Should you feel guilty for eating meat?
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Ugly, eh?Phasmal said:
I guess it's different for people who don't spend time around animals.
My family live in the country. They used to keep a couple of milking cows (well, they still do, I just don't live there any more). I wouldn't regard them as ugly animals.
One of them liked to chew on people's arms. Not hard enough to hurt. No idea why, she just did.
She was a cantankerous old beast. If she ran out of feed before we were done milking her, she'd promptly kick the bucket over.
This one time we killed, slaughter and ate her calf. A few days later the cow found the spot where where we'd bled the carcass. I guess she recognised the smell or something. There's a particular kind of short, relatively high-pitched "moo" that mother cows do to call their calfs back to them. That cow stood in that one spot and did that one particular moo continuously and almost without pause for several days and nights straight. When we tried to move her she got aggressive She only moved when she was nearly fainting from thirst.
Ugly.
I certainly don't feel guilty (and have steaks marrinating for when I get home 
). I will draw the line at animals that are treated in an overly cruel way...veal and Foie Gras...but pretty much everything else is fine AFAIAC.
). I will draw the line at animals that are treated in an overly cruel way...veal and Foie Gras...but pretty much everything else is fine AFAIAC.
You shouldn't feel guilty about eating meat. Its delicious and good for you. The only thing that's problematic is the way its harvested. Many species have been made extinct or endangered to make a quick buck. That said you can get the meat in a sustainable way, in which case there's no reason to feel guilty.
Good job you probably just summoned daystar lol.Matthew94 said:
It's the guilt that makes it taste all the better in my opinion.
Some sentient creature was mewling it's last knowing it was never going to see its beloved children and/or parents again. It was slowly trying to remember the warmth it felt while being embraced by its loved ones, a feeble attempt to escape from the situation it was forced into by the greed of humanity. Finally, with a tear in its eye, its throat was slit, its blood drenched into its skin and its life was tragically cut short. It's this moment of agonizing pain and grief that makes meat all the sweeter!
Some sentient creature was mewling it's last knowing it was never going to see its beloved children and/or parents again. It was slowly trying to remember the warmth it felt while being embraced by its loved ones, a feeble attempt to escape from the situation it was forced into by the greed of humanity. Finally, with a tear in its eye, its throat was slit, its blood drenched into its skin and its life was tragically cut short. It's this moment of agonizing pain and grief that makes meat all the sweeter!
Only if killing the animal to obtain the meat involved unnecessary pain or cruelty. It is also wrong to drive an animal to extinction or to a dangerously low level by consuming it.
Beyond that, no, it's not wrong, it's perfectly natural to eat meat, and it's also good for you.
Beyond that, no, it's not wrong, it's perfectly natural to eat meat, and it's also good for you.
Plants are alive too. It's impossible to live without killing something, so it might as well be something delicious.
Gratuitous cruelty to animals is bad.
I don't like the idea of catch-and-release fishing, but I love me some meat.
So try to make it quick and as painless as possible, but beyond that, dig in.
Gratuitous cruelty to animals is bad.
I don't like the idea of catch-and-release fishing, but I love me some meat.
So try to make it quick and as painless as possible, but beyond that, dig in.
No. I'm pretty sure a lion doesn't feel guilty over eating a zebra after hunting and killing it. Human beings are no different, we have the right to feed on other life too as it is the way of the Universe. Even herbivores are feeding on other life, plant life, but still life. Life feeds on other life, that is how the Universe works. Even you're vegetables are living things, or were living things. You just don't feel guilty about eating them because they don't walk around and make "mooing" noises, nor do they react to pain in any manner that you can recognize.
What is probably a bit amoral is those mass slaughter houses though.
What is probably a bit amoral is those mass slaughter houses though.
I'm sure lions oft think about these things when they take down an antelope.Bocaj2000 said:
I don't even begin to have the capacity to understand the sentiment that I should feel guilty for eating meat.
EDIT: And just for the humor. http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=sponsor
I did feel guilty about it, so I became a vegetarian. But there's no argument to be put across for either being a vegetarian or not - it just hinges on whether you feel sympathy for animals like you do for humans, there's no logic to whether you should or shouldn't really. So really, discussing it doesn't exactly help you decide; just do whatever you personally feel is right.
That said, it does really piss me off when people use the 'but it's NATURAL' excuse for anything. Everything that exists within the universe is fucking natural, by definition. You can't use it in an argument for the morality of an action. I know that, like I've said, there's no real logical argument you can make either way so people just fall back on 'we should do this because it is the normal thing to do' but my god it's annoying when people say that and think they're being clever.
That said, it does really piss me off when people use the 'but it's NATURAL' excuse for anything. Everything that exists within the universe is fucking natural, by definition. You can't use it in an argument for the morality of an action. I know that, like I've said, there's no real logical argument you can make either way so people just fall back on 'we should do this because it is the normal thing to do' but my god it's annoying when people say that and think they're being clever.
When did we forget that plant's too are living? I wouldn't feel ashamed about eating meat, simply because you have to take a life to live, whether it be animal or plant. If you wish to be a vegetarian, then so be it, but if you like meat and you don't want to eat it because you might take life... Well then consider this, it has been proven that plants feel pain.
I'm going to have to bite my tongue a bit on this because I really don't have any desire to get dragged into a nutrition debate at the moment, but the evidence is not as clearly against eating meat as you seem to believe unless you only form your conclusions from some fairly questionable studies and ignore some pretty gaping holes in methodology and logic with many of them.Korolev said:
Frankly, the state of nutritional science, particularly what gets the most coverage in the media, is absolutely pathetic for the most part. It's even worse when you consider many of the studies which take place are funded by companies like Kellog's.
If one has a moral objection to eating meat on the basis that it is killing, then one cannot eat.
Anything.
Ever.
Unless plants suddenly started not being living things.
Here's a bit of philosophy to plug into your morality. It may help. "All life subsists on death, and everything must die." Your conscience may be somewhat less burdened by eating vegetarian since the bean-sprouts don't yelp when you pluck them, but most "fresh" produce is still alive when it's eaten. If you're eating bean-curd, tofu, or something of the sort you are, quite literally, eating babies or the product of mashed babies.
Think on that.
Also consider that we don't know for sure if plants can feel pain (at least not that I've heard from any credible sources), and if they could, they may express it in ways we cannot understand.
We feed ourselves with death in more ways than is symbolic or literal. Some people can't figure that out. And that's too bad, as it would save a lot of guilt, indecision, and wasted breath.
Anything.
Ever.
Unless plants suddenly started not being living things.
Here's a bit of philosophy to plug into your morality. It may help. "All life subsists on death, and everything must die." Your conscience may be somewhat less burdened by eating vegetarian since the bean-sprouts don't yelp when you pluck them, but most "fresh" produce is still alive when it's eaten. If you're eating bean-curd, tofu, or something of the sort you are, quite literally, eating babies or the product of mashed babies.
Think on that.
Also consider that we don't know for sure if plants can feel pain (at least not that I've heard from any credible sources), and if they could, they may express it in ways we cannot understand.
We feed ourselves with death in more ways than is symbolic or literal. Some people can't figure that out. And that's too bad, as it would save a lot of guilt, indecision, and wasted breath.
Unless I've missed something pretty big in biology, I doubt that's true. Evidence?Andrew Bascom said: