In my every day life I come across many things that simply don’t make sense to me. It’s not that I don’t understand these things it’s that I don’t understand the irrationality and arrogance of the average person. This is a subject I can’t leave alone anymore; I’ve tried and tried but this concept is too bizarre for me to wrap my head around, this concept of course is vegetarianism (yes that’s a word so don’t even try to use that in the comments when you run out of real arguments). Now I know what you eat has absolutely no pertinence to me at all whatsoever, but then again nobody is forcing you to read this. If you don’t eat meat because you don’t like the taste then that is understandable but one statement I absolutely, positively disagree with is “meat is murder”
The typical argument between a vegetarian and a non vegetarian goes as follows:
Vegetarian: Meat is murder.
Non-Vegetarian: Eating meat is natural. Eating meat is the food chain.
It’ll go on like this until the Vegetarian says “have you seen a video of a slaughterhouse?” at that point most people give up because how many people watch slaughterhouse footage in their spare time?
For arguments sake I decided to do some googling and watch some slaughterhouse footage. On it’s own it seems pretty gory, pretty heavy stuff I could see how some people could be discouraged from eating meat, but compare it to what you see on animal planet. Today I watched a video of 6 wolves attacking a moose, once the moose was immobilized the wolves started feeding immediately. That means Mr Moose laid there being eaten alive until he died of shock or blood loss. That is the food chain in it’s most natural form and it’s way more painful and gruesome then a slaughterhouse.
Now lets take a gander into our biology. Typically herbivores don’t have sharp teeth designed to tear the flesh off of a kill like humans do, also typical herbivores have enlarged grinding molars to break down vegetative material. Another thing that sets us apart from the predisposed herbivores is the fact that we have an amino acid metabolism that is designed to break down and digest meat and protein. Also if you take a look at animals that we share similar genealogy with they are typically omnivores.
Before I started writing I did some research to see some of the alternative reasons to eating meat aside from the overused “meat is murder” excuse. What I found was exactly what I was looking for but it made me laugh with pity.
http://www.ivu.org/religion/articles/argument3.html“How to Win an Argument with a Meat-Eater”
That is the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen. If you need somebody to defend your cause for you or teach you how to defend it, then I'm sorry, it isn’t your cause, you’re just a follower.
Although I see it as a total joke, I’m going to use that site as the advocate for the herbivores.
The Hunger Argument against meat-eating
That my friends is what we call a single causation fallacy (to falsely say that one thing is the cause of another when in reality there are multiple factors that contribute). Besides the most primary, most direct cause of world hunger is western greed so don’t say you’re a vegetarian for those poor people all over the world because the resources that you waste everyday could go into food production and go a whole lot further then if you stop eating meat.
The Environmental Argument against meat-eating
See number one, the single causation fallacy and the rich and greedy are behind this one too.
The Cancer Argument against meat-eating
The following is an alphabetical list of all the things that give you cancer according to epidemiologists. I guarantee you do things on that list that show more conclusive links to cancer then meat consumption so don’t even try to use cancer as an argument.
Acetaldehyde, acrylamide, acrylonitril, abortion, agent orange, alar, alcohol, air pollution, aldrin, alfatoxin, arsenic, arsine, asbestos, asphalt fumes, atrazine, AZT, baby food, barbequed meat, benzene, benzidine, benzopyrene, beryllium, beta-carotene, betel nuts, birth control pills, bottled water, bracken, bread, breasts, bus stations, calcium channel blockers, cadmium, captan, carbon black, carbon tetrachloride, careers for women, casual sex, car fumes, celery, charred foods, cooked foods, chewing gum, Chinese food, Chinese herbal supplements, chips, chloramphenicol, chlordane, chlorinated camphene, chlorinated water, chlorodiphenyl, chloroform, cholesterol, low cholesterol, chromium, coal tar, coffee, coke ovens, crackers, creosote, cyclamates, dairy products, deodorants, depleted uranium, depression, dichloryacetylene, DDT, dieldrin, diesel exhaust, diet soda, dimethyl sulphate, dinitrotouluene, dioxin, dioxane, epichlorhydrin, ethyle acrilate, ethylene, ethilene dibromide, ethnic beliefs,ethylene dichloride, Ex-Lax, fat, fluoridation, flying, formaldehyde, free radicals, french fries, fruit, gasoline, genes, gingerbread, global warming, gluteraldehyde, granite, grilled meat, Gulf war, hair dyes, hamburgers, heliobacter pylori, hepatitis B virus, hexachlorbutadiene, hexachlorethane, high bone mass, hot tea, HPMA, HRT, hydrazine, hydrogen peroxide, incense, infertility, jewellery, Kepone, kissing, lack of exercise, laxatives, lead, left handedness, Lindane, Listerine, low fibre diet, magnetic fields, malonaldehyde, mammograms, manganese, marijuana, methyl bromide, methylene chloride, menopause, microwave ovens, milk hormones, mixed spices, mobile phones, MTBE, nickel, night lighting, night shifts, nitrates, not breast feeding, not having a twin, nuclear power plants, Nutrasweet, obesity, oestrogen, olestra, olive oil, orange juice, oxygenated gasoline, oyster sauce, ozone, ozone depletion, passive smoking, PCBs, peanuts, pesticides, pet birds, plastic IV bags, polio vaccine, potato crisps (chips), power lines, proteins, Prozac, PVC, radio masts, radon, railway sleepers, red meat, Roundup, saccharin, salt, sausage, selenium, semiconductor plants, shellfish, sick buildings, soy sauce, stress, strontium, styrene, sulphuric acid, sun beds, sunlight, sunscreen, talc, tetrachloroethylene, testosterone, tight bras, toast, toasters, tobacco, tooth fillings, toothpaste (with fluoride or bleach), train stations, trichloroethylene, under-arm shaving, unvented stoves, uranium, UV radiation, vegetables, vinyl bromide, vinyl chloride, vinyl fluoride, vinyl toys, vitamins, vitreous fibres, wallpaper, weedkiller (2-4 D), welding fumes, well water, weight gain, winter, wood dust, x-rays.
I haven’t personally verified this list but my point is clear, a lot of things cause cancer.
The Cholesterol Argument against meat-eating
There are many things both vegetative and meat based that contain excessively high amounts of cholesterol to lump all meat together and saying it’s bad for you is plain arrogant.
The Natural Resources Argument against meat-eating
See number 1 or 2, I don’t feel like writing it out again.
The Antibiotic Argument against meat-eating
The studies to support this are still inconclusive so it’s not technically a valid argument but even if you were that worried about it you’d buy organic, not give up meat all together.
The Pesticide Argument against meat-eating
Again these studies are inconclusive and even if there is a link between eating meat and getting Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane in your system it can’t be that serious otherwise there would be a lot of dead meat eaters and people would start asking questions. Never mind that DDT has been illegal in most developed countries since the 70’s so the unanswered question of how it is getting in the meat makes this theory thin at the very best.
The Ethical Argument against meat-eating
I’ve already answered this one remember, suffering is natural in the food chain and you need to keep in mind that an animals purpose in life to to reproduce and then feed a higher animal on the food chain.
That’s pretty much it, I’ll write another one on the positive uses of fur and leather.
