God's mercy and animals?

[Sufjon]

thankyou Sufijon.
Please don’t apologise. I didnt mean to come across as rebuking you etc, just that I didn’t want this thread to become about my personal choices. I want to explore the place of God in the lives and destiny of animals - his very own creatures!
You say “I clearly see your dilemma in trying to reconcile God’s mercy with the cycle of misery that is heaped on innocent animals”.
may I ask whether your faith reconciles this in some way?

I would also appreciate answers from any other creeds.
Thankyou

Dear friend Uglygal: Yes my faith does reconcile all of that, or at least I believe so. It may not make a lot of sense from a western perspective though. Hindu answers to human dilemmas and questions come from a perspective that people from Abrahamic faiths find confusing. I don’t know if explaining it would do much good, but perhaps I can try.

We believe that the physical world is an epiphenomenon of consciousness, rather than consciousness being a product of the physical world. To that end, God has told us that there is only one consciousness throughout the universe. You, me, the animals on this planet, our planet, our sun and our galaxy are all components of one organism, which is our universe. It has one consciousness and one soul. We are all fragments of the one true Self, which is God. Everything is part of God. It all exists within the consciousness of one soul – God. God experiences His creation through His sentient creations, who in an unenlightened state mistake the interplay between their sense organs and minds to represent a separate self. This is why we meditate. Over time it strips away the illusion of separateness, and lets us see all things as one. It gives direct experiential knowledge of God. This is why we think Jesus said to love God and thy neighbor as thyself. We feel it is because it is all one Self. We see unity throughout all of creation. Knowing this, one can only love, and there is no hate in the heart of such a person. But it takes a lot of work to get there.

God does not cause these animals to suffer. God does not play favorites. His love is like the light from a bonfire. It shines equally on the good, the bad, the pretty and the ordinary. He does not love a saint any differently from a Maltheist. To be free from suffering, ones needs only to step into the warmth of this light, but first we must see it, and this takes a lot of hard work, which is another subject altogether. People who fail to see God in all things cause animals and other people to suffer and also cause suffering for themselves. The suffering of separateness and aloneness caused by ignorance and the illusion of the separate ego. This illusion gives birth to want, attachment and fear of loss. This is the cause of all suffering. One who sees God in all things will not cause other beings to suffer. We believe that every soul makes a journey over many lifetimes back to God. Heaven and hell to us are not places, but states of being that we create through our enlightenment or our ignorance, but we believe that God assures us that we all will make it back to Him. He said “you are very dear to me, and you will attain me. Nothing is ever lost unto me.” We believe that these animals will evolve over many lifetimes as life on this planet has done for millions of years, and like you and me will they make the journey back to the realization of oneness with God, each of us in our turn. This same drama is playing itself out across the universe for countless multitudes of beings. Being unkind to animals or anyone is a grave sin that will significantly delay your arrival home. No animal or person suffers forever.

This is a partial explanation on what we believe on that matter, and I am not suggesting that you believe it. Also, I have probably done a pretty bad job of explaining it. I was long-winded too, but there is no other way to explain even this small fraction of it.

Your friend,
Sufjon

 

[Dee_Katia]

Hi Dee-Katia, thankyou for your reply.
I have also heard that the Jewish Yahweh created humans as vegetarians but then following the floods (think Noah!) allowed meat eating. I also believe that some Christian groups (7th day adventist perhaps?) also have the view that vegetarianism is God’s will but meat eating is allowed in time of famine - namely, for survival!

I’d never heard of that version, thanks!

The key thing I was wondering when I asked the question, was how animal slaughter, and I guess in the context of Judaism animal sacrifices, are reconciled with the divine mercy of God?
A jewish perspective would be great!
Thankyou for participating

Well, from my perspective there are two possible and not mutually exclusive answers: for one thing, while animal sacrifice was allowed and even mandated in some cases (other types of sacrifice being also possible), you again had to do it in a ritual manner by stunning the animal and slitting the throat, so that it died instantaneously and relatively painlessly; secondly, in the gross majority of cases these animals were then used as food - a part would be burnt, and then either the priests or the family that slaughtered the animal would have the rest of the meat. So animal sacrifice had the same net result as any killing of animals for the purpose of food. (And this really goes for any animal sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean world; the animals were then eaten.)

Secondly, I’ve again heard the version that ideally we’re not supposed to sacrifice animals, but that people in those days were so used to doing so because of the cultures around them that God allowed it, but made strict provisions (you can only do it here, you can only do it thusly) to actually limit animal sacrifice.

For more: aish.com/jl/li/ht/84679472.html

 

[FaithJoy]

Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

God created perfection, He didn’t create anything in order to die. It was the fall of man who cursed nature and animals to die. But is it a sin to kill an animal to eat? What is the definition of murder? Well, murder is defined as killing ones own species, man on man. But, the fact remains,how man cursed nature and God created all things for perfection,to live for ever, are very two different things.

We all know Christ died for our sins,but consider this: "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, , whether [they be] things in earth, or things in heaven." Col. 1:20. Jesus also died to make “all things” new. “All things” including animals. Whether or not animals have a spirit /soul, that is a different subject.