Should you feel guilty for eating meat?

[Ampersand]

Plants are also alive. Don't feel guilty. You are meant to eat animals.

I've got to ask, by whom do you think he's meant to?

 

[JayElleBee]

I feel guilty enough about eating anything in general. I'm not going to start feeling guilty about specific things.

 

[Tiger Sora]

My father has eaten meat his whole life, as did his, and his, and so forth for millenia. I feel nothing wrong with eating meat and plan to continue on the touch till I die.

So ya.

 

[The Great JT]

We breed these animals to make them into food. To me, we should feel no less guilty than we would harvesting grain to make bread.

 

[waj9876]

I would feel guilty about eating meat, if I weren't a lazy ass, and pig meat, baloney and bacon, wasn't so delicious. Seriously radical vegetarians, I'll stop eating animals when animals stop being so delicious.

 

[Talvrae]

Everything you at was alive at a point or another, plants are alive... Thinking that eating meat is wrong but eating plants is okey his hypocreical...

 

[Blunderboy]

No, I don't feel guilty. As a species we have evolved to be omnivorous. Who am I to dictate to nature?
Besides, meat is fucking tasty.

Take my spuds, take my corn
Take me where I cannot farm
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the steak from me

Take me out to the grill
Tell 'em I will have my fill
Burn the leaks and boil the peas
You can't take the steak from me

There's no place I can be
Since I found that bovine meat
But you can't take the steak from me

I like meat, don't feel bad. Eat more.

Oh Captain, My Captain.

EDIT Also, this seemed pretty damn relevant.

 

[Gormech]

I'm just going to be honest.

I don't care if they have feelings/emotions/souls or not.
Food is food. I take what is available within my ability to obtain and this often includes parts of once-living animals.
Plants mess with me for the most part so meat tends to be more satisfactory.

 

[Goofguy]

Take my spuds, take my corn
Take me where I cannot farm
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the steak from me

Take me out to the grill
Tell 'em I will have my fill
Burn the leaks and boil the peas
You can't take the steak from me

There's no place I can be
Since I found that bovine meat
But you can't take the steak from me

I like meat, don't feel bad. Eat more.

You Sir, have just made my day, nay week.

OT: I don't feel guilty at all for the act of eating meat. However, the way in which meat is mass produced sometimes irks me.

 

[SmokingBomber465]

I'm a carnivore and my sweetheart is a vegetarian--we make a good team. Plus I'm lucky that I don't have to worry abouther eating my steaks out of the fridge

Eat what makes you happy--and if you do feel guilty for being a carnivore than maybe being a vegetarian is a better fit for you. Who am I to say what you should eat?

 

[WanderingFool]

I was brought up as a vegetarian in India and then in my late twenties when i came to Europe i started to eat meat. Also in Europe it is easier to be a non-vegetarian as the vegetarian choices can be pretty boring. And I must admit that I like the taste of meat and seafood, etc.

But lately I have been questioning if I should feel guilty for eating meat, seafood (anything that has a life). Do you guys ever wonder about things like: balance of the eco system, food chain, humans are at the top of the food chain so its justified, etc? Do humans really need meat to survive or we just eat it for pleasure? I eat it for its taste and I know some meat/seafood are supposed to be really good for our health. Also primitive man/Neanderthals used to hunt for food...but i guess they used to hunt anything for survival. The modern man does not need to kill/hunt for survival as there is abundance of vegetables and fruits available to eat.

Anyway to cut the long story short, I'm very confused if eating meat/seafood is justified and that we shouldn't feel guilty for killing living things for our consumption. What do you guys think?

Your open and honest opinions on this subject are welcomed.

Personally, I feel that as humans are high on the food chain, I say we eraned our right to eat meat. Also, while Im fine with people that may chose to go vegetarian, I hate vegetarians that preach abouts its virtues in an attempt to get me to stop eating meat. AND DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THOSE FUCKING VEGANS!!! Most everyone I met was an annoying asshole.

 

[NathLines]

Yes and no.

No, because meat is good for us(in moderate amounts of course) and our bodies are made for eating meat. One animal eating another is part of nature etc. etc. yadda yadda.

Yes, because we can befriend pretty much any animal that lives on the surface of the Earth. Am I the only one who thinks that is cool beyond words? Yes, that (absolutely fuckin' delicious) chicken you just ate could have been as close a friend as your cat/dog. That makes me sad.

In short, if we figure out how to grow artificial meat, I'll be the first to jump on to the non-meat meat wagon. Until then; god damn beef jerky OMF NOMF.

 

[deathninja]

Protein shakes taste like shit, and I needs me protein.

[Edit: Though I disagree with Halal (only way to get any kind of chicken is this city). Killing animals for food is one thing, torture in the mane of your imaginary friend is crossing a line.]

 

[Bocaj2000]

Animals think, feel, and have emotions. They can love, fear, and anger just like us. So, yes, we should feel guilty, but because of how sheltered humans are most of us don't. This thread should be more than evident of that.

I'm sure lions oft think about these things when they take down an antelope.

I don't even begin to have the capacity to understand the sentiment that I should feel guilty for eating meat.

EDIT: And just for the humor. http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=sponsor

Animals think, feel, and have emotions. They can love, fear, and anger just like us. So, yes, we should feel guilty, but because of how sheltered humans are most of us don't. This thread should be more than evident of that.

That's hilarious. I have hunted small and large game for about fifteen years now and I have helped acquaintances on their farms during the slaughtering. There's also the time spent in Kosovo during my military days, but that only has a tangental bearing on the 'sheltered' point of yours.

No. We 'should' absolutely not feel guilty over killing for food. It's something that's been going on since long before we fell out of the trees and started killing our way to the top of the food chain. Oh, and that big juicy brain of ours? Wouldn't have existed without the complex proteins in a meat and fish diet. Yeah, vegetarians? Wouldn't have figured out fire if you chucked a lightning bolt up their ass.

For that matter, let's take fitness and strength into account here. Even my own fairly humble training regimen for strength, endurance and fitness require a protein and calorie count that means I either have to lace every damn meal I take with artificial protein products (some of which are vegetarian in origin, I'll grant you, but not exactly available naturally) or I have to eat a lot of meat.

There's no way around it. If I am to have a natural diet, animals need to die or I will lose muscle OR gain massive amounts of fat as a side-effect of getting enough protein for even my humble training regimen.

I do love vegans and vegetarians, though. I usually ask any waiter or other food supplier to make a vegan/vegetarian cry when I order food. It's the best marinade of all time, I swear.

I'm actually not a vegan. I love steak and hamburger. I don't feel guilty one bit when I eat meat. But I know that I should. They can't speak english, so I will always value humans more, but I acknowledge that they are living things that are just as afraid of slaughter as I would be.

As for the hunting aspect: We don't hunt the same way lions do; I have yet to see a human chase down an animal and rip out the animal's jugular with its hands or teeth. Instead we find an animal that can't run very fast, such as a cow or chicken, and put it in a cage or fence. And when we want to feel like we earned our food, we stand still with a projectile weapon. It's for fun, not necessity.

Also, when I say sheltered, I don't mean sheltered to death; I mean that as apex predators the only worth opponent is ourselves (which is more for political reasons than for food). We haven't been herded nor hunted in thousands of years (unless, of course, it is another human doing the hunting).

I am not a person who likes killing- humans or animals, but I also understand that some people need to die and that humans need their B6 and B12. I'm just trying to put things in perspective.

I'm going to have my chicken parm now...

 

[TallanKhan]

As long as your not stealing it off of my plate then I dont think your doing anything wrong. Everyone has to make their own moral judgement. Personally i have no ethical quarms about consuming meat. While i feel slight sympathy for the you shouldnt harm animals argument I dont think livestock have particularly terrible existances, especially when compared to alot of wild animals. If i had to choose between living as a bovine raised for beef or say a rabbit in the wild i know what id choose. Id go for being fed watered and otherwise looked after in exchange for the short sharp pain of a bolt to the head at the end over an existance constantly on the run from predators before finally being torn appart by a fox or dissapearing under the tyers of a car, and thats if i dont succumb to disease.

Screw it, eating meat is good, very good, for animals and for tastebuds.

 

[Panzer_God]

I have enough real problems in my life, enough mistakes in my past and enough bad decisions that haunt me, why would I waste guilt on whether eating meat is wrong? Also meat is delicious.

 

[In Search of Username]

No, I don't feel guilty. As a species we have evolved to be omnivorous. Who am I to dictate to nature?

'It's natural therefore it's right' is the worst fucking argument I've ever heard, but every damn person uses it when this topic comes up, I swear. Everything is natural. Your every action is by definition 'natural' because you did it, according to your nature and to the natural laws of the universe. So saying something is natural as a way of proving it is moral is basically saying that everything that has ever happened in the universe has been morally acceptable.

Come up with a better argument.

 

[Syzygy23]

I don't feel guilty for eating meat, the same way I don't feel guilty for squashing and killing spiders and creepycrawly insects.
Yes, a living thing is dying. But in the meat example, at least something useful is coming out of it.

[sub]Also, this thread will get to 20 pages ...[/sub]

That and spiders are inhuman monsters with venomous fangs who will bite you and kill you. Like a Black Widow.

As for the OPs question, why would you feel guilty? All the meat you eat comes from animals who barely pass the bar for sentience, let alone sapience. It's not like they're AWARE that they're being raised to die, or are aware of their condition.

 

[templar1138a]

I love meat. I make sure to eat plenty of veggies too, but I could never give up meat given the choice. There are two main reasons:

1: Amino acids (used by your body to make proteins). There are twenty amino acids your body can't make on its own. These are known as essential amino acids. The only types of food you're guaranteed to find all twenty amino acids in one serving are meat and dairy. Plant proteins (beans and nuts) each contain a set of some of the essential amino acids, but not all, so you have to keep track of which acids you're getting from which foods. It's why most of the vegans I've met were so pale; they weren't keeping track of amino acids.

2: Take a look at your teeth. The back teeth - molars - are designed to crush and grind plant matter. Your front teeth - the incisors, bicuspids, and canines - are designed to rip and cut through softer matter. That softer matter being meat. Humans are omnivores. We've survived natural selection because we are capable of getting nutrition from both animals and plants.

Also, in regards to guilt about killing animals for food, I like to show this picture to people,

and then ask this question: You're only allowed to save one of these animals, and the other will have to die as a result. What's your decision?

Captcha is "perfect world." It will be once we're able to mass-produce test-tube meat. All the essential amino acids without any potential guilt. That'd be great.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Does the lion mourn the fallen gazzelle?

Eating meat is part of the natural diet for humans, you should not have to feel guilty about it is just the food chain after all.