it's clear God's original order before sin entered the world was for us to eat plants. they're not called 'living souls' like we and the animals are. the fact that God gave Noah all living things as food after the flood is amazing, and i don't fully comprehend what it means, what the implications are, why He chose to do this at that time, but i believe that since God gave it - and in the person of Christ continued in it, even eating fish after being resurrected, then He has provisioned in the order of spiritual things for it just as He did in the flesh. maybe this is part of the bondage to corruption that all creation is under -- i for one do not believe there was death on earth before sin; i think Romans 5:12 doesn't leave any room for it. which makes the worldview JohnR7 is teaching in this thread contradictory to scripture. but in death having entered the world, and decay, the world hasn't ceased to operate it was changed, corrupted but functional. God ordered it all with mercy. Native Americans would thank an animal for giving itself when they took it, hunting - it could be that while we as humans would value our life in the flesh over an animals, an animal does not, and doesn't hate us when its body is taken to feed ours - that this is part of man having dominion over the earth. perhaps it is an image of Christ giving His body for us every time we eat -- every time we eat anything. what do i know, i have only lived in earth a very short time, and i know i sure am an ignorant & rambling fool!
i don't think anyone is eating anyone's soul by consuming their flesh. the flesh is not the spirit. i look at the flesh as an interface between the spirit and the physical world -- like, you don't hurt the people you talk to on the phone by turning it off or even smashing it. you only affect the ability for them to communicate.
guess we'd need to go into why God gave laws against eating things that still have the blood in them and against eating blood -- even if you are eating someone while they are alive i don't think you're consuming their spirit.