Gauracandra Posted December 30, 2000 Report Share Posted December 30, 2000 Haribol everyone, I've compiled a short list of quotes from various sources regarding vegetarianism. Hope you enjoy. “I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants” – Gandhi “I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals” – Thoreau “While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?” – Shaw “Oh, my fellow men, do not defile your bodies with sinful foods. We have corn, we have apples bending down the branches with their weight, and grapes swelling on the vines. There are sweet-flavored herbs, and vegetables which can be cooked and softened over the fire, nor are you denied milk or thyme-scented honey. The earth affords a lavish supply of riches, of innocent foods, and offers you banquets that involve no bloodshed or slaughter; only beasts satisfy their hunger with flesh, and not even all of those, because horses, cattle, and sheep live on grass” – Pythagoras “[flesh eating is] simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to moral feeling – killing….man suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity – that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself – and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel” – Tolstoy “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in that which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherever there is life, I have given every green herb for meat; and it was so.” – The Bible, Genesis 1:29-30 “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely YOUR blood of YOUR lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it” – The Bible, Genesis 9:4 “Saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear, for your hands are full of blood.” – The Bible, Isaiah 1:5 “He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man” – The Bible, Isaiah 66:3 “Having well considered the disgusting origin of flesh and the cruelty of fettering and slaying of corporeal beings, let him entirely abstain from eating flesh” – Manu Samhita “The vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind” – Einstein “In this age the propensity for mercy is almost nil. Consequently there is always fighting and wars between men and nations. Men do not understand that because they unrestrictedly kill so many animals, they must also be slaughtered like animals in big wars” – Srila Prabhupada “If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water, I will accept it” – The Bhagavad Gita 9:26 “For that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts, even one thing befalleth them: As the one dieth, so dieth the other. Yes, they have all ONE breath. So that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast – for all is vanity” The Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:19 “Take care not to destroy God’s work for the sake of something to eat” – The Bible, Romans 14:20 “Moreover, ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings” – The Bible, Leviticus 7:26 “We the Christian leaders, practice abstinence from the flesh of animals to subdue our bodies … the unnatural eating of flesh-meat is polluting” – Saint John Chrysostom A.D. 345-407 “And the flesh of slain beasts in his body will become his own tomb. For I tell you truly, he who kills, kills himself, and whoso eats the flesh of slain beasts, eats the body of death” – The Essene Gospel of Peace “Ahimsa is the highest duty” – Padma Purana 1.31.27 “The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion” – Mahaparinirvana Sutra “The very name of the cows is aghnya, indicating that they should never be slaughtered. Who, then, could slay them? Surely, one who kills a cow or a bull commits the most heinous crime” – Mahabharata, Shantiparva 262.47 Gauracandra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauracandra Posted December 30, 2000 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2000 Here are some facts about meat eating that I gathered mostly from a book called "Divine Nature". ********************************************* According to the Vegetarian Times, half of the annual destruction of tropical rain forests is caused by clearing land for beef cattle ranches. Each pound of hamburger made from Central American or South American beef costs about 55 square feet of rain forest vegetation. In the United States, about 260 million acres of forest have been cleared for a meat-centered diet. Each person who becomes a vegetarian saves one acre of trees per year. About half of the world’s grain is consumed by animals that are later slaughtered for meat. This is a very inefficient process. It takes 16 pounds of grain and soybeans to produce 1 pound of feedlot beef. If people were to subsist on grains and other vegetarian foods alone, this would put far less strain on the earth’s agricultural lands. About 20 vegetarians can be fed on the land that it takes to feed 1 meat eater. 80% of the corn raised in the U.S. is fed to livestock, as well as 95% of the oats. Altogether, 56% of all agricultural land in the US is used for beef production. If all of the soybeans and grain fed to U.S. livestock were set aside for human consumption, it would feed 1.3 billion people. 1,000 species become extinct each year due to rain forest destruction. About 50% of water pollution in the U.S. is linked to livestock. All around the world, the beef industry is wasting the diminishing supplies of fresh water. For example, the livestock industry in the U.S. takes about 50% of the water consumed each year. During the process of converting grain to meat, 90% of the protein, 99% of the carbohydrates, and 100% of the dietary fiber are lost. ********************************************* Gauracandra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pam Posted December 31, 2000 Report Share Posted December 31, 2000 Some thoughts... Religion says, 1. God created man. 2. Man should be Vegetarian. Man is omnivorous. He can digest meat as well as Vegetarian food. If God intended man to be vegetarian, he would have made him a herbivorous species. Simple enough, huh ? But he did not, which means God intended man to eat meat. One form of life living on another is a natural thing. Religion says don't eat meat, don't have sex, don't be greedy and so on. These are our natural traits. Religion is all the time, relling us to be unnatural. If somebody seriously follows all that, they will end up as neurotic individuals. Luckily no one follows all the religious advice seriously. They do what ever is convenient to them and leave out the rest. Otherwise the world would have been a mess. Yet another point to show that religion is man made. pam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauracandra Posted January 1, 2001 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2001 It seems your argument is something along these lines: "Man is able to eat meat. Therefore God meant for man to eat meat. But because God says don't eat meat, therefore this is proof that the religious injunctions against meat eating are wrong". I think thats roughly it. However, I think you are making a fundamentally flawed logical mistake in assuming utilization follows purpose. There are many products we can use for purposes other than what they were intended for. A real quick example off the top of my head is a butter knife. A butter knife is meant for spreading butter. However, a butter knife can also be used for cutting raw meat. Its not very efficient but it can be done. Now lets use the butter knife in the original example: "A butter knife is able to cut raw meat. Therefore the butter knife maker wanted it used to cut raw meat. But an instruction manual that purports to know how to use the butter knife says only to spread butter with it. Therefore the writer of this manual must be wrong....." Something like that. Again my analogy isn't perfect but I think you get my point. I believe that outside of religious injunctions, the case against meat eating is very strong. One can look at it on an ethical level, on an environmental level, on a health level etc.... Religious injunctions are meant to unify these various thoughts and ideas for the best functioning of society. Just like traffic signals, while they restrict our movement, they also allow for the better functioning of society. There are times, however, when during an emergency you may have to run a red light. Or perhaps (appropo to this conversation) you need to eat meat (say you are stranded in the forest). But society as a whole will be better served following these regulations than not following them. Take care. Gauracandra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauracandra Posted January 1, 2001 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2001 Thus far we have looked at the case for Vegetarianism from both a philosophical and environmental perspective. We have seen quotes from such thinkers as Pythagoras, Einstein, and Thoreau. We have also seen what various diverse religious paths from Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism have to say in this regard. But the case for Vegetarianism is not solely based on the ethics of such diverse religious paths. In this regard, I have presented a view of the environmental damage that accrues due to meat eating. It should be noted that I have really only scratched the surface in laying out the environmental damage due to meat eating. Having thus looked at vegetarianism from both a philosophical and environmental perspective, I wish now to turn to meat eating as a source of health problems in the U.S. The two main killers in the U.S. are heart disease and cancer both of which are highly correlated to a meat based diet. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported in 1961 that a “vegetarian diet can prevent ninety to ninety-seven percent of heart disease.” Why might this be? Well, I remember taking a nutrition class in college. One day my professor stood up holding a bottle of Saffola Sunflower oil and asked the class to estimate how much cholesterol this oil contained. Our guesses were all over the place and every one of us was wrong. Finally, my professor said it contains 0% Cholesterol because Cholesterol comes ONLY from animal products. About 65-70% of the average person’s cholesterol is genetic (ie. Produced from within his own body). The other 30-35% of cholesterol is due solely from the animal products we eat. Therefore conceivably one could cut one’s cholesterol level by about 1/3rd simply by moving to a plant based diet. This would lead to lower blood pressure, less plaque build up on the arterial walls, and thus lower chance of heart attack. Heart attacks kill about 1 person every 45 seconds. A male meat-eater’s risk of death from heart attack is about 50% compared to 15% for a non-meat-eater (if he should even have a heart attack in the first place). Cancer levels are also much lower among vegetarians than meat eaters. There was a study of 11,000 people in England that showed that vegetarians were 40% less likely to suffer from cancer. Why might this be? Well, for one reason, when meat is cooked it produces an array of benzenes and other carcinogenic substances. Meat also doesn’t pass through the intestinal tract very easily, and often sits decomposing in the intestines. This helps explain the increase risk of colon cancer among meat-eaters. Meat-eating animals like tigers and lions produce much greater levels of hydrochloric acid to digest the meat. Man has a relatively weak level of acidic expulsion. The intestines of tigers and lions tend to be straight and short (about 5 feet long) and so pass out the decomposing material easily. Comparatively, man’s intestinal tract is winding over and about itself and extends about 20 feet. Plants with their high fiber content pass through as stool much easier than do meat products and also do not decompose and putrefy as quickly as meat. I can go through a bunch of statistics on health issues with relation to meat eating. Whether it is heart attack or cancer, or kidney stones (from the large quantity of salt from meat) or obesity or a host of other diseases. One can judge an activity by the reactions resulting from that action. One will not get cancer or heart disease by eating his green leafy broccoli, or eating apples, bananas, or pears, or by eating wheat, and grain, and beans. One does have a much greater chance of cancer and heart disease from eating meat. Here’s wishing the best to all of our health. Gauracandra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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