Sunday 28 October 2007

Is it wrong to eat meat?

You know, I've seen a lot of comments in the past about the morality of killing and eating animals. It's often taken for granted today because we don't even see the food we eat as animal, just grocery-market-packaged food waiting to be cooked. I've always eaten meat. I've always eaten vegetables. I eat to nourish my body and replenish my energy. The morality of killing to eat is natural. We need food to survive, so we go out and get it. Like a wolf, we prey upon the lives we can catch, eat its meat, and fill our stomachs. It's instinctual. It's animalistic. But you know what? Human beings are animalistic, instinctual creatures and any attempts to glorify humans as anything more in the *physical* sense is just pointless. We are what we are (I AM WHAT I AM).Spiritually, however, humans appear to be the most evolved group of life forms on this planet (maybe not on another planet, but at least this one). Not that humans are just so great, but that humans at least have the capabilities to become great. With this in mind, is it possible to transcend the animalistic, instinctual behaviors to such a degree as to question the morality in killing for food?Some would argue that we need to be on a vegetarian diet. But I think that even broccoli screams when you rip it from the ground. There have been studies that show plants are very aware of their environments. One in particular that comes to mind was an experiment that included two plants of the same species. One plant was hooked up to a polygraph machine, the other was not. Someone came into the room, destroyed the plant that was NOT hooked up to the polygraph, then observed the polygraph test. It was off the charts. Now - can you really tell me plants have no spirit? Vegan diets seem alright, except for a problem that you might be keeping yourself from very essential, neccesary nutrients to function correctly. Especially when you get into eating rotten fruits and the like.In essence, any time we take food in for the proper nutritional sustanance, a life form will have to submit and die. To look at it from a panantheist view - God is all things and more - there is no end to any of this life, just a transformation of one substance to another. One life absorbs the physical shell of another life, which continues the cycle. Only the physical is absorbed, however, as the spirit transcends the shell to find - in my belief - another shell to manifest.So - can we kill for food? My take - yes.Pointless gaming sports are cruel. Hunting "for sport" is the equivalent of murdering someone for "practice." You needlessly take the life of the animal. And fishing seems to be pretty popular "sport" too, where many people who are good at it just throw the fish back into the water. "They don't feel it, they have no nerves." Are you telling me that having a metal hook pierced into your cheek, pulled out of your natural environment from said hook-in-cheek to a completely alien atmosphere where no intake of breath can occur is...humane?I have no qualms with those who hunt for food. As long as they eat the food, it's justifiable. To kill for fun - that's when humanity escapes the situation.To give a quote from a great story teller:It's not what goes in a man's mouth that defiles him, but what comes out of his mouth.Or something to that effect.
Relatively speaking, meat eating itself is not in question here. There are obvious risks associated with eating too much meat, and advantages of eating at least SOME meat. Besides the obvious, the animal in question is usually dead and doesn't feel ANYTHING.The issue, instead, seems to be the inhumane treatment of animals that are bred for meat processing and the like. Brother Shawn Johnston has a very interesting post on this topic over at his blog site here.Confronted with these harsh realities, I can of course only go on the evidence in hand and conclude that these animals are treated rather savagely. I offer no form of excuse or defense for the types of behavior that some of these meat manufacturers institute in their business, and I am offended that there are not better rules and regulations in place to help better safeguard these kinds of atrocities.That being said, I'd like you to take a minute now and examine the things we do on a daily basis that has just as bad if not worse treatment for life. I'd like to put things in perspective.
Should we stop mowing our lawns? I can only imagine the grass screaming as a plague of moving mechanical parts comes to mutilate scores of fellow specimens.
Should we not bathe? The numbers that die in these forms of disinfection and contamination are incalculable, much less appetizing.
Should we cease to partake in eating fruits and vegetables? We know beyond a doubt that these plants are living creatures, and they are very possibly much more complex organisms than originally suggested.
Forget bathing, just stop cleaning altogether. The micro bacteria that exist are apart of an ecosystem that we obviously have no right putting to an end.
Should we also set up some form of punishment for those animals that eat meat? Obviously, they are not as advanced as we humans, but I believe I've seen some gruesome and terrible things on the Discovery Channel, and I cannot sit by idly and watch these crimes against nature occur.
Okay, okay, I'll admit. This was probably a wee bit exaggerated. No harm was intended by my sarcasm, and I hope none is taken. But I do insist that we view this as a normal process of nature.Not all butchers and meat processors are heartless scum. They don't exist solely to extract life - but to extract food. We should DEFINITELY punish those who are found to be heartlessly cruel to the animals in which they harbor, but a boycott on the meat industry altogether is equally unjust, and impossible.Which brings me back to my original point: naturally speaking, of course, meat intake is going to be existent amongst life forms. It is definitely natural to assume that is a part of the natural course for human consumption.
Now, if you'll excuse me, my chicken dinner is ready.Pax.

1 comment:

jlynn said...

Fascinating and insightful
Please let me know your source of information for the polygraph study.