FoodBanter.com - Vegetarianism and Meat-Eating in 8 Religions

Vegetarianism and Meat-Eating in 8 Religions

While religions around the world share a quest for
spirituality, they vary in their perception that
respecting all forms of life is integral to that quest.
In the following 13 pages, we focus on the subject of
compassion as it is practiced by the adherents of eight
religions -- four East and four West -- and reflected in
their choice to eat meat, or not.

By Jane Srivastava, South Carolina
Hinduism Today Magazine, hinduismtoday.com
April-May-June 2007

All religions of the world extol compassion, yet they
vary in their commitment to expressing this virtue
through nonviolence and vegetarianism. A growing number
of today's vegetarians refrain from eating meat more for
reasons pertaining to improved health, a cleaner
environment and a better world economy than for religious
concerns. Even those whose vegetarianism is inspired by
compassion are oftentimes driven more by a sense of
conscience than by theological principle.

In this article we briefly explore the attitudes of eight
world religions with regard to meat-eating and the
treatment of animals. It may be said with some degree of
certainty that followers of Eastern religions -- like
Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism -- generally agree in their
support of nonviolence and a meatless lifestyle. But such
a collective stance among followers of Western religions --
like Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- may not be
asserted with the same confidence. Many deeply religious
souls in the West eat meat because it is sanctioned in
their holy books. Others refrain for a variety of
reasons, including their sense of conscience that it is
just not right, regardless of what scriptures say.
Certainly, many scriptural references to food and diet
are ambiguous at best. The issue is complicated.

Good Jains are exceptional examples of nonviolence and
vegetarianism. Jainism, a deeply ascetic religion mainly
centered in India, mandates that adherents refrain from
harming even the simplest of life forms. Jains even
follow dietary codes regulating the types of plants they
eat.

Over the ages and around the world, Hindus have followed
a variety of diets predicated on geography and socio-
economic status. Although vegetarianism has never been a
requirement for Hindus and modern Hindus eat more meat
than ever before, no follower of this oldest of world
religions will ever deny that vegetarianism promotes
spiritual life.

The dietary standards of Buddhists also vary in
accordance with time and place. Although the cessation of
suffering and an earnest commitment to nonviolence are
central to Buddhist Dharma, most of the world's Buddhists
are not vegetarian.

In Judaism, the oldest of the Abrahamic religions, there
has long been a debate over whether meat should be eaten,
with the view predominating that God allowed meat-eating
as a concession to human weakness and need.

Muslim cultures are predominantly nonvegetarian, though
abstaining from eating meat is generally permitted if the
devotee acknowledges that such abstinence will not bring
him closer to Allah.

Modern-day Christians may eat meat without restriction.
Even though many Christians of the Middle Ages were
vegetarian, a meat-eating interpretation of the Bible has
slowly become the official position of the Christian
Church.

Here follows a study of perspectives on vegetarianism and
nonviolence in these eight world faiths.

This article continues at:

http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules...hp?itemid=1541

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

http://bit.do/jaimaharaj