IrishGuy

Its a simple question that probably has been answered alot before:

Many vegetarians don't eat meat because life is sacred, and it is evil to kill life. How then, can they eat plants?

YHWH666

Because they don't mind.






lacking a central nervous system and all....

DISSIDENT AGGRESSOR

Plants do not have features such as eyes (Wait! Potatoes do!), ears (Corn!), noses, mouths, and so on...

And no one has detected them hollering when we pluck them off of a vine or yank them out of the ground before we devour them.

I'm sure though that some little old lady would be upset if you went into her garden and started eating her prize petunias.

As far as Judaism and Christianity go I don't recall any fruits or vegetables that are forbidden, exceptin' of course that magical fruit in Eden.

emphryio

Why did you title this thread "Religious Vegetarianism"? The vast majority of vegetarians and vegans are not remotely religious. As a matter of fact "God said it's OK to eat animals." is probably the number one reason given to justify the endless carnage.

With the use of the word "sacred," along with "many" it sounds like you are implying there is some religion/vegan link. Although you may find a few exceptions, you generally couldn't be farther from wrong. I post a lot here: veganfitness.net. There are 800 something registered users and ONE, that's ONE christian, who only posts like every other month.

After the God justification followed by the "meat is necessary for health" myth, the number three reason to justify the carnage is pretending there's no meaningful difference between a plant and any non-human animal.

Let's see, ways to answer that one.
1. Plants don't feel pain, have central nervous system, brain, etc.
2. They are a less complex life form than animals and humans, and you've got to eat something.
3. Maybe vegans just hate plants? If you personally really find no difference between plants and animals you should of course go live off fruit and nuts thus not killing anything. I bet it could be done.
4. Plants don't squirt blood and scream and run away when you try to kill them.
5. Plants don't cause strokes, heart attacks, cancer, etc like animal flesh and animal secretions.
6. Plants aren't as cuddily.
7. Plants can't understand language as many animals have proven they can.
8. Plants won't save your life like a dolphin or dog, etc will.
Etc, etc.

BTW, do you see any difference between a plant and a human? Just curious.

Toto

I don't know of anyone who believes exactly this formulation.

There are different justifications for religious vegetarianism. Some believe that animals contain the souls of dead people. Some believe that animals also have their own souls, and feel a kinship. Some believe that eating meat makes people violent. Some believe that suffering is wrong, and exploiting animals for your convenience is wrong. (These are probably PETA members.)

On the far end of vegetarianism, next to breathetarians (who believe that you don't need to eat, just breath in - but they tend not to have a long life span), there are fruititarians who only eat fruit and nuts that have fallen naturally from trees.

But then there are "vegetarians" who define chicken as a vegetable.

There is a good resource on arguments for religious vegetarianism here and a book entitled Religious Vegetarianism that looks interesting.

Allow me to mention my favorite recovering vegetarian site, beyondveg.com, even though it hasn't been updated since 2001.

And there is the anthem Carrot Juice is Murder.

Other fun facts on vegetarianism:

The Dalai Lama eats a well done steak every other day, to keep his energy up.

The head of PETA is an atheist.

emphryio

No, most people who believe that are not members of PETA. Most vegans think PETA is a dishonest organization and disagree with their tactics.

DISSIDENT AGGRESSOR

I think IrishGuy was talking more on the line of Hindus not eating meat.
Hindies,may not consider Hinduism a religion, doesn't mean that it isn't veiwed as religion.

This statement throws me. Meat being necessary for health is a definite myth,
or just your opinion?
I'm sure lots of vegans eat something or take a supplement, or two, or three that subsitutes what meat mythicaly supplys a meat eater with.
As far as anyone has found out to this day, I'm not trying to say science is stupid or anything like that, but they might find out that plants do have some sort of way to feel pain, just as we may find life other than just on this planet.
imho if they are studying wheither or not plants feel pain it is quite silly.

Nah, nobody really believe vegans hate plants, that's just a joke. Peanutbutter and jelly is quite delicious, my favorite snack at the beach.

Neither does veal, well, maybe they moo a little, I wouldn't call it screaming like if I attacked a human with a chain saw. They definatly can't run away, though.

Tobbacco: plant, even more deadly if eaten. Might be #1 cause of strokes, heart attacks, cancer.
The insecticides sprayed on crops might be a cause of cancer. Who really knows what farmers feed beef cattle, and chickens?
Deaf ears. I don't find any animal as cuddily, especially not the human bred cats and dogs that roam around secreting everywhere they feel.
I'll agree with part of this, I never fell for that Rice CrispiesTM
are saying something, or psychos reading tea leaves jazz.

I have heard parrots speak, if you will, but understand?
Dolphins are cool, as long as they keep in the wild. I can't stand seeing them captured and made to perform for some idiots amusement, just for a few measly fish, some squid, or jellyfish, how freaking degrading.

Dogs are emasculated wolves, imho. I wouldn't give a starving dog a rubber bone.
I like hearing how people make them into vegans, wouldn't happen if the dog remembered it was suppossed to be a wolf!
Yes. We eat plants, some of them anyway, [tobbacco isn't supposed to be eaten], but what do we do when we become ripe and die? We either cremate
our bodies, scattering the ashes or drain out our blood, replace it with embalming fluid and encase ourselves in concrete, where people come by to visit us, bringing us dead plants, mostly grown for this disgusting practice, never giving the plants a chance to nutrition theirselves on our decayed flesh.
Humans are selfish

Grizzly

This isn't quite NARP material. I'm shipping it off to GRD...

Philippe*

Since one must eat to survive, but they often see a hierarchy in the living beings, the more complex or evolved or close to man an organism is, the more its life is sacred, it is worse to eat a mammal than a chicken for instance. It is worse to eat a fish than a prawn. It is better to eat plants than kitties.

Philippe

Jakanapes

Maybe, but which goes better with a nice white wine?