I love meat. I’m a carnivore through and through. I feel a sense of great sadness when someone tells me that he or she is a vegetarian. I feel sad because I know that they’re missing out on something that has brought me so much joy.
However, I am disturbed by the creation narratives in Genesis. After God creates Adam and Eve, he tells them that all the seed-bearing plants and the fruit is theirs to eat. God makes no mention of eating a nice, rare steak. In fact, it isn’t until after the Fall that the first death occurs in Eden. This has led me to believe that God’s original intention was for humans to be vegetarians.
Which again makes me sad because I like meat.
Over the years, though, there have been a few instances when I thought about turning vegetarian. Check them out below.
Tauntaun Guts
When I was younger there were parts in Star Wars from which I would always avert my eyes: the severed arm in A New Hope, Bib Fortuna in Return of the Jedi, and Han slicing open the tauntaun in The Empire Strikes Back. Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web almost led to slaughter never made me think twice about eating meat. But seeing that tauntaun’s innards spill all over Hoth’s icy terrain almost made me a lifelong fan of soy burgers. Tauntauns weren’t as cuddly as Ewoks but I still didn’t want to see one turned into the equivalent of a heated blanket.
Klingon Gagh
Nom nom nom.
For being so advanced, the humans of the 24th century sure have a lot to learn about appreciating cultural differences in food. Every single time humans interacted with Klingons in Star Trek: The Next Genreation, there was some disgusted Federation officer complaining about Klingon food. Gagh is basically worms and, according to Captain Picard, is best served fresh and alive. I don’t really like bugs or worms; they’ve always kind of freaked me out. I’ve never liked working in the yard, mostly because I’m lazy but also because the idea of accidentally touching a live worm appalls me. And even though I liked most of the Klingon episodes on The Next Generation, I could never stomach the gagh. I guess I’m just as bad as the 24th century humans but I’ve never claimed to be better.
Quail
I love the story out of Numbers 11 when the Israelites complain about not having any meat to eat. After a diet of nothing but manna, the Israelites start to think enviously about the variety of food they had to eat back in Egypt. God hears their complaint and I love his response.
Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD.
So God sends quail to the Israelite camp, so many quail that they are piled three feet high all around their camp. I’ve had quail and it’s very good but I think I would even have my fill after about a foot’s worth. I love meat but after a month of eating nothing else even I would be asking for a salad.
I don’t know if God’s original intention was that we would all be vegetarians. I’ve been eating meat my entire life, though, and I don’t think anything is going to change that, not even tauntaun guts of Klingon delicacies. Whenever we sit down to ingest a large amount of animal protein, we just need to remember to thank God for making those animals so tasty.
What Bible stories make you lose your appetite?
When ever me and my friend go out for Chinese food. He always tells me that some of the food reminds him of Klingon Gagh.
There is certainly Biblical basis to believe that the consumption of meat is the result of a fallen world. This is true not just in relation to man’s diet, but also other animals. Isaiah 65 talks about the lion eating straw in the New Earth. Once all is set right again, I suspect we will find the thought of bringing death to and creature far more appalling than the pleasure of consuming it.
In the present state of the world, however, eating meat is a necessity. Many animals do not have the proper enzymes to digest plant mater. Other animals can not receive complete nutrition without eating some meat. There are only 4 way to receive vitamin B12, for example: 1) Supplement (a modern development), 2) A rumen or gizzard (organs that humans do not have), 3) Eating Feces (no thanks!!), 4) Eating animal products (bring the meat!!).
In the mean time, we should support humane treatment of the animals we eat (believed by many to be the motivation behind some of the Kosher Laws). We should keep a strong faith but accept other views (Rom 14). Finally, we should enjoy (and give thanks for) the steak!!
I like to think that Jesus is constantly redeeming our brokenness. Sure, the Fall broke humanity and the whole world, but part of his redemptive work is a good steak or juicy burger.
AMEN!!! 😀
Satan!
The parts where you’re supposed to treat women like property, the parts where it says you should kill people who don’t believe as you do and burn their cities to the ground, the parts that justify slavery and genocide, etc. Those are the parts of the bible that make me ill.
The bible is a set of morally diseased ideologies, all based around protecting the mythologies and superstitions of the bible from the savages of basic, observable reality. It’s a mental disease, and a plague upon the face of the Earth, spreading hatred and violence in its wake.