If you believe animals have souls, should they be eaten for our consumption?

Question

LOL this thing keeps ringing in my head. I haven't touched meat in a very long time. Probably safer for your karma to become vegetarian?

Answer 1

It doesn't matter if they have souls or not.  Their pain is real! No, they shouldn't be eaten for selfish tastebuds.

Answer 2

You certainly won't reach enlightenment with a gut full of tortured flesh in my opinion.  I think that eating meat does cause bad karma.  Our house has been a lot more peaceful since we stopped bringing dead animals into it.

Answer 3

I don't believe animals have souls, that is a concept between humans and the God, in which they believe.

Answer 4

Do animals have souls? I don't -=KNOW=-, but possibly they do. But why draw the line there? Why is it ok to eat vegetables but not animals? Both are alive, both can react to stimuli.....so how do you discriminate?

I eat anything that doesn't eat me first...and with the latter, I'll put up a h**l of a fight.

Answer 5

come on if u eat animal u dont eat its soul u just eat what has perished and is of no use lol

Answer 6

I'm vegeterian! The karma thing, TRUe, but don't do it for Karma, think how bad the animals are treated, do you even WANT to eat something so unhealthy? Wouldn't you rather a happy earth where animals run in meadows freely?

Answer 7

If you believe animals have souls, and if you believe in spirits, and further, if you believe in karma, you would understand the views of a spiritual vegetarian.

I personally believe that animals have souls and whether or not it's true, I think we're better off being vegetarians, for our health, environment, and animals.

When animals are killed, they suffer tremendously, and contains high adrenaline that is unused at the time of slaughter. This unused adrenaline is extremely toxic and bad for ones who eat the flesh of these animals.

If you want to explore further, I suggest you read "Anger" written by Thich Nhat Hanh. He is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, and presents an important message that talks about this issue. He suggests that food can contain anger and people who eat it are affected by it. I didn't believe him at the time I read the book, but now as a vegan I finally understand his point of view.

Here is the Amazon link for the book (note page 15):

http://www.amazon.com/Anger-Cooling-Thic...

Answer 8

I do believe that animals have souls and they definitely shouldn't be RAISED to eat. I'm vegetarian myself but I do not object to hunting/fishing for food as it can be said to be "food-chain accordingly". As animals with souls kill other animals with souls in order to eat them, humans could kill in a quick way an animal that till then enjoyed a natural and free life IN ORDER TO EAT it; for fun or fur is a whole different business and I'm totally against it. What I mean is that I don't know if the macabre and unnatural thing is eating animals per se but breeding animals just to eat them, in other words, all the meat industry. So I pondered whether I would dare to hunt if there was not such a thing as meat served to you in such an easy way and I realised that I couldn't bring myself to kill an animal even if my life depended upon it, so after some research I decided to become vegetarian ...

Answer 9

I don't think that souls should come into it, because soulless or otherwise, wanting to eat their flesh doesn't justify the needless suffering and waste of life.

If a bull had no soul, wouldn't that make killing them worse, because they don't even have an afterlife to look forward to?

Insidentally, I do believe that all sentient beings have souls (excluding evil people)

Answer 10

They are not on the same 'soul' level as humans.

Leviticus 10:12 (King James Version)

12And Moses spake unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons that were left, Take the meat offering that remaineth of the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and eat it without leaven beside the altar: for it is most holy:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?boo...

But there was different rules for eating meat for the Jews:

Genesis 9:4 (King James Version)

4But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?boo...

In conclusion the eating of meat depends on ur religious beliefs.

Answer 11

Yes.  What does having a soul have to do with it?  It must be hard to be so righteous in the world we live in.  The world isn't fair.  ''Life feeds on life, feeds on life, feeds on life...  This is necessary''.  What isn't necessary is the mistreatment of animals, and the volume of animals we consume.  We could probably end our dependence on foreign oil simply by not consuming any more beef.  Farming is a sad sad business these days, thats why its important to know where your food is coming from.

Cheers

Answer 12

Yes animals,insects etc all have the same soul like ourselves.They should not be eaten.We all have passed through all these lives in the past till we took the human form of birth.

Answer 13

i think so yes, from a spiritual perspective it's better not to eat other things that have suffered and been in pain just for you to have something that you really don't need.  my karma is happy :)  there is no death in me!

Answer 14

Whether animals have souls or not, it can't be good for one's karma to needlessly contribute to the death of anything.

Answer 15

what the h**l?!? now people dont think that they have souls?!? ok, do they think that they are like a plant or something? people are NOT the nly ones with souls. no one who has a soul should be abused.

Answer 16

Well, I think you're right. That's why I'm a pollo vegetarian (It would make my life VERY hard to quit meat cold turkey {ha ha LOL turkey.. pollo vegetarian... nevermind})

Answer 17

I've been a complete vegetarian for 6 years, and before that didn't eat much meat.  I'm almost 30 and I've never had a steak in my life and never eaten seafood.  Now the thought of eating dead animal makes me ill, and I don't buy it or cook it either.

I am definately not an "animal lover" I actually think animals are kind of icky, but I still don't like the idea of one being killed just for me to eat, and I really don't like the whole factory farming thing.  THAT is disgusting.  Absolutely cruel and horrifying.

The link I posted is probably gross, be warned.

Answer 18

more souls for my consumption i guess!

no, i don't belive animals have souls.