Snow Turtle
New member
- Joined
- May 28, 2007
- Messages
- 1,335
I'd advise not killing plants either then.
Or bugs.
Or all the microbes that you breathe by the moment and smother in your lungs.
Or all those germs that those murderous white blood cells in your veins are constantly absorbing, invading, and slaughtering so that you might live.
Or the tiny organisms you step on as you stumble, rubbing at tired eyes, from the bedroom to the bath every morning.
And so on.
Personally I don't think it's right to kill insects, which would explain why my room sometimes have spiders etc. Having compassion in that sense would be having awareness and not to have intentions of harming something.
Course as suggested there are still major problems with this line of thinking. What constitutes as life? Bacteria? Plants? If the intention is not to harm, does that mean someone should stay indoors all day?
Nature is screaming on some inaudible level with all the death that is part of the circle of life.
... and this is why I don't consider the eating of meat a big deal, although I suppose the actual cruelties of the meat market (animals raised in certain forms of captivity) is a connected but slightly different issue.
In Christian thought, there seems to be a reverence placed on creation. Since God created everything, one must respect the creation just as if you would respect the house of a person in which you were a guest. This doesn't mean you can never kill, nor ever eat meat or plants, or do other things to help you survive; it just means accepting that the world isn't yours to devour and plunder to the extent you might wish, that there is a healthy balance to be preserved and other things in this world besides the one who would like to consume, and it honors God to honor the creation.
...As far as the commandment in the "Ten Commandments" goes, the actual translation is, "Thou shalt not murder [another human being]," not "THou shalt not kill [any living thing]."
Punishments carried out by the state (i.e., the nation of Israel at the time) were not considered murder. If a man hit a pregnant woman and she miscarried her child, that was not considered murder either... the aggressor just had to pay the father a fine, he wasn't put to death. The nation went to war with foreign nations and/or defended its borders with ferocity, and again deaths occurred and were accepted; but murder, meanwhile, was specifically murder. You can't equate "death [of people or animals]" to "murder."
I've never really seen an issue with "Thou shalt not kill" somehow prohibiting the eating of meat. I'm thinking we're over-analyzing here. It was the law of the Jewish people at the time, and I don't think they were confused on it either, since it's pretty obvious they were fine with eating meat at the time.... but again, they did it in balance.
Agreed. I'll just have to accept there's a difference in the teaching at the fundamental level. This seems to be that point, it was useful learning about it.
As mentioned previously my issue isn't with the 10 commandment, just with the idea that God is love, and the idea that killing doesn't necessary conflict with love. It's an issue based on a general principle on the idea of love. (My idea of what was meant by love in christianity)
There are 10 rules set in stone, but alot of other rules can be infered from other things right?
Anyhow thanks