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It's a stretch to say that religion 'authorizes' us to mistreat/eat animals. Animals eat other animals. We're animals, so we do that, too. If anything, religi

• ajuc 8y ago
  > It's a stretch to say that religion 'authorizes' us to mistreat/eat animals. "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth." Of course people would do it anyway, especially when they had no other choice (nowadays we could live without exploiting animals, it would even be cheaper and more ecologic - but before we knew chemistry and biology we had at least some excuses). But at least Bible-based religions clearly legitimize abuse of animals, and treating animals as mindless things that don't have feelings nor rights. Even now in my country ecologists/vegans are one of the groups considered enemies of "natural order" by influential religious media (Rydzyk media-empire in Poland for one example). It's not an accident that animals don't have souls according to Catholicism.
  • LitFan 8y ago
    Unfortunately, those groups, like many others who intend to control people with religion, cherry picked an example that fits their rhetoric. The bible is often contradictory, and in it you can also find these: > 'He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man' (Isaiah 66.3) > 'For meat destroy not the work of God' (Romans 14.19-21) > 'A righteous man regardeth the life of the beast' (Proverbs 12.10) Christianity doesn't represent the majority of religions (~31.5%). Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism all advocate for animal rights (~45.3%).
    • ajuc 8y ago
      Islam is Bible-based as well (to some point). And their halal butchering practices aren't particularly humane by modern standards, even if at some point in the past they were.