Bigthink - Feature Comments Feed

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:25:05 +0100

I understand the moral disinclination towards eating meat. After all you are knawing on a dead carcass, but one animal eating another is nature pure and simple and man is nothing but an animal. Of course too much meat consumption by individuals and entire populations is not only bad for the enviroment and bad for the body but it is also damaging to countless millions of people. Think about it, the amount of grain it takes to feed the massive hordes of livestock in this country could probably save lives around the world.
I think in the present situation people should remember the old proverb "Everything in moderation".

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:48:59 +0100

Like Isaac Bashevis Singer, who became a vegetarian permanently in 1962 and who often said that not eating meat and fish was his protest against the way men treated God's creatures. "For years I had wanted to become a vegetarian. I didn't see how we could speak about mercy and ask for mercy and talk about humanism and against bloodshed when we shed
blood ourselves--the blood of animals and innocent creatures."

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:33:46 +0100

I respect life. IT's that simple. If I - like our ancestors-, needed to eat meet to survive I still would do so today. But most of us today are in a position to live a healthy life without taking another one.

Just imagen that there would be a society - think about Africa - where the stronger one allows himself to take any life for whatever or no reason at all without any special need. Do You think that's alright?

And how about the believers? If you believe in ONE GOD who created all things shouldn't you then also respect ALL his creations!

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:31:39 +0100

I eat vegetarian because I understand that the lower down the food chain we go, the less energy we consume. With the world's population as it is and the many who do not have enough to eat, I believe it is vital that we conserve as much energy as we can. However, if there is not one vegetarian course on the table, I still eat what there is so the food doesn't have to be thrown away.

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:03:04 +0100

I think that the human deit is meant to be a balanced one and because of this our bodies are made to eat all diffrent types of food meat and produce alike. That is why I choose to eat whatever I want. Secondly anyone who is vegen should not consider what they are doing a form of protest against animal cruelty.....Thats just a retarded reason not to eat meat. I mean not all animals are raised cruely, because when I think of cruelty I think of some kind of pain the animal is put though. Also I know alot of people that say they are vegen but basically will eat meat so that is why I partailly dicredit vegenism as a movement or a form of protest. It's almost as if it is becoming mainstream but like as a fad for people that are deiting or just doing it because they think it is cool. I will say that I respect the hardcore vegens that truely have gone cold turkey on meat, because I probably couldn't stop eating in n' out burgers to save my life.

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 05:32:35 +0100

Ok, eating meat or animal products is not the equivalent of heedlessness and uncaring for animal rights and suffering. That seems to always a favorite point to be made by vegetarians and vegans when attacking anyone who doesn't follow their lifestyle....

...And the scientific hypothesis is exactly the opposite of "True until proven false."

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:34:11 +0100

i liked this line: "i don't eat anybody". well, to be exact, i disliked it. i ate meat, so i was, actually, eating someBODY. It's awful, i'm gonna be a vegan definitely however I realize it will not solve The Problem.

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 22:29:18 +0100

people have been eating meat for thousands of years... it's the natural cycle of life. Don't get me wrong, i'm totally against the improper treatment of animals and i think that many of the farms give animals poor lifestyles, but i don't think becoming vegan is the answer. I think we should concentrate more on where our meat comes from and how the animals have been treated. maybe its just me...

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 06:42:13 +0100

Cats don't have much choice in the matter of what they can eat to survive though, and humans do. To be honest, I briefly experimented with the vegan / vegetarian lifestyle when I was convinced I was going to get CJD. I wouldn't actually have a problem with carnivorous living if it weren't for the cruelty and animal abuse, as well as the industrialized nature of the whole thing. When the industry turns out a hamburger, they basically just toss a bunch of cattle into a meat grinder and whatever comes out is your food. Hunter/gatherer societies are fine by me, as long as there is respect for life and humane treatment of the animals.

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:48:10 +0100

Question to Moby should be "What does your cat eat?"
The reason given is weak because his cat is a carnivore (I hope he hasn't forced the cat to be a Vegan as this may be considered animal cruelty).
Keeping the cat that eats meat just for Moby%u2019s own pleasure is still causing animal suffering at the pet food factory, this is probably a weaker reason than eating meat for his own health and survival.

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:06:08 +0100

The human animal is an omnivorous one. we are designed that way . the human race would have never got where we are without eating whatever was available. you now have a choice because we are now so far removed from the hunter/gatherers we used to be. i respect your right to be vegan but respect my right not to be.

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:24:02 +0100

Well..
I started by going eliminating pig and cow from my diet after I moved away from my parents house at 17. Its not that I 'decided' anything in peticuler, it was just an extention of my eating habits.
At 19, I met a hare krisna devotee, who was vegetarian, who introduced me to vegetarianism as an extention of ethics and morality. At this point I was lacto/ovo, and occasionally ate fish. In 2005, I became involved in Food Not Bombs, and encountered veganism as a form of protest, and though I was only vegetarian at the time, the idea of control over the self as a form of protest had a profound impact on me.
It was about a year later, I made the decision to eliminate all animal products from my life to as great an extent as possible.
Its been over two years since I went vegan. I never had any great realisation that it was something I wanted to do, it was just an extention of the way my life was forming around me. To quote my the old woman, who is often so wise in situations such as this, "There is rarley ever one reason for anything".
Being vegan for me has worked very much in the way of a scientific hypothosis: True until proven false. I havent encountered anything that has ever made me want to be 'less' vegan, I have only felt more dedicated to the choices I have made in my life, and more dedicated to the idea of consious choice in life.

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:11:28 +0100

Sixteen years ago, I became vegetarian for the simple reason that I love animals and didn't want to them to be killed to satisfy my palate.

Today I am a vegan for many reasons. Mainly because of the institutionalized cruelty that is factory farming - but certainly health and environment factors contribute to my lifestyle choice.

Comment on: The Incisor Dilemma

Bigthink — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:15:29 +0100

I read Peter Singer, too, in college many years ago; and spent a good, healthy couple of years as a lacto-ovo vegetarian. I seems to me the challenge is living in a place where vegetarian menus are available. Granted, if the majority turned vegan over night, supply and demand would alter menus. Clearly, the majority is not convinced of the "animals suffering argument."

What can be done?