Peter had a similar problem with eating pig meat in particular. Pigs are considered unclean according to Jewish law. But, as the Christian faith began to spread, he found himself eating with the gentiles a lot, who ate pork regularly. So God , in a dream, showed Peter that all things are o.k. to eat if they are blessed by God. It was a real life change for Peter, and I'm sure it wasn't an easy one. By this experience recorded for the edification of the church we know that God doesn't have a problem with man eating meat. I respect your view, and I certainly see nothing wrong with abstaining from meat, but I can't agree that it is the only right thing to do. We usually don't change our patterns unless there is a good reason to do so and certainly if God demanded we not eat meat, I would put forth my best effort to comply. There are times when I don't eat meat, usually when I'm trying to get my Cholesterol and Triglycerites in line. But, since I don't eat a lot of "fats" that's not a big problem for me.
I might mention that I'm an animal lover myself and I would never eat an animal I know personally. I know, you are amazed at that statement, but it's true. I have 4 pet chickens and a pet turkey that I love dearly along with my dog. In times past we have lost pets like everyone else. When I was a child I had a pet chicken that we took with us to visit my Grandmother. Her dogs killed it and she, having grown up on the old farm, naturally "rung" it's neck and cooked it for supper. My brother and I nearly threw up when we found out. It was a horrible experience, though she didn't think a thing about it. She grew up in the day when food was hard to come by and they made the most of every thing God gave them. I certainly don't hold it against her, but it wasn't for me. Today, I would still feel the same. But, I completely understand and respect what my grandmother did. It was the culture and times she grew up in.

Answer 9

i hunt in my garden with my shotgun gun shot pigeons as they are pests and they entertain my dog at the same time. This idea of animals eventually being human is a silly new age idea that because you wouldn't like to be in the animals position you don't harm it. the fact is your not and you never will be (unless you believe in animal-human reincarnation in which case you are not Christian) firstly i believe that seeing animals in this way is putting them forward as being idols which is not Christian (this does not mean you have to kill them but don't put them above humans) secondly im sure god is more worryed about the poor defensless humans in the world than animals put them first.

Answer 10

alot of religion gets mixed up with politics. so i can see how christianity can pick political sides, but im not sure that is simple chrisitianity. i am a christian and i think as believers we are gardeners of the earth - and that means caring for the earth and animals, no cruelty. but i think of what St Paul said to the Corinthian people on this issue too - about how as christians should not politic about this food issue. everyone has free conscious to eat what they want but dont squabble about it.

there are christians out there that do care for this world, you just have to get out mainstream christianity

Answer 11

It's everybody's personal choice of whether they eat meat or not. Why intrude upon this personal freedom?

Now, I want you to go look into a mirror. Open your mouth. About 3 teeth away from your incisors are some sharp fang like teeth called canines, used for biting into flesh. Mankind evolved as an omnivore, not a herbivore.

But as Vegan's commonly argue, "Why not switch to a Vegan diet, since humanity no longer needs to rely on a diet of flesh"?

Well, for one, some nutrients and vitamins are most commonly found in meat products, and even though various plants can supply the human body with the same nutrients, the digestive system can process the nutrients from meat with greater efficiency, because it evolved to do so.

Secondly, Personal Freedom! It's totally cool if you want to be a Vegan because of your sympathy for Animals, but you need to accept the fact that other people (like me) enjoy their flesh food! You can't just go around parading around telling people what to eat, because then, you're intruding upon a personal freedom: Something most people don't look too kindly upon.

Ps:
Don't be so arrogant. Not eating meat doesn't make you any better than anyone else. Now make me a BLT.