Journeyman Philosopher

I thought it would be interesting to write about two little tidbits that most people are unaware of; the argument for why christians shouldn’t eat meat and the argument of why buddhists can.

First the more controversial one ‘CHRISTIANS DON”T EAT MEAT!!!’. The idea stems from the concept of what the perfect world was in the eyes of God (ie before sin was introduced by Adam). In this perfect world Adam was instructed by God to be the keeper of animals and to protect them, as so he didn’t kill them or eat them. It was his duty to name them, which some argue is a gesture of responsibility (ie by naming something you transform it from an it, to a being). When Adam and Eve (humanity) got rejected from the garden of eden (God’s paradise) because of the introduction of sin everything got shuffled. And as such humans started eating meat.

If God’s ideal world was one in which mankind didn’t eat animals and instead looked after them, then logically you’d think Christians would strive to do what God initially wanted before sin was introduced to the scene. The main objection to this theory is that, well, Jesus ate meat (supposedly… probably force fed it) and thus it seems as if christians would be justified in the action as well. Although the statement ‘Come on guys the son of God did it!!!’ is a strange form of peer pressure.

Now to buddhists eating meat. Most have heard how the current Dalai Lama eats meat occasionally. As so many have adopted his justification of it. The idea is that with buddhism its fine to eat meat, however its wrong to lead to the death of that animal. So, for example, this means you could eat unintentional road kill, you could eat animals that died from natural causes, or you could eat meat that was going to go to waste (heres where it gets tricky).

The problem with this concept, and the common objection, is that by eating meat in situations in which it would go to waste you are supporting the industry. For example in old school tibet if you were to walk in and buy meat from a butcher that was going bad, the butcher would be happy but as he knew you were a monk and due to the spiritual nature of tibet, he’d probably make sure to kill less next time. However in our society if you buy meat that is left over, it gives the message to the companies ‘Hey people bought our meat, lets keep on producing it.’ In such a manner you become responsible for the future death of animals due to your ‘vote’ for meat eating (unfortunately this is how capitalism works).

My personal assessment is that eating meat by 95% of people is immoral. The only way I feel you could consistently eat meat as a christian is if you somehow appreciate it even through you’re killing it for a snack (ie respect it as God’s creature; but respecting what you kill by most would seem an oxymoron). And the only way to eat meat as a buddhist consistently is if you can guarantee that you are not influencing the deaths of more animals (which is near impossible due to how easily people are influenced).

Its immoral as it just isn’t fair to the animal. However if you don’t care about such things as being nice and respectful to animals, I can’t really do much for you!

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