The Bible says it's fine to kill animals
God put them on earth for us to eat
I'm not going to quote The Bible itself to refute the claim that God wants us to hurt and kill his animals, mainly because using scripture to justify any act tends to bring forth the problem that it can be interpreted in any number of ways depending on the views of the reader. Individual scripture can always be cherry picked (and often is) to justify all kinds of acts, be they moral or not.
So instead of looking to a book written by fallible humans over 2000 years ago and plucking out the verses we agree with, let's instead consider whether God himself would be happy with what we do to the animals he created - and all in the name of a food he created us with no biological need to be consume.
Consider if a just god would be impressed that we:
- Artificially breed them into existence in their billions and confine them in awful and unnatural conditions.
- Take their lives when (in almost all cases) they are still babies.
- Cram them onto transport trucks where millions suffer slow, painful deaths in transit.
- Force them against their will into slaughterhouses where we hang them upside-down and slit their throats.
- Drop day-old male chicks into grinding machines or gas chambers (because they can't lay eggs).
- Take newborn calves from their mothers and kill them so that we can drink the milk intended for them.
- Rip the testicles from and cut the tails off piglets without pain relief
- Burn the ends off the beaks of baby chickens because we know confining them together will make them fight.
- Destroy God's air, oceans, lakes, rivers and forests with destructive and unsustainable animal agriculture.
The list of abuses goes on, many of them acts that would find you arrested if you did them to a cat, a dog, or any animal we haven't arbitrarily classed as 'food'. If God's will and the morality acquired from The Bible is what causes us to criminalize animal abuse, why do we then turn a blind eye to the torment of a few unfortunate species whose flesh we have no need to consume?
God created these animals with the ability to feel pain, to form social bonds and to elicit emotions, with a strong will to live and the instinct to fight to stay alive. Why would a kind and loving God create animals with these traits if he then wanted us to confine, enslave, hurt and kill them? Is this the act of someone who is kind and just? Because they sound more akin to something the Devil would condone.
Is it possible instead that we've misinterpreted God's intentions?
Looking at scripture, not only did God command 'thou shalt not kill' but he also gave us 'dominion over the animals'. But rather than living honestly by these ideals, we've instead twisted them into 'thou shalt not kill (unless we like the taste of the animal's flesh)' and have chosen to use our dominion to hurt, abuse and kill vulnerable animals when we could instead use that responsibility to show peace, love and protection to all God's creatures - to the animals He's left in our care.
So instead of looking to a book written by fallible humans over 2000 years ago and plucking out the verses we agree with, let's instead consider whether God himself would be happy with what we do to the animals he created - and all in the name of a food he created us with no biological need to be consume.
Consider if a just god would be impressed that we:
- Artificially breed them into existence in their billions and confine them in awful and unnatural conditions.
- Take their lives when (in almost all cases) they are still babies.
- Cram them onto transport trucks where millions suffer slow, painful deaths in transit.
- Force them against their will into slaughterhouses where we hang them upside-down and slit their throats.
- Drop day-old male chicks into grinding machines or gas chambers (because they can't lay eggs).
- Take newborn calves from their mothers and kill them so that we can drink the milk intended for them.
- Rip the testicles from and cut the tails off piglets without pain relief
- Burn the ends off the beaks of baby chickens because we know confining them together will make them fight.
- Destroy God's air, oceans, lakes, rivers and forests with destructive and unsustainable animal agriculture.
The list of abuses goes on, many of them acts that would find you arrested if you did them to a cat, a dog, or any animal we haven't arbitrarily classed as 'food'. If God's will and the morality acquired from The Bible is what causes us to criminalize animal abuse, why do we then turn a blind eye to the torment of a few unfortunate species whose flesh we have no need to consume?
God created these animals with the ability to feel pain, to form social bonds and to elicit emotions, with a strong will to live and the instinct to fight to stay alive. Why would a kind and loving God create animals with these traits if he then wanted us to confine, enslave, hurt and kill them? Is this the act of someone who is kind and just? Because they sound more akin to something the Devil would condone.
Is it possible instead that we've misinterpreted God's intentions?
Looking at scripture, not only did God command 'thou shalt not kill' but he also gave us 'dominion over the animals'. But rather than living honestly by these ideals, we've instead twisted them into 'thou shalt not kill (unless we like the taste of the animal's flesh)' and have chosen to use our dominion to hurt, abuse and kill vulnerable animals when we could instead use that responsibility to show peace, love and protection to all God's creatures - to the animals He's left in our care.
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For a greater perspective looking more closely at scripture this Vegetarianism in the Bible page is worth a read. So too is this blog post from the Happy Herbivore.
There is also a post here from JesusPeopleForAnimals.com considering the truly awful things we do to animals
in the name of dominion.
Gary Yourofsky's passionate take on this matter is also worth a look. No punches pulled.
There is also a post here from JesusPeopleForAnimals.com considering the truly awful things we do to animals
in the name of dominion.
Gary Yourofsky's passionate take on this matter is also worth a look. No punches pulled.
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"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy."
Matthew 5:7
Matthew 5:7