All Creatures Great and Small and Two HUGE Elephants (Buddhist, church, priests)
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To keep the Moderators happy, please keep politics out of our discussions and focus on other aspects.
I want to look at this from a religious belief point of view as I feel religions should give us moral guidelines to follow.
It is not JUST about how we ourselves act, but it is about being responsible for the safety and care of those in our human and animal community. It seems there is a disconnect between what our religions teach - that we are here to look after the Earth, and how we rape, pillage, and destroy almost everything we touch.
Discussing the elephants in the room concerning
1) Animals which go to slaughterhouses for our and our pets food are treated really terribly yet the media and packaging of meat products remove the reality from us so we do not need to question our purchase or consider our conscience.
How we can treat so badly and kill certain animals (cows/sheep/pigs/chickens/ducks,etc) used for food when they are all Gods creatures. We treat our pets like children and our food animals like dirt. What gives us the right to act in such a disrespectful and degrading way.
2) Very similar to this, is the subject of child abuse.
As a society we often look the other way when this happens and then wonder why those same abused come back as killers and criminals, The ones who are the abusers are often those people in authority or who we vote for to lead us, maybe politicians, priests, or business "pillars of the community".
These sick people have wives and family members who know what is happening and yet they do not speak out to stop it - sometimes even when it involves their own family and friends.
To keep the Moderators happy, please keep politics out of our discussions and focus on other aspects.
I want to look at this from a religious belief point of view as I feel religions should give us moral guidelines to follow.
It is not JUST about how we ourselves act, but it is about being responsible for the safety and care of those in our human and animal community. It seems there is a disconnect between what our religions teach - that we are here to look after the Earth, and how we rape, pillage, and destroy almost everything we touch.
Discussing the elephants in the room concerning
1) Animals which go to slaughterhouses for our and our pets food are treated really terribly yet the media and packaging of meat products remove the reality from us so we do not need to question our purchase or consider our conscience.
How we can treat so badly and kill certain animals (cows/sheep/pigs/chickens/ducks,etc) used for food when they are all Gods creatures. We treat our pets like children and our food animals like dirt. What gives us the right to act in such a disrespectful and degrading way.
2) Very similar to this, is the subject of child abuse.
As a society we often look the other way when this happens and then wonder why those same abused come back as killers and criminals, The ones who are the abusers are often those people in authority or who we vote for to lead us, maybe politicians, priests, or business "pillars of the community".
These sick people have wives and family members who know what is happening and yet they do not speak out to stop it - sometimes even when it involves their own family and friends.
How can one keep politics out when you yourself mention politicians and the pillars of the community?
In Jesus day, Gods chosen scholars sent their own Messiah to his death out of hatred. False religious leaders let their young men kill the members of their own religion on the other side for men like Hitler.
Satan is why? He is their leader. Corrupt politicians can be added to that as well.
Satan is the answer to your whole post. He is the god of this system of things(2 Cor 4:4) blinding many=99%
To keep the Moderators happy, please keep politics out of our discussions and focus on other aspects.
I want to look at this from a religious belief point of view as I feel religions should give us moral guidelines to follow.
It is not JUST about how we ourselves act, but it is about being responsible for the safety and care of those in our human and animal community. It seems there is a disconnect between what our religions teach - that we are here to look after the Earth, and how we rape, pillage, and destroy almost everything we touch.
Discussing the elephants in the room concerning
1) Animals which go to slaughterhouses for our and our pets food are treated really terribly yet the media and packaging of meat products remove the reality from us so we do not need to question our purchase or consider our conscience.
How we can treat so badly and kill certain animals (cows/sheep/pigs/chickens/ducks,etc) used for food when they are all Gods creatures. We treat our pets like children and our food animals like dirt. What gives us the right to act in such a disrespectful and degrading way.
2) Very similar to this, is the subject of child abuse.
As a society we often look the other way when this happens and then wonder why those same abused come back as killers and criminals, The ones who are the abusers are often those people in authority or who we vote for to lead us, maybe politicians, priests, or business "pillars of the community".
These sick people have wives and family members who know what is happening and yet they do not speak out to stop it - sometimes even when it involves their own family and friends.
First off, this interests me from a Buddhist point of view. On the one hand, I have literally seen Buddhist monks 'saving' worms when they are cultivating a garden. On the other hand the monks eat any meat the people bring to them, and the logic seems to be that they didn't personally kill the meat, so it's no bad karma for them. Weird. In fact, I have been told that virtually all butchers in Thailand are Muslim (I have no idea if that is true). Personally, I accept that I am a carnivore, but I restrict myself to one meat meal per day, with very rare exceptions. That's the best I can do.
Child abuse of any kind, whether physical or not, is such a problem. As a school principal (now retired) there were so many times we had to contact CPS, and we never knew if they would or wouldn't take a case...in fact, we often predicted incorrectly. More disturbing on our end of it, teachers didn't want to be the one to report suspected child abuse...I had to force them to do so.
To keep the Moderators happy, please keep politics out of our discussions and focus on other aspects.
I want to look at this from a religious belief point of view as I feel religions should give us moral guidelines to follow.
It is not JUST about how we ourselves act, but it is about being responsible for the safety and care of those in our human and animal community. It seems there is a disconnect between what our religions teach - that we are here to look after the Earth, and how we rape, pillage, and destroy almost everything we touch.
One problem is that some adherents to some religions don't believe that's what their religions teach.
Fundamentalists generally teach and believe that god has given man dominion over all the animals, that man is a special creation of god, created "a little lower than the angels" and in god's image. In addition, god is in total control of everything and would never let puny man destroy his creation. So in their weird calculus, the environment is indestructible, the earth is to be exploited with abandon in whatever way we wish, animals are here to be eaten and enslaved, and god has given man dominion over everything on his behalf. The net result is that they rape, pillage and destroy almost everything that they touch.
I suspect this is a tricky question for some on here and they will keep quiet, not wanting to open a can of worms in discussions about their religious practices. However, I would like to hear from the particularly devout members who often weigh in on the discussions, to get their take on all this (both issues).
Although I am vegetarian, I do not particularly 'mind' if others eat meat. It is a question of energies for me. However, one of my mother's favourite hymns was All Things Bright and Beautiful which now seems to be an odd thing to sing about when you go off out of church to eat those same things in your roast dinner or Thanksgiving meal.
Think how many extra deaths result from "Thanksgiving", Christmas, Easter, and how early religious practices involved killing things dear to you to show how faithful and subserviant you were to your God.
To keep the Moderators happy, please keep politics out of our discussions and focus on other aspects.
I want to look at this from a religious belief point of view as I feel religions should give us moral guidelines to follow.
It is not JUST about how we ourselves act, but it is about being responsible for the safety and care of those in our human and animal community. It seems there is a disconnect between what our religions teach - that we are here to look after the Earth, and how we rape, pillage, and destroy almost everything we touch.
Discussing the elephants in the room concerning
1) Animals which go to slaughterhouses for our and our pets food are treated really terribly yet the media and packaging of meat products remove the reality from us so we do not need to question our purchase or consider our conscience.
How we can treat so badly and kill certain animals (cows/sheep/pigs/chickens/ducks,etc) used for food when they are all Gods creatures. We treat our pets like children and our food animals like dirt. What gives us the right to act in such a disrespectful and degrading way.
2) Very similar to this, is the subject of child abuse.
As a society we often look the other way when this happens and then wonder why those same abused come back as killers and criminals, The ones who are the abusers are often those people in authority or who we vote for to lead us, maybe politicians, priests, or business "pillars of the community".
These sick people have wives and family members who know what is happening and yet they do not speak out to stop it - sometimes even when it involves their own family and friends.
I very much respect point 1), but I don’t think you can equate it with point 2) (if that was, in fact, your intention).
I suspect this is a tricky question for some on here and they will keep quiet, not wanting to open a can of worms in discussions about their religious practices. However, I would like to hear from the particularly devout members who often weigh in on the discussions, to get their take on all this (both issues).
Although I am vegetarian, I do not particularly 'mind' if others eat meat. It is a question of energies for me. However, one of my mother's favourite hymns was All Things Bright and Beautiful which now seems to be an odd thing to sing about when you go off out of church to eat those same things in your roast dinner or Thanksgiving meal.
Think how many extra deaths result from "Thanksgiving", Christmas, Easter, and how early religious practices involved killing things dear to you to show how faithful and subserviant you were to your God.
I think a lot of early religious practices, eg sacrificing animals, goes back to the Old Testament.
Jesus Christ became the “Sacrificial Lamb” of the New Testament.
I don’t live in a country that practices Thanksgiving, so can’t comment on that.
Christmas and Easter though, yes we eat more meat.
The latest fave being a “Turducken”- which is turkey, duck and chicken.
Don’t know if you’ve ever been inside a slaughterhouse, but all animals and birds are treated humanely, and it is highly regulated.
Your other “elephant in the room” of child abuse is a terrible thing, but not peculiar to religion or religious institutions.
We are getting near to the point of accepting that the world is going down and we need to start somewhere, addressing the issues which have gone un-addressed for so long. One large aspect of this is the destruction of the Earth, the forests, the wildlife, etc. This will reduce the amount of oxygen being released by trees and plants and factory farming is increasing the methane and CO2 which is also being released.
I appreciate people love their meat but much of the forestland are being cleared due to needing more land to feed cattle on. I also realise the problem is about people having a survivable income and they will do anything to achieve that.
One place to start with this is to influence people to eat less meat, reduce demand, and reduce production. Religion is a major influencer in poor countries as well as in rich countries like the US.
Since religions are teaching that we should respect the Earth, animals, as well as other races(!!) - if they enforced this aspect a little more, we might have less war, less global warming, and a better world for many people.
Unless you have a better idea?
It is easy to discuss this topic from an academic point of view and to discuss the concept and the theory, but we have to get our hands dirty and really discuss how to solve these bigger problems facing the world. We are not writing a thesis on it we are trying to solve a problem, or at least start to make inroads into it.
We are getting near to the point of accepting that the world is going down and we need to start somewhere, addressing the issues which have gone un-addressed for so long. One large aspect of this is the destruction of the Earth, the forests, the wildlife, etc. This will reduce the amount of oxygen being released by trees and plants and factory farming is increasing the methane and CO2 which is also being released.
I appreciate people love their meat but much of the forestland are being cleared due to needing more land to feed cattle on. I also realise the problem is about people having a survivable income and they will do anything to achieve that.
One place to start with this is to influence people to eat less meat, reduce demand, and reduce production. Religion is a major influencer in poor countries as well as in rich countries like the US.
Since religions are teaching that we should respect the Earth, animals, as well as other races(!!) - if they enforced this aspect a little more, we might have less war, less global warming, and a better world for many people.
Unless you have a better idea?
It is easy to discuss this topic from an academic point of view and to discuss the concept and the theory, but we have to get our hands dirty and really discuss how to solve these bigger problems facing the world. We are not writing a thesis on it we are trying to solve a problem, or at least start to make inroads into it.
Since this is R & S I don't want to go on at length on this topic but I will just commend to you the excellent documentary, Kiss the Ground, which I believe is on Netflix, as just one practical solution to the climate crisis, that if widely adopted, could solve it almost single-handed (sustainable farming instead of factory farming). And it scales well.
Religion could help a great deal here to raise people's awareness. Some compartments of religion, as I mentioned, are doing the very opposite. Some could do more than they are.
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