Expert: Tom Schott - 11/5/2005

Question
Hello

I'd like to ask you a question about eating animal flesh. I'm not going to ask you whether we have the right to treat them the way they are treated in slaughterhouses now because i know the answer; of course we have no right to do it. However i would like to ask you who gave us the right to kill animals. I know that in the Genesis it's written that we were given dominion over the kingdom of animals and we can eat whatever is moving on the earth. But who said so? God? Who wrote the Genesis people or maybe God? I think the Genesis was written by people so how do we know what God said? It's not what God said but it's what people said, and people gave themselves dominion over the animals. Of course if there is nothing else to eat, it stands to reason that it's better to kill an animal that to die of hunger instead. But who gave us the right. Isn't a life a life, The Roman Catholic Church doesn't respect it? As far as i know all living beings have souls and so does animals. So? Is it moral to kill them if we have so many other things to eat. Can we say that it's nothing wrong because the Bible says we CAN? On what grounds do we have the right? Thank You!

Answer
Well, Luke, there's some thought involved here. I'm not going to argue Scripture with you. I don't do that with anyone. All I can say is that if you dismiss the Scripture as written by people and for their benefit, then we cannot find any warrant to eat animal flesh in Scripture. But we can point to thousands upon thousands of years that human beings have consumed animal flesh. I am reluctant to decide that something human beings have done for so long is intrinsically immoral, although I might be persuaded. I don't know how you know that all living things have souls, but that certainly strengthens your case, if true. Some matters of morality are not entirely clear from the Bible. This would certainly be one of them. I'm sorry I cannot be more definitive in this area, but that's because the issue itself is not definitive.