I am against vegetarianism? Opinions?

I think you are absolutely entitled to your opinion.

That being said, it is quite easy for me to address each and every one of your points. This is not me trying to offend, but my interpretation of your thoughts and my response to each.

1. Your interpretation of the Bible is that we're supposed to eat meat. It is just as easy to interpret the Bible in a way that suggests that vegetarianism is an ideal. The Bible very clearly states that Adam and Eve didn't eat the animals in the Garden of Eden. In the descriptions that exist of Heaven, it also looks like there's no killing, even among obligate carnivores (the lion will eat straw like the ox). Look at Romans 14:21. The Bible contains many passages that are supportive of (and many that are counter to) vegetarianism. I'm not religious really, but religious texts are highly subject to interpretation.

2. Is there actually anything even vaguely natural about the way you get meat? If you are like the vast majority of people online (there are a few notable exceptions, even among those who post here), you go to the store and buy it. You have absolutely no stake whatsoever in your meat. You don't see the animal it comes from. You don't catch it. You don't kill it. You don't cut it up into usable parts. Furthermore, you have a choice where a lion doesn't. A lion simply cannot eat grass. It just doesn't work. You and I, however, are able to synthesize nutrients from both plants and animals. Having access to certain types of technology means that we are able to get a wide variety of foods. For nearly everyone who is taking part in this discussion, eating meat (or not) is a matter of choice. You don't rely on it for survival, that's for sure.

3. This is tough to dispute. I know that I get annoyed when I run across someone who has such strong feelings about certain things that they actually seem to think anyone who disagrees is bad. You see this with people who are anti-gay (and who basically think that anyone who is gay is a moral deviant), those who are anti-abortion (and who call people who are supportive of abortion rights "murderers"), etc. That being said, I don't think that people should have to pretend that they agree with things that they don't agree with. I don't think vegetarians (or people who object to abortion or gay rights) should have to say, "Oh, no, I think it's FINE when people eat meat/get abortions/have sex with people who are the same gender." So long as they can be respectful, I do think people should feel comfortable with expressing themselves. "I think it's wrong to eat meat./I think abortion is wrong./I think same-sex marriage is wrong."

As for not wanting to eat non-vegetarian items, I'd challenge you to pick out an item that you don't consider food (or one that you would object to consuming on moral grounds) and ask yourself whether you'd do the same thing. As an example, would you be willing to eat dog soup if someone picked out all of the chunks of actual dog meat? Keep in mind that the broth is made out of dog. If you dropped your fork on the floor of a restaurant, would you use it, or would you want a clean one (or maybe to rinse or wipe off the one that fell)?

I hope this helps you better understand the vegetarian perspective. Again, not looking for a fight or debate, just responding to the ideas that you threw out.

Some vegetarians are that extream that they wont use the fork because it "touched bacon". I'm not one of those vegetarians that go around preaching and bugging you about eating a chicken wing. I don't even tell people if they don't ask. If they offer me meat I just simply say 'no thank you'.

But it's late so why not rant? haha. We don't have sharp teeth to tear the raw meat. We don't have sharp claws to kill with. Do you think that this is for a reason? Each vegetarian saves about 100 animals a year. I am also a Christian but that has no effect on me. In fact I think it makes me stronger to be a vegetarian.

So yes there are some annoying vegan/vegetarians that rant on how bad it is. I don't usually do that so yea.

But eat what ever you want. I have the utmost respect for you and your opinions. Everyone has opinions. Just like I have an opinion.

If people wish to live their life abstaining from eating flesh and buying into large corporations that benefit from the abuse, exploitation and slaughter of animals, then why does that bother you? I have met many intelligent and loving pigs before, and I wouldn't cook with a frying pan if it has cooked bacon anymore than I would cook with one that has fried up dog meat. That is just the way I feel because I don't agree with killing an animal simply to make a meal. In order for chicken stock to be made, a chicken must be killed, hence why a vegetarian does not consume it.

The Bible was written before the idea of a factory farm even tainted the minds of human beings. You want to subject animals to torture because you think we have dominion over animals? Go into a factory farm, where 99% of meat in North America comes from, and look around you. If you think God agrees with it and smiles down at you every time you put money into that factory farm, by all means eat as much meat as you want. For me, the command "Thou Shall Not Kill" applies to all animals, not just the ones that are cute and cuddly for you or the ones that are human.

Oh my where to start.... Well I am one of those vegetarians that won't eat with a fork that touched bacon etc and have been for over 20 years and I am raising my daughter that way too. My meat eating partner is very supportive and I guess is vego in spirit if not practise.

I am this way for many reasons - first I don't want dead things anywhere near me I think it's disgusting. Second it is a massive strain on the environment god gave us. Third I believe eating meat causes aggression. Fourth health experts from the Cleveland clinic agree vego is a healthier way to live fifth I categorically disagree that animals are here for us to eat - they have a right to exist in their own right and I want nothing to do with that sort of thinking.

There is anexvellent website called allgodscreatures.com which proves there are just as many biblical references that argue against meat

You're wrong to say you're against vegetarianism. That's just ridiculous.. You object to people who try encroach on your eating habits. If you want that, you'd be a hypocrite to suggest I start eating meat.

For me, vegetarianism started as a cultural thing and I stick to it because it's what I'm comfortable with, what I know how to cook and it fits my budget. So what if I avoid chicken stock?

I'm also an atheist. We are animals, and animals eat one another all the time. No big deal. I think I speak for the large majority of vegetarians when I say, we don't give a crap what anyone else eats.

Your rant is a tad off-base.

I think everyone has given excellent answers to this question so I will just add my little piece. I hear the argument a lot from meat-eating Christians that they think it can't be wrong to eat meat because it says we should eat meat in the bible. Great, I have no problem with that. However, the New Testament was written 2011 years ago (or so, right?). In those days, farms were quite small, there was no such thing as synthetic hormones or antibiotics, no animals were genetically engineered to grow fast, and I suspect there was very little torture and abuse in the raising of animals (I won't even mention slaughter, we'll leave that out of this).

In my (vegan) opinion, this is the type of situation G-d had in mind when He condoned the consumption of meat. Dominion over the animal kingdom permissible or not, I do not think that G-d would approve of the conditions that humans subject millions of animals to in the factory farming system that exists today, at least not any G-d that I would want to believe in. The compassionate G-d that I believe in would not approve of the torture and abuse that millions of animals experience everyday (slaughter excluded), He would not approve of keeping animals confined to a space that they could not stand up in or spread their wings, He would not approve of genetically engineering animals to grow so large that they could not even support their own weight, and He would not approve of forcing them to stand in piles of their own feces up to their knees.

No G-d that I believe in would approve of factory farming. I think G-d would find the common practices in factory farming completely unacceptable and downright reprehensible. No G-d that I believe in would give humans free reign to inflict unnecessary pain and suffering on His creatures. That simply is NOT what was meant when those passages condoning meat eating were written in the Bible. I think when those passages were written, it was with the assumption that humans would produce the meat responsibly and with appropriate respect for the lives that He created, as we did for many thousands of years. That is not what is happening now, not by a longshot. That is why I refuse to support the industry in any way, not even to eat some chicken broth.

My opinion: I really don't understand why you care so much about what other people don't put in their mouths.

I CAN eat the soup made from chicken stock, I just CHOOSE not to. What's it to you?

I am by the way an atheist. The argument you think applies to me (we are all animals) is completely irrelevant. It is called a naturalistic fallacy.

So what if the lion eats the antelope? I am not a lion. So what if I am an animal? I am also a rational being capable (unlike the lion) of making moral decisions. And MY moral decision - given the fact that I don't NEED to eat meat to survive and stay healthy - is not to eat animals.

There are a LOT of things that are natural that you and I - no matter the different sources of our moral framework - can undoubtedly agree on are not morally right. For instance 'natural' would be to have sex with members of our species who have only barely reached sexual maturity in order to procreate. That would be 12-16 year olds. I assume you think that would be wrong. So do I. This is not by the way a christian moral, the bible would simply tell us to marry that adolescent before having sex. It is a moral that was developed culturally and was subsequently reflected in law.

But I digress. The point is that natural is not the same as moral, and that idea applies to religious people and atheists alike. For me personally eating animals is just one more of those things that are natural, but which I don't consider to be morally right. I know this is not a universal moral. I don't ask you to abide by my moral decision. I just ask you to respect my right to make this moral decision for myself.

We have intellect to know what is causing pain to animals including our own species- we have that reason, the thing g-d is supposed to be so fond of- our human nature gives us the reasources to know what is right and wrong and practice good ethics. Jesus was all about that, weren't he? If you are into all that religion stuff -

ANimals in the wild eat to survive, and we don't need to eat meat to survive.

How about having dominion over stuff and actually showing you're a big man by traeting it with respect and kindness- it was born too, same as you, and we don't need to eat any animal to live, so why do we eat the ones we do, why not cats and dogs too?

If man does have dominion, where do you get that dominion means violence and aggression- the most low-down forms of human behaviour?

It was Spurlock by the way. ANd sorry you're against a section of humanity, many of whom for are an embodiment of that word- humanity. You don't seem to practice that which you've been told- humanity, compassion and understanding.

You probably don't like gay dudes either, or women who use birth control.

If you KNOW, with your g-d given intelligence and reason , that an animal doesn't want to be killed and eaten and it will cause the animal pain if you shoot it, then why do you think your g-d thinks it's OK to go ahead and do it? DIdn't yur g-d create those animals too, just like us? WHy are you ruining his creations for your greed?ANd that IS all it is- you like meat and you eat it. It's never about survival in this case.

The whole point about not using chicken stock, or not wanting your fork to touch bacon- is the whole point of the principle, and making what you see as a tiny pointless gesture is the whole point - making that difference in even tiny moments, it's a principle thing. ANd like all principles, they stand up in any situation. If you don't understand WHY chicken stock is wrong- ( it means the KILLING of an animal, just to make soup), then I think you should connect more.

I think the most sensible answer would be that:

Plants can be categorized as 1 celled organisms.

That is, they have only 1 sense - FEEL.

Animals on the other hand have 5 senses.

Although being vegan is simply ingesting naturally safe and nutritious chemicals, people often argue that plants also feel pain when killed.

Another answer to that (excuse my sadist approach) but removing all religious aspects from it,

Piercing a sharp knife into your hand OR

Piercing a sharp knife into your eyeball, tongue, throat, ears, nose and hands - Which one would you prefer?

Vegans can justify their eating of plants with the fact they want to satisfy their stomachs with minimal pain rather than causing maximum pain by killing another 5 sensed organism to fill your stomach.

:)

A lion eating an antelope is completly different than a human eating a cow. Lions don't have a choice in what they eat. They can't actuley think to them selves "maybe it is wrong to kill that gazelle" but humans are different. Humans don't have to eat meat to survive anymore and we are capable of thinking about animals and moral choices. In supersize me Morgans girl friend was telling him that eating meat from factory farms is wrong (if you don't know what factory farms are than look it up on YouTube and wikipedia) vegetarisnism isn't a cult. I'm not sure you know what a cult is. In vegetarianism we don't all get together and think about ways to kill meat eaters or something. We simply love animals and think it's unfair to kill them when you don't have to. Once you actuley learn something about vegetarianism and animal rights than you'll realize that vegetarisnism isn't crazy. When you haven't eaten a dead creature in years you just don't want to have to put it in your mouth again that's all. If you have a problem with people that aren't ignorant about animal rights and show compassion for other living creatures than leave us alone and don't bug us like this.

Happy 4th of July

I am a vegetarian not because i believe it is wrong to eat meat, but because of the way the animals are treated before they are killed. In many cases, animals being raised for meat are mistreated, abused, and neglected. There are some pretty horrible things that humans do to animals that I really don't want to say (you can look it up if you want). I do not think it is wrong to eat meat... as long as the animal was treated and slaughtered humanely. Some people also do it for the health benefits (not me).