Eating Meat is Unethical

This may sound outrageous, but in reality it is deceptively simple. All I need is one paragraph to make a 100% iron-tight argument. (Two caveats: first, by 'eat animals' I refer to the industry of keeping livestock or attacking animals for the purpose of consuming them or a byproduct of them. Roadkill is fair game. Second, those not living in a modern, Western society, without access to  the foods we take for granted, cannot be included. This is for the modern world. Anyone living in poverty must think of themselves and their loved ones first before other animals. I'm not advocating martyrdom.)

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Ethics may differ between cultures, but every modern culture agrees that unnecessary aggression is unethical (excluding consenting combat). And it is a long-proven fact that humans can thrive on a diet devoid of animal products. A few people argue otherwise, and I'll gladly respond to any concerns in this regard, but I can guarantee that there's science to back this up (Your best chance at living to 120 without centenarian genes is by following Dr. Colin Campbell's dietary advice). So, because you don't need meat for survival, and because you know that causing suffering to others is wrong (it is literally hardwired into your brain in a form you call Empathy), then it naturally follows that killing a sentient creature for its flesh is wrong, because it clearly constitutes unnecessary aggression. It is fundamentally unethical. Since eating meat directly endorses this unnecessary aggression, that is also unethical. 
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First note: I ate meat for 24 years before changing my diet as an experiment, and I don't consider myself to have been a 'bad' or 'stupid' person when I did eat meat. It's about perspective. Eating meat is deeply ingrained into us. Long before our rational brains developed, we were taught that it was OK. It's just cultural momentum. Eating meat was necessary for the survival of many of our ancestors. But society advanced so rapidly, especially in the 20th century, that our humanity didn't have time to adjust to the technology we created. But now is the time. We're smart enough, and mature enough, to trash these training wheels that are keeping us from really flying as a species.

Second note: Even if we convince ourselves that other animals are not sentient/capable of suffering, that doesn't change the fact that we humans are inherently empathetic creatures (besides the textbook psychopaths, that is), and causing harm to another creates a cathartic effect in which we experience that suffering, and end up internalizing it. We can desensitize ourselves to this suffering, but that is by definition going against basic human nature. We are lovers, not fighters, at heart, at our most basic level. 

Ending thoughts: It's the destiny of our species to become the Guardians of this beautiful planet, as we slowly shake off our immature and self-destructive habits, and spread out amongst the stars. It's our birthright and I will have nothing less. I think it's time we started acting like it. 

again? There is a 40+ pg thread on this already just recently and quite a few older ones.

Case closed!

a reply to: Son of Will

Attempting to lecture people about eating meat is stupid.

I will make 2 iron tight arguments in this post to prove my point.

1. No one cares about your opinion.

2. My incisors and my taste buds tell me that eating meat is part of my evolutionary identity and it tastes so good. So so good.

a reply to: crazyewok

I cannot eat bacon. Can't stand the taste or the smell. Sausage also. Happened overnite, several months ago, and no clue as to why. I love pork chops, porkloin, pork ribs, though. Nom...nom...nom...all things beef, chicken, lamb.

Why would a proud carnivore wake up one day agast at the smell and taste of deliciousness?

originally posted by: Son of Will
Eating Meat is Unethical

If you are asserting meat eating's 'unethicality' denies that meat eating is also 'ethical', you are in error.
(See; E-Prime)
First, you imply that 'ethics' are conditional, and I say that they are not! Do not make the mistake of conflating the insanity and conditionality of 'morality', judging people and things as 'good/evil/bad'.
'Ethics' are an 'unconditional' feature of unconditional Love!

True, unconditional Love is ALWAYS recognized by It's unconditional Virtues; Compassion, Empathy, Sympathy, Gratitude, Humility, Charity (charity is never taking more than your share of anything, ever!), Honesty, Happiness, Faith...
ALWAYS!

An example of an 'ethic' is;

"Do NOT do to 'others' what you don't want done to you!"
(EVERYTHING in the Universe (and everyone), is 'others', and 'others' Is Self!)!

Animals CAN be raised and slaughtered ETHICALLY at every step along the way.
That, obviously, is not the case with capitalist factory farms, which is not to say 'ethical treatment' does not happen!

The bible, in one of it's few lucid and relevant passages mentions, when asked about 'unclean meat/food', says that it is all 'clean' if consumed "with prayer and thanksgiving"!
In a state of unconditional Love, which transcends all 'karma', whether 'personally torturing and killing the animal, or consuming the product of other insane and greedy people, meat is, thus, 'clean' to eat.
Consumption of meat, along with other things, is our physiognomy, our nature, and there is not anything 'wrong' (unless one makes arbitrary 'judgments' (morality)) with being the cutting edge of hundreds of millennia of evolution!
Unconditional Love allows 'us' to transcend the 'merely' animal/physical nature.

You are most certainly 'correct' in that eating meat is (can be seen as) unethical!
Eating meat is (can be seen as) ALSO quite ethical, depending on Perspective!
Heads and Tails = same One Coin! *__-

Hitler was a vegetarian, enough said.

originally posted by: NewzNose
a reply to: crazyewok

I cannot eat bacon. Can't stand the taste or the smell. Sausage also. Happened overnite, several months ago, and no clue as to why. I love pork chops, porkloin, pork ribs, though. Nom...nom...nom...all things beef, chicken, lamb.

Why would a proud carnivore wake up one day agast at the smell and taste of deliciousness?

I had a aunt have that happen.

We have no idea why.

If eating meat is unethical then why are animals made out of food!

Also why do vegetarians flavor most of their "replacements" like meat?

for good measure





Much love!

originally posted by: Enochstask
Hitler was a vegetarian, enough said.

See; non-sequitur fallacy!
Enough said.

Hitler also brushed his teeth, do you?
Enough said. *__-

a reply to: Son of Will

Is killing plants ethical?

Wasting food is unethical. Killing and grilling is the way of life.

I'll be hunting Bambi all weekend, I'm a monster!

a reply to: crazyewok

Whew! At least I no longer stand alone, head hung in shame.

Thank you.

Sorry, I prefer to get my B12 the way nature intended, by eating tasty animals.

I think hunters have more respect and empathy for animals than your average vegan.
They participate in the circle of life and are grateful for the animal that gives them sustenance.
They intimately know how animals live, what they eat, where they sleep and where they fit in the grand scheme of life.
I despise factory farming for it's cruelty make no mistake.
We take supermarket meat for granted and care nothing for the life it was taken from.
Every disconnect from nature that becomes routine distances us further from the source of life and the creator.
Same goes for farmed vegetables really - those you grown at home keep us connected to our Earth.

a reply to: Son of Will

We, as humans, are omnivorous. That means genetically we're meant to eat plant and animal. Animals eat each other in nature all the time. We as humans have the ability of higher thinking, but for some reason the one thing we keep forgetting is that in the end, we're still animals.

You can say it's unethical all you want, with any proof you want, but I feel it's unethical to think we're above nature. If you wish to believe that it's wrong to eat meat, then good for you. But I believe in balance, and prefer a diet of both. As for the suffering, yes, it sucks that meat is mass-produced in the ways that it is, but unfortunately we've got entirely too many people on this planet. If supply couldn't meet demand, well, we may know what happens there soon enough. XD

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

Did you have to include the bacon?

originally posted by: NewzNose
a reply to: crazyewok

I cannot eat bacon. Can't stand the taste or the smell. Sausage also. Happened overnite, several months ago, and no clue as to why. I love pork chops, porkloin, pork ribs, though. Nom...nom...nom...all things beef, chicken, lamb.

Why would a proud carnivore wake up one day agast at the smell and taste of deliciousness?

Same thing here, many decades ago!
One day, I ate some of my famous spaghetti and meat sauce and got sick (no one else did.
I didn't eat meat for two years; no meat, fish, eggs or any products therefrom.
One day the old taste-buds said it was time to break that fast.
It was a Thanksgiving day, and I bought a turkey.
We (family) were out of propane that Sunday, so I dug a hole in the dirt, built a big fire, 'dropped it in' when coals, and covered it all with dirt.
A few hours later, dug it up and OH what a 'Thanks-giving'!! *__-
No 'why' has ever been perceived.
Just is. *__-

Hell we are on way to a type 1 and type 2 civilization we will pick this hunk of rock clean of every spec of nature,animals included. Loads of other planets out there after we are done with this one.


When your at the top of the food chain you eat and animal or two.

I got caribou stew in my slow cooker as we speak.



a reply to: Son of Will

Then why do our tongues have Glutimate flavor receptors? TO taste the meat we haven't evolved to eat?



About empathy. I say Empathy is what makes humans such great predators. Think about it rationally. Predators without an abundant tool set of natural weapons built into them like say a Tiger does with it's speed and claws has to use cunning to to outsmart their prey. A good cunning predator has to be able to think from the perspective of the prey. To be able to put themselves in their shoes and understand their behavior and emotions. It's how predators drive animals into ambushes by understanding their psychology. To understand their psychology you have to be able to empathize with said prey to first be able to put yourselves in their shoes. Ergo, empathy is more than just a tool to maintain social courtesy. It's one of our greatest killing tools!

Eat meat with no spices and tell me if it's still yummy. In its natural state it's foul # to the tongue. Preaching to ATS about eating meat? You'll get out dated programmed beliefs thrown at you, bacon jokes, false claims about us being omnivores, what about b12, what about protein, everything in moderation, Manson was Vegetarian, etc. Just remember when you were deep in the meat game and someone coming to you saying you shouldn't eat that well seasoned slab of meat, you'd go all dairy farmers loyal shoe shiner on people. Eating meat is in fact unethical considering the replacement products, how cancer causing, cell damaging it is, horrible for the planet but hey what would we do without bacon? This is no Vegan friendly site that's for sure. Open minded people about a flying rat reptilian moth man cat alien worm but let you say how terrible eating animal flesh is and you will get bashed with lame science. Preach on though, for those still open to the truth.