I have heard people claim that God prefers you to be vegetarian.  Those who feel this way...?
81626
Who is their God? Not the God of the Bible who was in to BBQ and called it a "sweet smelling savor".\n\nAnd then there is also this in 1 Timothy 4:3...\n"...speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth."
115152
There were different viewpoints in the early Christian church on this issue.  Some felt that in order to be a Christian, you had to first become Jewish and keep all the Jewish laws with perhaps the exception of the sacrifices.  Others felt that you did not have to follow all the Jewish laws, but that certain ones ought to be kept, such as the Jewish calendar (Holidays), the moral laws, and dietary laws.  Others, and Paul is in this group, felt that one did not have to keep any of the Jewish laws except for the laws of morality.  \n\nPaul has the largest influence in the New Testament, and therefore most Christians do not feel any obligation to keep the dietary laws.  But understand that Paul did not view the Torah (Law) as totally bad.  He felt that it was good for teaching us what sin is.  And he also felt that it was not bad in itself, but Paul did object to the way the "Judaizers" (those of the first 2 groups I mentioned) VIEWED the law.  Paul taught that the law is well and good, but it does not lead to salvation.  You are justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  And that is your salvation, not works of the law.\n\nSo here is my advice:  If you agree with Paul, then I think you may keep the dietary laws or other laws of the Torah, JUST AS LONG as you do not begin to think that it is by the performance of that law that you have salvation.  Salvation is by the grace of God through your faith in Jesus.\nThat's Paul.\n\nNow, my opinion:  Our body is a temple (Paul also agrees with this concept) and therefore we are to take care of it and keep it pure.  So if you believe that by keeping the dietary laws, you will be healthier, then I say by all means, you should do that.  But honestly we do not know for sure why those Laws were ever given.  The Bible does not say to follow those dietary laws so that you will be healthier, but so that you will be "holy."  If the Bible was trying to give you a diet for good health, it should have prohibited eggs and poison mushrooms.  But it does not.  And furthermore, eating meat is not considered the healthiest diet.  The original plan of God in the Bible seems to be vegetarianism.  Remember that before Noah, God gave the people "every herb of the trees, etc" as food.  It was a vegetarian system.  But after Noah, then God allowed meat-eating, but it can almost be seen as a concession.  The Jewish interpretation is that God saw how wicked man was and that he just wasn't good enought that God could expect them to be strict vegetarians.  So he said, Ok, you can eat meat, just so long as you do not eat the blood, etc.\n\nThe only reason that the Bible gives for the dietary laws is so that "you will be holy, as I the Lord your God am holy."  In Hebrew, the word holy carries the connotation of set apart.  It has been speculated that God was trying to set the Jewish people apart from the surrounding nations.  Many of them sacrificed pigs for example.  And God forbade the Israelites from this, so that they would not be like the surrounding nations, and perhaps because the pig was seen as dirty (understandably!).  \n\nIn some times and places, people have to rely on meat-eating to survive.  But I think that the ideal is vegetarianism.  According to the Bible, God gave humans dominion over the animals......but does dominion mean we have to be cruel rulers?  I think that if we are capable we should be vegetarians.  But if you are in a time and place where that is not possible, then God of course would understand.  But that is just my opinion.\n\nMy brother has a neat little book called, "What Would Jesus Eat?"  You might really enjoy that!  It talks about the diet of that time period.  And it was a whole lot healthier than what we eat!  They ate little meat, and a lot of whole grains and legumes.  They did eat a lot of fish of course, being in the Galilee.
87284
why would you dio that? the only reason we have animals is so we can have a BBQ. We are the only animals in earth that chose the vegan lifestile when given a choice. have you ever seen a lion go like "Hey Andrew, pass the celery." as Chris Rock says... if you are one of the few lucky people in this earth to get your hands on a steak bite the s&@# out of it
1148276
In the beginning yes\n\nI have a friend went vegetarian and he lost a lot of weight.  Has kept it off too.
431486
Hindus are ENCOURAGED not to eat meat but Hinduism does not have any rigid laws regarding what God wants. Mostly it is the Brahmans that are not to eat meat- other castes may eat it.
302956
The way I look at is is, I will follow God with all my hart. There for I don't have time for Satan in my life. That doesn't mean he doesn't pop in every once in a while...But I always ask him to leave.If you are a skeptic wouldn't you rather be live and feel good and live a pleasant happy good life and find out there is a God then to do what you want as happy and good as it may be but with out God There is no Happy ever after?\n\n"acknowledge me be for man and I will acknowledge you be for my father"
791767
A person is an atheist based on an analytical view and has therefore settled any questions as to otherwise.  It is not a whim or a notion, it is based on as solid a foundation as any religion, more so actually because it is based on what we believe to be fact.  I would certainly hope that the kind lady would not ask me to change my heart on this matter.  And, in turn, even though I would agree to be the recipient for the kidney that will give her a "reward" from God, I would not ask her to change her view toward God.  Please bear this in mind:  Although it is rare, sometimes people will perform sacrifices for each other with no other motive (i.e. rewards, going to heaven, avoiding hell) than to be good human beings.  That, my dear, is a rare and true sacrifice.
441203
http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/index.php?showtopic=8724\nMust Buddhists be vegetarian?\n\nNo.\n\nWhy the fuss then?\n\nThough the Buddha never made it a compulsory rule that all His followers have to be vegetarians, He strongly encouraged us to be. In the Bodhisattva practice of minimising harm to all beings and benefiting them as much as possible, the practice of vegetarianism as far as possible plays an essential role. We can see this in many of the Buddha's recorded teachings.\n\n\n\n“The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great Compassion.”\n\n\n-Mahaparinirvana Sutra (The Buddha)\n\n"...Ananda, I permit the bhiksus (monks) to eat only the five kinds of pure flesh* which are the product of my transcendental power of transformation and not of animal slaughter. You, Brahman, live in a country where vegetables do not grow because it is too damp and hot and because of all the gravel and rock. I use my spiritual power of compassion to provide you with illusory meat to satisfy your appetite. How then, after my nirvana, can you eat the flesh of living beings and so pretend to be my disciple?..."\n\n\n"...All monks who live purely and all Bodhisattvas always refrain even from walking on grass; how can they agree to uproot it? How then can those who practise great Compassion feed on the flesh and blood of living beings?..."\n\n”...How can a monk, who hopes to become a deliverer of others, himself be living on the flesh of sentient beings?...”\n\n\n”...If a man can (control) his body and mind and thereby refrains from eating animal products, I say he will really be liberated. This teaching of mine is that of the Buddha whereas any others that of evil demons..."\n\n\n-Surangama Sutra (The Buddha)\n http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/Shurangama/Shurangama.htm\n\n”The Bodhisattva, whose nature is Compassion, is not to eat any meat… For fear of causing terror to living beings…let the Bodhisattva who is disciplining himself to attain Compassion, refrain from eating flesh.”\n\n\n-Lankavatara Sutra (The Buddha)\n\n"If a bhikkhu sees, hears or suspects that it has been killed for him, he may not eat it."\n\n-Mahavagga of Vinaya Pitaka (The Buddha)\n\n"Let him not destroy, or cause to be destroyed, any life at all, nor sanction the acts of those who do so. Let him refrain from even hurting any creature, both those that are strong and those that tremble in the world." \n\n-Sutta-Nipata (The Buddha)\n\n"I have enforced the law against killing certain animals and many others, but the greatest progress of righteousness among men comes from the exhortation in favor of non-injury to life and abstention from killing living beings." \n\n\n-King Asoka's Edicts \n\n\nAll true practitioners of the Bodhisattva path eventually relinquish meat-eating. In His previous lives, the Buddha as a Bodhisattva would rather cut His own flesh to feed an eagle than let it eat a smaller bird. All advanced practising Bodhisattvas are thus necessarily vegetarians, since they cannot bear the pain of sentient beings.\n\nWhile nothing we eat makes us impure, our choice of diet is an action with implications. If our choice of diet arises from greed, sustaining the greed obviously makes us impure
650875
vegetarian food is the best food - both for you and for the sake of the animals :)\ni'm a vegetarian and i'm much healthier and stronger than many of the non-vegetarians i know.\nmoreover i have the satisfaction of not contributing to the pain of the animals :)\n\ni'm posting a link down here under source - visit the website and read all good about vegetarianism. ohh yea...if possible...do watch the videos they have there :)
823529
I’ve a vegetarian so I’ve eaten my share of tofu based products.  I have a rule though; it can’t try to be something it isn’t.  Last year a person brought a Tofurkey to Thanksgiving dinner and no animal alive would even dare touch it.
626431
Have you ever come to the realization that humans, nature (both flora and fauna) is but putrid waste that gets transformed over and over? We are born, live for a while, die, our waste is consumed by plants that serve as food for animals which other humans eat, and the cycle repeats itself thousands of times for millenia to come. There is truly no sense or permanent consciousness of self.  When that happens you stop looking for purpose, and lack of purpose forces you to start questioning traditional consciousnes embedded doctrines.  Hence, people question the Christians beliefs and the existence of God.\n\nMay the lord have mercy on our souls...Amen.
461409
A vegetarian, not likely. Through the design of creation of happenstance or evolution (which is a different argument, for another time) I am at a certain place in the food chain, as is the rabbit. So as a result I will allow the rabbit to eat his food, and I will in-turn eat the rabbit.
1093699
no I don't, and no I don't. I have asked before and got no reply so I stopped trying. \nSorry to tell you this, but it seems your god plays favorites sometimes. \nEither that or he specifically designs the outcomes of life so that there will be nonbelievers, that way his little lambs will have something to do with their free time.
759776
I'm vegetarian, and i'm no extremist or anything but here's how I feel:\nKilling animals is something that humans have done for a long time. period.  I think we should stop, because we don't need to do it anymore to survive, but that hasn't always been the case.  If anyone gets all up-in-arms about killing animals in a fantasy game, they're an idiot.  That's just my opinion as a doctor.  They would be the same kind of person that would take sex out of shakespeare to make it PC.  I would kill animals for food or points in a game, and I would let my kids do it, too.
357584
no. i am a vegetarian.
1008736
Yeah I m vegetarian and completely understand ur dilemma in this world.\nIt's a hard decision but I am sure there are good number of humane guys over there (well i know as I m one of them ;))
815283
Well, I am not a christian. And I don't believe that god is always bothered about us, humans only. I think god doesn't care if a tiger kills a man or vice-versa. Even he is not bothered about if a sudden cosmos come and destroys the earth. Because to him/her (?, Why do we always think god is like some living organism?) every matter and energy is same.