On May 29, 2016, a 3 or 4 year-old boy (sources differ on his age) was visiting the Cincinnati Zoo with his mother. As boys sometimes do, he got into trouble. In this case big trouble, life threatening trouble. He fell into the enclosure that housed a 450 pound male silverback gorilla named Harambe (for the meaning of Harambe click here). It’s amazing the child survived the 10-foot fall into the enclosure. The water in the enclosure’s moat must have broken his fall. The danger was not over … [Read more...]
Morality-Based Veganism and Cultural Bigotry
Several years ago, I was outside Denver Colorado and noticed a billboard that said, "Why love one and eat the other?" An analogous sign can be found at Mercy for Animals. It shows a picture of a dog and a pig, with the question, why love one and eat the other? It is an ingenious marketing ploy. Exploit the American public’s idolatrous view of their pets in an attempt to exploit their view of fair play and adopt a meatless diet. [NBC New reports 7/12/2015 that Americans will spend more than 60 … [Read more...]
Christianity, Veganism, and Animal Suffering
Last month, I discussed how Christianity cannot impose veganism on its adherents because doing so would violate the freedom we have in Christ as well as our lordship over creation. In other words, humans are superior to animals and thus eating animals is within the bounds of the created order. But I also noted that animal rights is not the only reason employed by anti-meat eaters to support their cause. One of the more emotionally compelling arguments is what can be called the argument from … [Read more...]
Thorns and Briers, or Peaceful Habitation?
A common theme of environmentalist thought—the Green vision of the ideal world—is of a small human population whose effect on earth’s ecosystems doesn’t differ significantly from that of other species. The stark contrast between that vision, with its particular understanding of what it means to be human, and the Biblical vision is apparent from the beginning of the Bible, where, having made Adam and Eve (unlike all other living things, earthly or heavenly) in His image, “God blessed them. And … [Read more...]
The Haunt of Jackals
Various passages of the Bible set forth the complete elimination of human habitation in a land as the epitome of God’s judgment. I have long found it remarkable that much of the environmental movement sees as ideal what Scripture depicts as hideous. One place that does so is Isaiah 34, in which God through the Prophet Isaiah foretells, in sometimes apocalyptic poetic language, His judgment on Edom and the other pagan nations that oppressed Israel and Judah: 1“Draw near, O nations, to hear, and … [Read more...]
Why Christians Don’t Impose Veganism
Veganism is the lifestyle philosophy of people that avoid eating, wearing, or using animal products or their by-products. They don’t eat meat or the products that derive from animals, even when the animal is not killed, such as milk. Now the rationales for adopting this lifestyle vary. Some do it for alleged health benefits, others for supposed environmental reasons, and other still on the basis of some ethical theory about not wanting animals to suffer (cf. Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation). Of … [Read more...]
Think Carefully Before Welcoming Humane Society Policies
Humans should only be eating animals raised under humane conditions. Sounds perfectly innocent doesn’t it? After all who wants to think of animals suffering just so that he/she can have a cheap burger or chicken patty? This is essentially the argument cleverly proffered by Pete Letheby in the article “Farmers team up with the Humane Society on behalf of animals” published in the Fall 2015 edition (p. 24) of Ag in Action by the Lewistown News-Argus (Lewistown, MT). The problem with this article … [Read more...]
Stop the Bear Hunt?
In June of 2015, the Florida Fish and Game Commission approved the hunting of black bears. The hunt took place in late October. Stop the Bear Hunt, an anti-bear hunting protest industry group, provides 4 reasons why the Florida bear hunt is a bad idea. Let’s take a look at each one and see if the Commission’s decision was misguided. Argument 1. The hunt is unnecessary and unwarranted. Stop the Bear Hunt claims that bear numbers have not reached habitat carrying capacity and that killing bears … [Read more...]
Seal Hunting and Definitions of Cruelty
The animal-use protest industry group, Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), took another Hollywood victim when it converted the sexy Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting of Big Bang Theory fame to its cause. Sweeting joins the emotive crowd of urbanites who oppose Canadian seal hunts. Now our big neighbor to the North has a long-history of first class wildlife management. In fact, Canada’s management of its natural resources (which includes wildlife) could be considered better than the management … [Read more...]
Fur and the No-Need Argument
Animal rights activists and so-called animal protectionists regularly argue that the public shouldn’t buy or wear fur because it is no longer needed. Fur may have been necessary in the olden days, they concede, but for modern, civilized, and presumably technologically advanced humans, fur is a cruel and gratuitous clothing choice. The puritanical nature of the argument can be seen easily by reading sample letters created by The Humane Society of the United States, a prominent animal-rights … [Read more...]
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