Veganism – A Cult of Intolerance Founded on a Lie

If I remember correctly, Abel was a shepherd and God favored Abel's offering and fat portions. Cain had crops and God did not favor his offering. This all happened before the flood, right?

Not just in this universe, but the multiverse

I'm not offended by what you're saying and I'm not American. I eat heaps of fresh and cooked veggies and fresh fruit and nuts etc. But I also happen to enjoy meat and carbohydrates. And what you say about harmful chemicals is true too and we need to be more mindful of that and try to buy food accordingly. But we also need to be reminded to be discerning with organic foods. Because there are plenty of people who fleece honest people, who are looking to help their bodies, by claiming something is organic when it's not. And that kind of crap is disgusting because organic food isn't cheap. If you're buying organic food, it better actually be organic.

Through much of history, meat was free of chemicals and whatever, but it's not true to say that we eat more meat today. Think about the many cultures throughout the world. For much of their history, it was a steady diet of meat, cheese, and bread. Not very exciting and they suffered for it, but I'd say that they were bigger meat eaters.

As for your belief that Americans are more into sex and violence than ever before because of meat consumption, that's so ridiculous it's funny. It's also not very biblical. The real reason is societies as a whole are moving more and more away from Judeo-Christian beliefs and values and many of these countries originally had such foundations that informed them morally. Our world is a sinful place. It's been a fallen creation since the time Adam and Eve chose wrongly. We shouldn't pretend we have it all together in this day and age (we certainly don't) but I also think we can be discerning about what we do and don't eat without becoming militant and paranoid.

Yes, Abel was a shepherd. Some people probably ate meat in the pre-Flood era, but those who were true to God didn't. So Abel would've tended sheep for their wool and milk and maybe skin (for clothing) and for sacrifices to God (only the best lamb), but not for meat. Meat was forbidden pre-Flood and permitted post-Flood.

I know it's a corny joke, but it really tickled my funny bone the 1st time I heard it:

"Did you know vegetarian is an old Indian name?"

Yeah, it means "awful hunter"!

When has God ever forbid man from eating animals? I think yall veggies are reading something that doesn't exist. God giving man seed bearing plants to eat is not a declaration that man cannot eat animals. Magenta has already quoted Genesis 1:29 in this thread, but nothing in that verse says God forbids eating animals. Everything about the human body was designed to consume meat. Look at cows, the only purpose of a cow is to eat and make belts out of.

Dude, I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian. I love meat. You're making inferences from silence. Let's go with what the Bible does say rather than what it doesn't say. We know God allowed mankind to eat meat following the Great Flood, but it was a gift to humanity in a fallen, post-Flood world. As for cows in the immediate post-Fall world, they would have been bred for milk and cheese and yes, their skins.

I have a little story regarding vegans.

Once upon a time, I was a part-time faculty member at a university while I was also a Doctoral student. As such, I was invited to the annual faculty dinner party to kick off the year. I sat with my colleagues, two of whom were staunch vegans. I ordered the filet mignon while they had some tofu thing.

A few days later, I discovered that one of the vegan faculty was actually the professor in one of my classes. We started the first class off by introducing ourselves. This was a 900-level class with only Doctoral students, and many of us were new. Anyhoo, as I introduced myself, my professor said, "Oh, yes, we were at the faculty dinner together the other night. You were scarfing down critters."

I was horrified. It was just so demeaning. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to say, "Yes, and they tasted mighty good, too."

I was really embarrassed, however, and quite annoyed that this was the first impression my fellow students had of me -- "scaring down critters." Not nice.

Find a quote in Genesis, before the flood, where God forbids man from eating animals. If God forbid man from eating animals, he would have said so.

I would have loved to be in your class.

Nowhere does early Genesis say God forbids mankind from eating animals. You need to make inferences from what God does reveal in His Word. There's no mention of God allowing the eating of animals when He creates Adam and Eve. Genesis 1:29-30, as you've noted only mentions God giving mankind and animals plant life for food. And then we're specifically told that God gifts Noah and his family (and their descendants - all of us post-Flood people) with animals for food. By way of logic and inference, contrasting the two, it's easy to understand that God only permitted the eating of plant life prior to the Great Flood. Again, I'm a meat-eater, so I'm just clarifying this because I care about interpreting the Bible correctly.

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

It's not:
And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit and every kind of animal. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

You see how easy it would be for God to mention such a thing?

Read Genesis all the way up to the flood three times this evening, still don't see where God forbids man from eating animals. If God forbade man from eating meat there would be a verse that would say God forbids it. You are making an assumption that because God stated he gave seed bearing plants and fruit bearing trees for food and it is not written that he gave animals for food there is a prohibition on eating animals. What else has God forbidden that he did not state was forbidden?

Do you have a favourite method for preparing vegans to make them palatable?

Look, I'm very glad that you've taken the time to read Genesis 1-5 three times now. Thanks. But I don't see why you have a problem inferring things from God's Word based on the context of what is and isn't said. There are plenty of things that are much more important to the Christian faith and aren't stated outright eg. God is Trinity, but that doesn't make them any the less true. Also, think about God permitting Adam and Eve to eat from every tree in the garden of Eden, except that of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Bible doesn't outright say that Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Life, but it's a given that they did or at could have eaten from it, since God allowed them to eat from every tree in the garden, save for the infamous tree.

Besides, if God was okay with people eating meat before the Great Flood, He wouldn't have mentioned to Noah and his family that they could eat the animals immediately post-Flood. God would just have said something more along the lines of, "Keep doing what you're doing, Noah. I gave you the animals to eat and you can keep eating them". But God didn't say that.

The problem I have is it seems that some people are making something up.

It's good that you test people's words against God's Word. I'm not making them up. Maybe we should just leave this. We obviously believe differently and this isn't salvation-based issue. God bless.

Ok good night.

I reckon we turned a thread that should have been started on the conspiracy forum into a thread that should be in the bible discussion forum.

I've been a vegetarian for 45 years, except for a couple of years early in my marriage where hubby made me eat meat. I ate vegetarian for health reasons, because I could not digest the fat in meat. I started to get quite sick, so hubby kindly told me to go back to being a vegetarian. I cooked 2 meals most nights, one for me, and one for everyone else. My husband got diagnosed with pre-diabetes, and we attended a workshop to learn how to eat better. Turns out fresh veggies and fruit, high fiber, grains were the way to go! A little meat, and only white bird meat or fish.

So hubby apologized, and we have been eating vegetarian ever since, more or less! (He still eats meat if we go out for dinner!)

I also tried veganism for 6 months. I didn't know what I was doing, and I got hungry for fat. I was very thin, and perhaps I needed the fat from dairy and eggs? Which brings me to the OP. I agree totally that many vegans are in a cult. I have a vegan friend on FB, and I have to unfollow her twice. The first time for all the PETA pics, the second time for the daily posts with baby calves or baby pigs looking at you with big brown eyes and a caption to the effect that, "All animals have souls! How could you destroy this living soul just to eat meat?"

Wrong! Theologically incorrect. I tried very hard to read her posts and become informed, but she just posted meme after meme. It was a religious obsession! And she was in all these militant vegan groups, trying to ban or outlaw meat! Strangely, she was not physically healthy and in constant pain from fibromyalgia. So much for veganism curing all ills!

I am 100% behind the concept that everyone should eat healthy. But my experience with my oldest son was that he didn't do well on a vegetarian diet. He was much happier and healthier eating meat! So I stopped forcing my lifestyle choices on him. It's forcing people to eat a different way that bothers me!