All life is sacred, or is it?
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
United States
September 16, 2011 9:20pm CST
I hear this all the time, that all life is sacred. If that were so, who would decide on which lives were expendable?
Some animals are raised for food. They have a brain and cute faces... and we probably couldn't kill them ourselves, but we go to the grocery store and buy packs of meat that were once part of a cow, chicken, lamb or whatever animal it was.
We also eat vegetables and fruit, which were also lives that were sacrificed. I know that some believe that plants have feelings. How do we know that an apple doesn't feel pain when it is plucked from the tree?
The simple fact is, we have to eat or we will die. In some societies cats and dogs are used as food. That sounds abhorrent to us, because that is not our custom. However, the fact that we eat cows, deer, lamb and chicken might be abhorrent to someone else.
So mylotters, what are your thoughts about taking the life of an animal for food? We aren't hunter gatherers anymore.. well most of us aren't.
Do you ever think about that package of ground beef as a piece of what used to be a living, breathing cow?
What are your thoughts?
My thoughts are... I don't always think about those packages of meat as once living beings? Why? Because they don't look that way anymore.... they are just pieces of processed meat now, and have no resemblance of the animals they were.
When I eat a cheeseburger, I am only thinking about how good it tastes. It is only certain times that I think about the animal that sacrificed its life for the food we eat.
Okay.. now it is your turn..
2 people like this
9 responses
@ravisivan (14079)
• India
17 Sep 11
pointless: I am a vegetarian. I am taught this way of food habits by me parents. Sometimes when I go through Costco or Meijer I use to be stunned at the quantity of meat that is stored and sold. This is in contrast to crude way of it being sold in chennai in some of the shops near my house. Such shops are located in one place in every locality.
You are one hundred per cent right in telling even vegetables have life. But we cut and eat. Talking of lives we kill a spider instantly because we want our children to be free from them.
We should not think too much in life. If we think then things cannot move ahead.
good day.
2 people like this
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
17 Sep 11
I was thinking about that today. I kill ants, and killed a spider the other day in the bathroom. It has life... and I'm about sure that insects and spiders and the like want to live their life without being stepped on... but I just can't help myself.. I can't coexist with a spider in the room.
1 person likes this
@Awinds (2468)
• United States
17 Sep 11
Maybe there's different types or levels of life? Most plants can't move. They don't have brains and I don't believe plants have hearts. They can't create and they really can't do anything intelligent. They are just masses of matter that happen to be organic and alive.
Animals are a step up from that. Animals can move and animals have instincts. Some animals (like chimpanzees) even can use parts of their environment tools and such. A lot of animals even have "property" - territory stake out and protected during mating season.
Then there are humans. Humans have culture and humans produce a lot more than plants or animals. We are capable of totally manipulating our environment. We don't just use what is available - we create things and adapt things to work for us. We are different from plants and animals.
Maybe all life is sacred. But that doesn't necessarily mean that all life is equal.
1 person likes this
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
17 Sep 11
Thank you for your well thought out post. All life isn't equal. I believe that is true thinking of our society. If it were equal we would probably all die of exposure and starvation.
1 person likes this
@Awinds (2468)
• United States
18 Sep 11
@POintlessQuestions. That is very true. If we did believe all life was equal, we couldn't eat plants or animals because that would be an act of inequality. We would starve.
@ravisivan. That is a keen observation. Some cultures have food that other cultures abhor. It does seem that in the end everything maintains a certain equal ratio. :)
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
18 Sep 11
I made this discussion years ago here and got lamb basted by some myloters but I say the same thing as you. Historically we are hunters and gatherers we still are, the gatherers turned into farmers and the agricultural societies emerged, we never lost the farmers never will, they are responsible for bring the animals to the slaughter houses and the produce to our markets and grocery stores.
It is just not in plain view anymore.
The ecosystem is built in such a way that everything depends on everything else as a source of food, owls will hunt field mice, spiders will eat flies and so on. Man is on top of this food chain, we eat meat because we are hunters, still from our ancient past. That is the scientific explanation, if you want a biblical one, God used to ask for animal sacrifices, that meant you had to kill an animal and in some cultures they ate that meat afterwards.
Yes I do know very well that packaged meats or that hamburger I ate was part of an animal, I make it a point not to waste food, I use every portion of the food I cook or buy. I eat leftover, make new meals from my meat, give extra to my neighbours if I have and I even feed my cats with meat but I will not throw away anything. Some animal gave up his or her life for me to eat.
The same with fruits or vegetables, I do not waste anything
1 person likes this
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
11 Oct 11
I can't help but think of the plant or animal that sacrificed its life so that my family has food.. even though I buy it in the grocery store, it doesn't matter to me. I always feel a sense of loss for the being that lost its life for me. I think of a plant as a type of being also... my African Violet is beautiful... I can tell when "she" is happy where she sits or not. I've got to move her because she seems to be a little shrunken up from what she was. She was on the dining room table near the kitchen window. She is in my room now and doesn't get enough sunlight I don't think.. she is aware to some point that she isn't happy where she is and is telling me in the only way she can.
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
17 Sep 11
I would drive myself nuts if I thought about this all the time. I have this empathy for animals AND flowering plants. I love my violet just like it's a pet. I wouldn't hurt it for the world.. and when 'she' flowers twice a year for me, it's like a gift for me. I really enjoy talking to my violet.
1 person likes this
@bird123 (10632)
• United States
17 Sep 11
Vegetables and fruit are not killed as you say. They spread their seeds by making food. We are part of their life cycle. As for animals, you are right,mankind could get all their food from plants. Things aren't all bad for the animals. When most every animal becomes extinct, the food animals will still be around. Mankind will make sure of that just to get that bacon cheeseburger and those chicken tenders. Seems those turkeys will make it too.
1 person likes this
@hardworkinggurl (37063)
• United States
17 Sep 11
To be honest when it comes to certain meats I don't give it thought that it came from an animal. Although I am very picky when it comes to which ones I will and or try, it has simply been out of how I was raised which was to eat the meats I enjoy.
I guess the only way I can describe it, is that unless it is a house pet, I simply see it as food. While I personally would not hunt for my own meat and or eat it if I know that it was hunted for, just a picky thing with me, but when it comes to the butcher and or grocery shops I simply see it as yummy food.
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
17 Sep 11
Oops! I put my response to you up above. I'm answering from my iPhone and it messed up. Sorry. Anyway I agree with you. I just think about the food in the store as food and don't think about their last moments as living creatures.
1 person likes this
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
11 Oct 11
that for the best response hon, I feel so guilty, I had to throw away some hamburger meat, this has not happened to me in years. I smelled it and it was bad. It was in the fridge too long. I don't know how that happened other than to blame it on the bad electricity in this house.
@PointlessQuestions (15397)
• United States
17 Sep 11
What? Not sure what you are referring to in your comment.
1 person likes this
@deedee328 (1122)
• United States
17 Sep 11
Alrighty now. I will never believe that fruits and vegetables feel pain. I do not believe in hunting and killing animals for the sport of it. I do believe that God has given us animals to use for food.
No, the majority of humans are not required to be hunters and gatherers anymore because we have farmers that raise our food for us, be it animal, vegetable, or fruit.
If I had to kill and butcher my own meat, I would surely die. I do not have the heart to kill. Thankfully, God gave to me a husband who has no qualms about doing that stuff.
I firmly believe that God gave us these things for food. The Bible confirms this. I don't think we should just go around killing things for the fun of it and wasting these gifts.
