Meat-eating christians?

Okay, I am officially a vegetarian! yay! lol You 'll understand that if youve read one of my other questions. Anyways... back to the question at hand: Why is it considered okay for christian to kill and devour an animal? I mean the Bible even says: Tho...

shalt not kill! Sooo why do we have meat-eating christians???

well technically if you kill in that way its for food which is essential for surviving so... yea plus you dont really kill the things now we just buy them at a store

The problem with that argument is that plants are living too, and when we eat them, well they die too.

***I mean the Bible even says: Tho shalt not kill! Sooo why do we have meat-eating christians???***

That is a mistranslation (very common in the King James Bible). The proper phrasing would be 'Do not MURDER'

By definition, murder involves malice, hatred, et cetera. So, its not the same as killing an animal for food.

Oh, goodness, where do I start. The commandment often quoted as, Thou shall not kill uses a Hebrew verb that usually refers to a premeditated, deliberate act that is better translated as, Thou shall not murder. It's about the illegal killing of other human beings. Further the Bible is full, I mean full, of people being directed to kill various animals as sacrifices to God...not to mention God's instruction to the armies of the children of Israel to take the promised land by force when necessary. There are detailed instructions about which animal foods were clean and which were unclean, and how to prepare the clean animals for consumption. Further, there is documentation of Jesus eating lamb, and there is even an account of him cooking fish, and directing his disciples on where and how to catch more fish than they could haul aboard their boat. So, I don't see how you can make a case for vegetarianism from a moral perspective based on the Bible. You are certainly free to feel that killing and eating animals is morally repugnant to you, but it's not Biblical principle. Please note: I'm not making a case against vegetarianism, although I am not one. I'm just saying the Bible offers you no support for it.

camppapa puts it very well. Of course, the bible also says not to kill other humans, but nevertheless involves an awful lot of deity-sanctioned murder, so all you can really take away from this is that the bible isn't a very coherent or consistent book.

yeahh, people have mentioned it but 'murder' and 'kill' are different things. However. Theres a common quote 'meat is murder'

So yeah, but in my eyes, its just peoples opinion.

Some christians believe in the death penalty, some don't. Not all will believe the same things to do with such things as this.

Congrats. on being a veggie btw! :D

Genesis 9. Read that. I would suggest reading it in the New Living Traslation so it is easier to understand. Verse 23 states;

'2 All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror. I have placed them in your power. 3 I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables.

arachnid, you're not suggesting that there is no difference between murder and killing, are you? Would you agree that there is a difference between my breaking into my neighbor's house and stabbing him to death so I can drag his wife and children off into slavery and my breaking into my neighbor's house and his shooting me to death to protect his family, wouldn't you? Tragic situations, both...but my reading of the Bible doesn't require my neighbor to allow me to ravage his family. The Bible requires us to live at peace with each other, as much as it depends on us. That requires that we go the extra mile and turn the other cheek but it doesn't require us to lay down and let evil destroy us. But, we're straying far afield from whether it's moral for me to eat steak.

duno, also in the bible they talk about the night they slaughtered so many lambs the streets ran red with blood, all for 1 drop of blood from eahc lamb to give to god... pretty blummin sick if ya ask me

red_rose_mafia, as a matter of personal curiosity: What moral framework, or aesthetic sensibility gives rise to your sense that the shedding of lamb's blood is sick. I wouldn't argue that in some instances the shedding of blood is sick and sickening. I just wonder what is the source of your feeling on the subject? Is it merely a personal preference, similar to my dislike of brussel sprouts, or is it a part of some school of thought?

camppapa: red_rose_mafia didn't say anything about a single lamb, she said that the streets ran red with blood. You don't find that kind of sick? I do, and I have no problem with eating meat.

This really has nothing to do with the christian part and more with the vegetarianism and killing. First of all why are you allowed to eat plants? Just because they don't have faces doesn't mean they don't feel pain. So basically you're killing those plants thus going back on what you are claiming is wrong...killing. And I dunno if you know this but kosher meat is from animals who have humanely died for food sources and is constantly checked upon. Just giving you more info for no reason.

arachnid and red_rose_mafia, I wouldn't enjoy a river of blood in the streets, either. (I don't know what story in the Bible r_r_m is referring to, unless it is Passover and there was no blood in the streets. The blood was put onto the doorway and the meat was eaten.

My point in asking about where the aversion to blood comes from is that it is a learned sensibility. Often, especially in societies that are at least culturally Christian, a person's moral sense is deeply underwritten by a Bible-based value system...even if the person is not a believer. The discussion would have to go on too long for this format, but where I'd want to take the dialog is toward the idea of the sovereignty of God. The notion that God's authority is absolute. It's the doctrine that we humans most object to. It offends our sense of equality and equity. We bristle at the notion that anyone has an unquestioned right to direct us. At the same time that our moral sensibility (most often) comes from God, we accuse God using His own principles and precepts against Him. We treat God like the police treat a suspect: Anything He says or does can and will be used against Him.

first of all god put the animals here for food for us, I mean ok if we didnt eat animals and plants (some) what would we eat?? thou shalt not kill, means dont go to your next door neighbors house and kill them...it isn a sin to eat meat...its here for a reason, and what do you think they ate back then, in christ's days, they fished, kill the fish and ate it..//meat isn a sin, thou shalt not kill=humans, not animals, and sorry just have to say it, isn mistranslated