Does God care if I'm a vegetarian?

[Philthy]

I’ve been a vegetarian for many years now out of outrage over the inhuman practises of factory farms. Most people around me probably get a little chuckle out of it as they indifferently consume meat products. Does God care one way or another?

If you believe with a well-formed conscience that eating meat is a sin and you choose - out of fidelity to what you believe God is revealing to you through your conscience - to never eat meat, then I would say that God is pleased with your choice.
For everyone else I think He doesn’t care about the choice.

 

[Cpl_Ferro]

You are free to eat anything you want. Not all animals are raised in bad conditions. Whether you want to base your eating habits on that or not is up to you though I would say that most of the animals for human consumption are raised in good conditions based on the laws.

You haven’t read very much about factory farm production. Read about the lives of chickens and of breeding sows, for example.

I’m not a vegetarian because I have “been called” to it, I’m a vegetarian because modern meat production is often hell on animals, and I want no part of it, and no one else should want a part of it either.

 

[Catholic90]

You haven’t read very much about factory farm production. Read about the lives of chickens and of breeding sows, for example.

I’m not a vegetarian because I have “been called” to it, I’m a vegetarian because modern meat production is often hell on animals, and I want no part of it, and no one else should want a part of it either.

I do hope you are not insinuating everyone should be a vegetarian…

There are plenty of good, non-factory farm producers…try your local Farmer’s Market or look in the local paper for local farmers selling beef, pork, chicken, eggs, etc. directly to consumers. They are out there!

Buy a 1/4, 1/2 or whole cow from your local farmer, stock the chest freezer, and you are good for a year or so, depending on the size of your family! Same with pork, chickens, etc.

 

[Sean_Boyle]

I’m a vegetarian because modern meat production is often hell on animals, and I want no part of it, and no one else should want a part of it either.

Ever see the cruelty of nature firsthand? I’m guessing not, it would make factory farming look tame to you. There are law against animal cruelty and the unsavory practices of factory farming that detest you. Not much more that you or I can do.

Not many ways to live and die that are more cruel than living the predator/prey lifestyle in the wild. In nature some animals must die so others can live. In fact all animals die as some point so another can live.

Ever see the conditions under which plants are grown for vegetarian diet? It’s deplorable and oddly enough it is accepted as okay by vegetarians. Why love animals so as not to want to consume them then want to kill plants to feed your desire to eat.

Your answer to that question is the same one used by us omnivores.

 

[redhen]

Ever see the cruelty of nature firsthand? I’m guessing not, it would make factory farming look tame to you.

Two wrongs don’t make a right fallacy.

There are law against animal cruelty and the unsavory practices of factory farming that detest you. Not much more that you or I can do.

Animal protection laws are a joke, and that’s in the most advanced G7 countries. In many other countries these laws are non-existent.

Not many ways to live and die that are more cruel than living the predator/prey lifestyle in the wild. In nature some animals must die so others can live. In fact all animals die as some point so another can live.

Yes, we understand nature - red in tooth and claw, but it doesn’t apply to the OP’s question.

Ever see the conditions under which plants are grown for vegetarian diet? It’s deplorable and oddly enough it is accepted as okay by vegetarians. Why love animals so as not to want to consume them then want to kill plants to feed your desire to eat.

Plants are not sentient, that’s the difference.

Your answer to that question is the same one used by us omnivores.

Really? Then why do you care for the deplorable conditions under which plants are grown?

 

[Catholic90]

Thursday, August 7 12:01 AM EDT
Researchers Determine Plants Can Feel Pain, Vegetarians Eye Rocks

By Brian Briggs

East Lansing, MI - Researchers from Michigan State University discovered that plants have a rudimentary nerve structure which allows them to feel pain.
http://www.bbspot.com/Images/News_Features/2003/08/leaf.jpg
David Blackford who heads the research team explained, “The nervous system is undeveloped, but it is there. This could be the evolutionary breakthrough that we’ve been looking for.”
While a great research breakthrough for scientists, the discovery causes a dilemma for strict vegetarians who don’t eat animal products because of concerns about animal safety.
A group of vegetarians at the local Carrot Café restaurant shared their feelings.
“If a potato feels pain, I might as well eat a baby seal,” said Carrie Selby of Lansing. “Or maybe, I’ll try out that all-dirt diet I’ve heard so much about.”
Jenna Chang from Okemos added, “I always thought I heard a tiny scream every time I pulled a carrot out of the ground at the community garden.”

continue reading…

bbspot.com/news/2003/08/plant_pain.html



To address the OP’s question again…eating meat is OK. God does not care if you don’t eat it, and he doesn’t care if I do eat it. Do whatever makes you happy.

What he may care about is if those who don’t eat it go around telling those who do eat it that they are wrong for eating meat, and then portray themselves as superior to meat eaters. It is not wrong to eat meat. It may be a personal preference, though, so whatever makes you happy. Just don’t make me forgo that burger, steak, chop, or rib meal! (especially during grilling season!)

 

[Sean_Boyle]

Two wrongs don’t make a right fallacy.

The Op’s question was, “does God care if I’m a vegetarian?” The OP’s desire to answer yes to this question, highlights the opinion that eating meat causes animal cruelty. Two things. Nature is cruel to the unlearned. God designed it that way for a reason. I’m sure that God never thought to himself, wow nature it cruel. It is only cruel in some peoples understandings.

To point out the irony of defending one postion and casting the other under the bus. Killing is killing, right? Or is one form of killing okay and the other is acceptable. Unless any killing is wrong, you’ve defeated your own arguement.

 

[Jsmith17]

And, if eating meat contributed to the massive suffering of animals, is God of no opinion on a person’s eating habits?

Let me try to make it plainer: If eating at Kentucky Fried Chicken meant eating chickens that were fried alive, with no humane slaughter whatsoever, is God one about that? It’s perfectly cool with him that a person eats there?

I’d eat a chicken that was fried alive; it’d still be finger lickin’ good.

Get your priorites in order:

1. Babies are being aborted with much more cruelty than any chicken is being fried with.
2. Children are starving in Africa who would give anything for just a taste of food or a sip of clean water.

Be angry about that.
Don’t be angry Chick-fil-A doesn’t name and pet their chickens before they chop them into filets.

 

[Cluny]

So, are you saying that God considers the suffering of animals at the hands of humans to be of as little consequence as the painting of one’s fingernails? My original post was intended on their behalf.

Being a vegetarian is in itself a non-issue.

But if you’re claiming moral superiority because you ARE a vegetarian, you might want to read this:

Romans 14:

1Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

You also might consider that Satan never eats meat at all, but he’s still Satan.

 

[CarmeliteGirl25]

You haven’t read very much about factory farm production. Read about the lives of chickens and of breeding sows, for example.

I’m not a vegetarian because I have “been called” to it, I’m a vegetarian because modern meat production is often hell on animals, and I want no part of it, and no one else should want a part of it either.

You and I used to hold the same beliefs. I used to be a vegetarian/vegan until my body couldn’t stand it anymore. I hated the choices that supermarkets and restaurants give vegetarians because, where I live, there are VERY few choices.

Please don’t force your viewpoints on others. It is not a part of Catholicism to be a vegetarian, so to say that, “no one else should want to be a part of it either,” is an opinion not fact.

I commend you for holding tight to your beliefs, but if it doesn’t benefit others, and we are allowed to eat meat, then there is no logic in saying that all must be vegetarians simply because of modern day practices. There are some, like me, who cannot live off vegetables and non-meat items alone. My body simply cannot handle it. It is a shame that animals are being treated the way they are in some plants, but that doesn’t mean we should abstain from ALL meat. I am a big supporter of organic sources, and I try to choose that as much as I can.

 

[st_lucy]

You haven’t read very much about factory farm production. Read about the lives of chickens and of breeding sows, for example.

I’m not a vegetarian because I have “been called” to it, I’m a vegetarian because modern meat production is often hell on animals, and I want no part of it, and no one else should want a part of it either.

I grew up on a family farm and I can tell you are animals were NOT treated inhuman. I agree that there are some factories that do treat their livestock inhumanly but do not throw out the baby with bath water on this statement. There are many, many other farms that do not.

 

[Verbum]

Hi CPl Ferro,

Nothing wrong with being a vegetarian but a wrong tactic for preventing cruelty to animals. How do you know the steak you are eating was taken from an animal cruelly dealt with?

Verbum

 

[Cpl_Ferro]

Please don’t force your viewpoints on others. It is not a part of Catholicism to be a vegetarian, so to say that, “no one else should want to be a part of it either,” is an opinion not fact.

My viewpoints are forced on you by your own Catechismal quotations. If God created the animals and indicated that we should be kind to them, then it behooves us to avoid contributing the the problem. That is God’s opinion. Unless you want to argue that God doesn’t really care about animals, in which case my opinion loses all weight with you.

I find it thoroughly twisted society gives so much hand-wringing weight to individual cases of animal abuse, while at the same time continuing to sustain factory farms.

 

[Cpl_Ferro]

I’d eat a chicken that was fried alive; it’d still be finger lickin’ good.

Get your priorites in order:

1. Babies are being aborted with much more cruelty than any chicken is being fried with.
2. Children are starving in Africa who would give anything for just a taste of food or a sip of clean water.

Be angry about that.
Don’t be angry Chick-fil-A doesn’t name and pet their chickens before they chop them into filets.

If animals were treated justly according to better anti-cruelty legislation and inspection, maybe you could petition lawmakers to judge unborn babies animals in need of similar protection. Stranger things have happened. But then, you don’t care about animals anyway, because you have your priorities straight as an arrow.

 

[Non_sum_dignus]

So, are you saying that God considers the suffering of animals at the hands of humans to be of as little consequence as the painting of one’s fingernails? My original post was intended on their behalf.

Well, he did give us incisors. He also accepted the blood sacrifices of our Jewish ancestors, and he commanded his people to eat slaughtered lambs at Passover.

There’s no nice way to be eaten, and there’s no completely gentle way to eat something. Everything we eat was alive at some point, after all.

So, no–there’s no moral imperative that anyone stop eating meat, nor is there a moral imperative to do so. If your sensibilities don’t allow for eating meat, that’s fine. It’s always important, though, that we refrain from mistaking our sensibilities for moral law.

 

[Cpl_Ferro]

Well, he did give us incisors. He also accepted the blood sacrifices of our Jewish ancestors, and he commanded his people to eat slaughtered lambs at Passover.

There’s no nice way to be eaten, and there’s no completely gentle way to eat something. Everything we eat was alive at some point, after all.

So, no–there’s no moral imperative that anyone stop eating meat, nor is there a moral imperative to do so. If your sensibilities don’t allow for eating meat, that’s fine. It’s always important, though, that we refrain from mistaking our sensibilities for moral law.

See my post, #33.

 

[Mystic_Warrior]

I’ve been a vegetarian for many years now out of outrage over the inhuman practises of factory farms. Most people around me probably get a little chuckle out of it as they indifferently consume meat products. Does God care one way or another?

Even though God gave humans dominion over the earth, He expects us to be good stewards and practice compassion on all things as far as possible. Even the Noahide laws/covenant has a law (number 6) about treating animals without cruelty. I’m thinking specifically of Genesis 9:4.

Point being - I think He cares about how we treat everything.

Peace…

MW

 

[Mystic_Warrior]

You haven’t read very much about factory farm production. Read about the lives of chickens and of breeding sows, for example.

I’m not a vegetarian because I have “been called” to it, I’m a vegetarian because modern meat production is often hell on animals, and I want no part of it, and no one else should want a part of it either.

I’m just wondering here - would you eat meat that was able to graze freely and was slaughtered humanely? You are against factory farming (and it is terrible), but are you against free range meat and eggs?

Peace…

MW

 

[Non_sum_dignus]

See my post, #33.

I did. Let me point out again that God once commanded His people to slaughter and eat lambs. He also made us omnivores.

Taking paragraphs from the Catechism and wilfully misinterpreting them to suit your sensibilities doesn’t constitute an argument. If you want to argue subtleties about how animals should be slaughtered or how they should be treated before getting plucked or quartered out, have at it. As for the morality of eating meat, that’s never been an issue in the Church.

 

[Non_sum_dignus]

Ever see the conditions under which plants are grown for vegetarian diet? It’s deplorable and oddly enough it is accepted as okay by vegetarians. Why love animals so as not to want to consume them then want to kill plants to feed your desire to eat.

Hmm. Interesting point. I think I’ll go eat an animal and declare my moral superiority for protecting the plants the animal would have eaten if I hadn’t had dinner just in the nick of time.

That’s right: I eat cheeseburgers because I’m a hero! A hero, I tell you!