I've expressed this sentiment before, but it bears
repeating. It's sort of in the same vein
as two of my previously expressed opinions, those having to do with the food
choices of fear-ridden, fad-driven American public.
The whole "I don't eat anything with a face" is
just...bunk. Human beings are
omnivores. Our bodies are designed to
utilize nutrition from many sources--animal, vegetable and mineral. We eat animals. We just...do.
I love animals. I
feel a deep spiritual connection to them...I don't think of them as having been
put on this earth for man to dominate, or to use for any purpose we desire any
time we want. To me, the other members
of the animal kingdom were put here by the Creator for purposes every bit as
"important" as human beings.
But the animal kingdom offers many examples of animals that
eat other animals. Predator/prey is a
fact of life on earth, ordained by the Creator...part of the natural order of
things. Do we hate hawks because they
prey on the pretty little birds in the garden?
Do we despise lions because they bring down lovely swift gazelles and
zebras? Do we get angry at orcas for
killing seals? No. We may (unjustifiably) think that the ways
some animals procure their food is cruel, or gruesome, or sad. But the animals are simply following the instructions
that the Creator set forth for them.
Only human beings have the audacity to second-guess the
Almighty and declare our natural diet morally unacceptable.
If you feel like giving up meat, if you decide that the
thing for you to do is walk that difficult walk of trying to replace animal
protein in your diet with crazy combinations of legumes and grains, knock
yourself out. I'll simply point out that
if it was the "right" and "natural" thing to do, it
wouldn't be so complicated.
It's not like I consume three pounds of red meat a week, or base my diet upon mass quantities of bacon,
or even chicken. And, let's face it,
having a diet too heavy in animal protein is an economic challenge these
days. But if I choose to enjoy a burger
or a pork chop now and then, and consume a fair quantity of poultry (because
that's what I can afford) I am not going to be haunted by one ounce of guilt. I'm pretty secure in the knowledge that the
Creator is okay with the concept of food chains and that the guys at the top
consume the guys lower down, since that was how the Creator set things up.
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