- 07/03/2013
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
Vegetarianism today is a serious topic which requires careful attention and serious argumentation. There are a lot of proponents, as well as opponents, of vegetarianism. It makes an essential part of some religious doctrines. For example, vegetarianism is widely practiced in India and is adopted as a part of the Krishnait movement. Vegetarians base their belief on a number of ethical, psychological, religious, financial and even biological arguments. The first part of the work is devoted to the advantages of vegetarianism, while the second part concentrates on the human natural necessities and biological and fossil evidence, which prove rightness of meat consumption.
The first argument for vegetarian diet is the fact that vegetables and fruit are healthier than meat. Nutritious food, such as animal meat and fat often causes abnormal changes in an organism and is not adopted as easily as the food of the plant origin. As a result, food, rich in fat, can lead to serious heart and liver illnesses and other disorders.
Another argument, which is often considered as the most important, is ethic consideration. Animals are alive creatures; they can feel pain and suffer, as humans do. However, they are usually treated as raw materials for human needs. Today animals are treated awful and it the first argument propagated by vegetarians and representatives of “Green Piece”. They are given unnatural food with different chemicals in order to stimulate and fasten their growth. They are usually closed in cramped dark cages and do not see day light during all their short life. Slaughterhouses prove to be unbearable places for people with feelings of sympathy and humanity. It is a bloody and cruel place and alive animals are already treated as pieces of meat for sale.
From this perspective, another argument which supports vegetarian position, arises. Most religious and empirical schools believe in the existence and transformation of energy as the main component of world existence. Every being contains some energy and energy is transformed to people through food. The most negative and destructive energy for alive human beings is the energy of death. When animals are killed in the slaughterhouse they experience terrible emotions of fear, panic and death. As a result, meat contains this energy and translates it on the human body.
Moreover, most religions are based on the principle of non-violence and rejection of any cruelty. Everything is created by God and only God has a right to give birth or deprive of life. This argument is also actual for animals, because they are alive beings created by God. It is even possible to provide some examples from the Bible which prove this evidence: “You shall not eat the fat of any ox or sheep or goat. Although the fat of an animal that has died naturally or was killed by wild beasts may be used in any other way, you may under no circumstances eat it. For whoever eats the fat of an animal offered as a sacrifice to the Lord, he shall be cut off from his people. Moreover, wherever you dwell, you shall not eat any blood, whether of bird or animal. Whoever eats any blood shall be cut off from his people” (Leviticus 7:22-27). Such evidence plays an extremely important role for religious people.
Another argument, which seems very interesting, is the financial one. On the first sight, it seems that fruit and vegetables are often more expensive than milk or eggs, for example. However, if to examine the statistics thoroughly, we can see that most grain produced is spend on animals feeding, not human consumption. “In undeveloped countries an average person eats 450 pounds of grain a year, and at the same time the diet of average European or American consists of 4500 pounds of grain, 90% of which are spent on feeding domestic animals” (Milton, 110). This economical calculation is rarely taken into account.
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