Jesus Was a Vegatarian. Must see!

[Ahsun]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv3uU2YY6pM what are your thoughts.

[BlackTiger]

Meat was very expensive 2000 years ago... To be a vegetarian was much more affordable.

PS: Why vegetarians try to convert everybody into their religion?...

[Charles David]

Ahsun,

Thank you for posting that link; I watched it in its entirety

My thoughts? In my opinion, we should make efforts to ensure that any animals we eat have been treated humanely, respectfully and with gratitude for their great sacrifice. Because it is not always possible for us to know if this is the case, we could say a prayer for the animals' souls, that they may have a favorable rebirth.

This prayer comes to mind;

May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
May all beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.


I believe it is a noble sacrifice to give up eating meat, but I do not think that it is necessary to be a vegetarian in order to live a noble life. I became a vegetarian for many years in response to the industrial cruelty towards animals that I had read about. Now that I have begun to eat meat again, I try to find sources of animals that have been loved and cared for responsibly. My preference is to eat a wild animal that I have hunted myself.


With All My Best,


Charles

[Omar]

The debate on vegetarianism have probably as many answers as there is people.

I fully support becoming a vegetarian when seeing the industrial cruelty towards animals.

However I eat meat as it is a important part of my diet. Up here in Norway without meat we would have.. rocks, straw and potatoes

If there was more information available I would not mind increase in price for meat that I knew came from well treated animals.

I could not hunt a animal myself unless it was absolutely needed, but it is in my eyes not worse then picking up a steak from the supermarket freezer.

I am however baffled at the hunting that goes on just for the sport of it. Whats wrong with cardgames?

[Chiahua]

However I eat meat as it is a important part of my diet. Up here in Norway without meat we would have.. rocks, straw and potatoes

So which category would you put lutefisk in?

[Omar]

Hi,

I would simply classify lutefish as meat, as it is the body of a animal. But it is not a dish I am very fond of compared to other ways of preparing fish.

Thankfully most of my family stick to the lamb section of traditional Norwegian cuisine, and not the part where we mess up the otherwise excellent fish we got

For example on Iceland, one of the traditional dishes since the viking age is shark, that you put into a hole in the ground for a long time until it is half rotten. This is then served with strong alcoholic beverage.

I could also introduce you to the horror that is Scottish haggis, but that would be

a) Going way more offtopic.

b) Not as good a description as anyone Scottish on the forum could provide.

c) Resulting in me being subject to several hard hitting "accidents" next time I spar with any of my Scottish brothers

[Chiahua]

For example on Iceland, one of the traditional dishes since the viking age is shark, that you put into a hole in the ground for a long time until it is half rotten. This is then served with strong alcoholic beverage.

I've seen this shark dish on a television show. I don't think I could eat it without strong alcoholic beverage.

[AlexBaranosky]

I used to be a vegetarian. I had convinced myself that it was somehow "bad" to eat meat. But now I see it was just immature to think that way. And I was mistrusting the wisdom of my body that wanted the meat.

I am created in the image of God, if you will. And when my body craves meat, or fish, or animal products, is that not an affront to the perfection of my being and the perfection of my creator to not eat meat?

Are the animals all spiritually impure?... because they don't seem to mind killing and eating each other.

All beings must die. That is a truth. So what concerns me more is the quality of life of the animals, this I admit. It does not concern me whether I eat animals or don't. [If I crave animal I eat it, if not then I don't.] Just like in life, what matters most is the quality of your moments, strung together. Whether you reach all of your lofty goals in the end matters little, in comparison to the joy experienced along the journey. So I wish that for the animals too, because I am a softy in my heart, hehe

All the Best

[AndrewBill]

The Bible does not say that it's forbidden to eat meat.

I enjoy eating meat... I also enjoy a meal without meat.

It is up to you and it's not gods will that you "suffer" by just following Jesus Christ.

It's better to be a happy vegetarian than a vegetarian who seems to suffer because of his belief.

Edit:
So if you're vegetarian... live it, enjoy it and be happy to be what you are.
The same thing should be for the other side.

Be a vegetarian if you really want it and like it and not because you must be.

[Ahsun]

i myself eat meat and later when im ready i might become vegatarian. i believe that meat eating is not truly compassionate unless if you seriasly need it. so what i do is before i eat a meal whith meat i recite
the great compassion mantra over it.

also for the mahayana buddhists check out http://www.fodian.net/world/FAQ_Meat.html

[DoubleA]

Hello all,
I'm a Christian, and hope I do not offend anyone with my response. But...I find no place in the Bible where it says that Jesus was a vegetarian, or where he instructs his followers to be. I myself eat meat, and I enjoy eating meat...and will most likely never consider being a vegetarian.

My question for you all is...whether the animal is treated nicely as it lives or not...ultimately, it's still killed. Isn't being killed...not being treated nicely? Thereby crossing out all of the good treatment that was done to it when it was alive?

And also... I struggle to use the phrase, treat them "humanely" when they aren't human. I would rather approach it with the Biblical perspective:

"And the fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you, as I gave the green plant. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood." (Genesis 9: 2-4)

When I eat, I do bless the food. But, I bless the food, praying that it will be used for the nourishment of my body. Since we Christians do not believe that animals have souls, that doesn't lay on my conscience. After all, Jesus once sent demons into a heard of swine, knowing that they'd go over a steep bank, and into the waters and kill themselves (Matthew 8:28-34). And Jesus, being God the Son...initiated the whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament...where they would slaughter hundreds if not thousands of animals daily as offerings to God the Father. According to the Bible, they were put here for our enjoyment, and for our nourishment.

Hope that wasn't too strong. But as I was reading, I felt the need to share my perspective also.

DoubleA

[AlexBaranosky]

Hello DoubleA,

I am not a Christian, and I have not read all of the Bible (I have read some).

"My question for you all is...whether the animal is treated nicely as it lives or not...ultimately, it's still killed. Isn't being killed...not being treated nicely? Thereby crossing out all of the good treatment that was done to it when it was alive?"

Being killed is the lesser of two evils, in my humble opinion. Every creature dies, humans, ants, trees, dogs, chickens, etc...

So since we're going to kill them, we might as well treat them as horribly as possible first, right? I mean we're going to kill them, so let's torture them first, dip them in boiling water, and just slap them around because... HEY their just stupid animals and God says we can do whatever we want to them... <sarcasm off>

To me I got too much heart for that.

"And also... I struggle to use the phrase, treat them 'humanely' when they aren't human."
Ever heard of the saying, "Treat animals kindly, because animals are people too."? The way I see it, animals are people too. Not so different from me. And I don't really care if it says otherwise in the Bible. (animals have souls, by the way) I care about being decent, and I do unto others as I would want done to me, that includes animals.

[DoubleA]

Hello,
Thanks for your response. I haven't actually seen the video, so I'm not saying that I agree with all that was done to them. I was merely reading the post and responding to them.

I am not saying that the animals should be abused. I don't know if that is what you were thinking I was saying or not.

Also, I'm not going to say that you have to believe that animals don't have souls. I was merely saying what I believe. I do not believe they do.

I also do not believe animals are people.

I'm not here to start a fight. I was just expressing my opinions, much like you are. My main response was to whether I thought Jesus was a Vegetarian or not, and whether it's okay to eat animals according to our faith since it seemed to be addressed.

No, I don't get some sick pleasure out of abusing animals for the fun it. But, I was trying to get across that I think killing them should be seen as just as bad, if not worse.

If you don't agree, that is okay. Again, i'm not here to argue with you, merely express my opinion. Thank you for the sarcasm.

DoubleA

[AlexBaranosky]

Hi DoubleA,

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

[DoubleA]

That's cool. Thanks for your response. Have a good night, man.

DoubleA