Killing animals and the commandment to not kill

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In your previous post you wrote more strongly that mosquitoes (along with rats etc)
  • should be exterminated from the whole planet
  • only bring disease and death
  • serve no useful purpose and would not be missed if extinct
You are wrong. They do serve a useful purpose in the cycle of life and would be sorely missed if extinct. (What are mosquitoes good for? )
That they now pose excessive problems to mankind is a direct result of our actions. We do what we (think we) want by putting up buildings wherever we want with no thought for how it affects the animal habitats. So we eliminate places for birds and bats. They are best at controlling mosquito populations. And we create more and more pockets of stagnant water giving homes to the mosquitoes.

Your answer is to do more of what we have been doing for centuries - yet you expect a different result. That is Einstein’s definition of insanity. If you eliminate these creatures you don’t like - other creatures you don’t like will now be “top of the food chain”. And so you have to make something else extinct.

As to dominion over animals - God gave us the responsibility to take care of them.
He will judge us accordingly.
Scientists are already trying to find a way to make mosquitos sterile and prevent them from breeding. We should all pray for their success and eliminate this terrible scourge on humanity.

So many people here seem to be concerned about the mosquitos and don’t seem to care at all for the families of the millions of people who are killed every year by mosquitos.

KILL the mosquitos!! They will not be missed.
 
God gave us dominion over all creatures. He allows us to kill animals for food, clothing, and domestic help. He also allows us to use them for medical and scientific experiments for better health care for humans.
For anyone then to say we should not be doing any of that they are contradicting God.

Exterminating disease carrying animals and insects will benefit humans.
You’re exterminating disease theory is a slippery slope. I can see someone active within the culture of death using that reasoning to justify killing humans that carry diseases because they think it would benefit other humans. Be careful with what you propose.
 
The commandment in the original language is more akin to “Thou shalt not murder.”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard an atheist claim that the fifth commandment is “You shall not kill”, and then use that as an attempt to make God look like a hypocrite. It’s rather tiresome. “Murder” and “kill” have distinct meanings, people. Use them correctly.

Besides, this whole movement that seeks to elevate animals to humans in terms of legal rights (sometimes even above; there are people who care more about polar bears being killed by “global warming” than humans being killed by abortion) can go both ways; as PatriceA said, people like Stalin and Mao have treated the mass genocide of humans as nothing worse than mowing your lawn (next thing you know, there’ll be plants’ rights).
 
If God didn’t want us to kill animals, He wouldn’t have made them so tasty!

😃

Sorry.
 
You’re exterminating disease theory is a slippery slope. I can see someone active within the culture of death using that reasoning to justify killing humans that carry diseases because they think it would benefit other humans. Be careful with what you propose.
That’s a silly leap!!
 
That’s a silly leap!!
Oh, really? America is already doing that! People who abort and contracept think of a child as a “disease” that should be exterminated if he or she is inconvenient. It’s the same with euthanasia. People have become slaves, so to speak, because our culture of death doesn’t see them as people at all! The modern world sees humans as nothing more than evolved animals, forgetting who planned that evolution (if any). Should we be surprised, then, if the modern world treats humans like animals? Hitler did. That philosophy was the foundation for the eugenics movement, which sought to “purify” the human race via slaughter of the unwanted humans.
 
Besides, this whole movement that seeks to elevate animals to humans in terms of legal rights (sometimes even above; there are people who care more about polar bears being killed by “global warming” than humans being killed by abortion) can go both ways; as PatriceA said, people like Stalin and Mao have treated the mass genocide of humans as nothing worse than mowing your lawn (next thing you know, there’ll be plants’ rights).
You might really like this song: youtube.com/watch?v=7rqhG2yT-58

“as we’re sound asleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children” = most poignant lyric IMO.
 
Oh, really? America is already doing that! People who abort and contracept think of a child as a “disease” that should be exterminated if he or she is inconvenient. It’s the same with euthanasia. People have become slaves, so to speak, because our culture of death doesn’t see them as people at all! The modern world sees humans as nothing more than evolved animals, forgetting who planned that evolution (if any). Should we be surprised, then, if the modern world treats humans like animals? Hitler did. That philosophy was the foundation for the eugenics movement, which sought to “purify” the human race via slaughter of the unwanted humans.
It IS a silly leap. Stop being hysterical! The thread topic and your comments are totally unrelated.
 
no killing of animals doesn’t conflict with the commandment. God gave man dominion over other creatures
Of course dominion over is not synonymous with a right to kill. Ability to act in a certain way is not the same as it being ethically correct to act in that way.
 
Of course **dominion over is not synonymous with a right to kill. **Ability to act in a certain way is not the same as it being ethically correct to act in that way.
Actually it does mean we have a right to kill animals (assuming its also in line with domestic laws). We are not to cause animals unnecessary suffering but that has nothing to do with killing them. God allows us to kill them for food and clothing.
 
Actually it does mean we have a right to kill animals (assuming its also in line with domestic laws). We are not to cause animals unnecessary suffering but that has nothing to do with killing them. God allows us to kill them for food and clothing.
How do you support that reading of the phrase “dominion over…”?
 
It IS a silly leap. Stop being hysterical! The thread topic and your comments are totally unrelated.
No, they aren’t. This question is related to the philosophy that we have no more of a right to kill animals than we do to murder humans. That philosophy is obviously false; if it were true, then one could just as easily twist it around to mean that we humans have no more of a right to life than the ants we stomp on. People have done that in the past, and history repeats itself. I’m not saying we should torture animals; I’m saying that we humans are special creations of God with souls, and we are greater than the animals. We are not equal to them.

Besides, what am I supposed to do? Let your silly comment about PatriceA’s comment being silly go unchallenged? I have a duty to defend the truth as a Catholic. I believe that your philosophy is dangerous, and it challenges the truth. So I have a moral obligation to correct you.

If my comments were unrelated to the discussion, then how did I arrive at my conclusions in the first place? PatriceA made a good, relevant point, and my comments were relevant to that point. So your claim is false.
 
No, they aren’t. This question is related to the philosophy that we have no more of a right to kill animals than we do to murder humans. That philosophy is obviously false; if it were true, then one could just as easily twist it around to mean that we humans have no more of a right to life than the ants we stomp on. People have done that in the past, and history repeats itself. I’m not saying we should torture animals; I’m saying that we humans are special creations of God with souls, and we are greater than the animals. We are not equal to them.

Besides, what am I supposed to do? Let your silly comment about PatriceA’s comment being silly go unchallenged? I have a duty to defend the truth as a Catholic. I believe that your philosophy is dangerous, and it challenges the truth. So I have a moral obligation to correct you.

If my comments were unrelated to the discussion, then how did I arrive at my conclusions in the first place? PatriceA made a good, relevant point, and my comments were relevant to that point. So your claim is false.
What Catholic truth are you trying to convey??

God gave us the right to kill humans in self defence. Are you saying we don’t the the right to kill animals/insects in self defence, i.e. the ones that spread disease and death to millions of people every year? Give me a break. Any animal/insect that can spread a deadly disease to a human should be stamped out. That has nothing to do with jumping to killing disabled people except in your twisted mind!
 
The Council of Trent addressed this issue in it’s section on the 5th Commandment
Exceptions: The Killing Of Animals
With regard to the prohibitory part, it should first be taught what kinds of killing are not forbidden by this Commandment. It is not prohibited to kill animals; for if God permits man to eat them, it is also lawful to kill them. When, says St. Augustine, we hear the words, “Thou shalt not kill,” we do not understand this of the fruits of the earth, which are insensible, nor of irrational animals, which form no part of human society.
 
Then why didn’t Jesus do that?
Luke 22:35-36

35 He said to them, “When I sent you forth without a money bag or a sack or sandals, were you in need of anything?” “No, nothing,” they replied.
36 He said to them, "But now one who has a money bag should take it, and likewise a sack, and one who does not have a sword should sell his cloak and buy one.

Jesus was sending his disciples out and told them they should go out armed. What do you think the purpose of that was? Maybe it was to cut the vegetables for lunch??

Are you denying the Church teaching of our right to self defence even if in such self defence it means killing the aggressor?
 
Humans are an integral part of the cycle of life that God designed.
But our actions indicate that we believe ourselves to be outside of it.
That the cycle of life only affects the animal kingdom not mankind. WRONG!

There is a huge difference between killing an animal for food and wantonly killing animals for our own pleasure. Take the American Bison for example In 1800, it was estimated there were forty million bison, by 1883, there were no wild bison in the United States. By 1900, there were less than six hundred left in North America. The majority of the forty million animals were killed in a fifty-five year period, beginning in 1830.American Bison
"The US Army sanctioned and actively endorsed the wholesale slaughter of bison herds."19th_century_bison_hunts

Some here would say we have the right, God gave us dominion etc etc.
But do you realize the long term effects on man? By destroying the Bison, we have destroyed the plains. When they roamed there was grass to support 40+ million animals and there was no problem with prairie dogs.
Now ranchers fight over grazing rights.
Now they want to exterminate prairie dogs because of the problems with prairie dog holes.

We have caused the problem with mosquitoes because we have eliminated their natural predators by eliminating bird habitats. I happen to see this first hand. When I am in the city, the flies are everywhere. When I am at my farm I watch birds sit in a long row on an electric wire, hunting mosquitoes.
We are never bothered by a fly population - the birds kept them in check.

By wantonly killing animals we are killing ourselves.

I believe that man has to rethink what God meant by having dominion over animals.
We need to grow up and get past this “I can kill anything I want” frame of mind.

Just my humble opinion.
Go with Love, Go with God
 
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