[MODERATOR NOTE: This new thread continues a conversation that was off-topic in it's original thread, Time to Die.]
I'll apologize up front if I offend anyone. But this is a button of mine and one that gets me fairly passionate.
Everything that "lives" consumes other things. Whether it's a Lion hunting and stalking a Gazelle, a Shark hunting fish, a Whale eating Plankton, or even a plant breaking down bacteria and other elements in the soil, all things use other things to survive. This is not evil nor 'unfair'. It is Life.
If we recognize this fact and also recognize that we are a part
of this and not apart
from it, and we accept that we are intricately related to everything around us, we force ourselves into a position of humility and respect.
When you respect that which you consume, you do honor to its life and its sacrifice that you may continue to live.
Where we have fallen down as a society and a culture is in the lack of thanks and respect we feel for that which we consume. Even the main religion in our western culture thanks "God" for the food we consume, not the beings themselves; and that's for those few who actually take the time to say "grace" before meals.
We buy meat sliced and packaged in neat little styrofoam and plastic containers so that there's no way to even know that it once was a part of a living, breathing being. We forget to honor and thank the spirit of that being that sacrificed itself for us. When a hunter stalks and kills it's prey, this is not evil. This is not wrong. As with everything, it is the intent with which we do things that determines whether or not our actions are honorable.
This is true of consuming plants too. So those who seem to find some self-rightousness in not consuming the flesh of animals and yet devour plants without regard for
their sacrifice are just as spiritually bereft as those who do so with animals.
As for choosing the time of your death, let me relate a hunting story to you and let you decide:
A friend was out hunting with his teenage son - teaching him how to so with integrity, respect and honor. They went out in the early morning, before dawn, and found a spot close to a water source where they knew deer came to drink. They settled in and began to wait patiently.
They didn't have to wait long. A buck and three does came along the track and began to drink. The son, seeing the beautiful rack on the Buck, began to take aim. My friend stopped him, "Not yet," he signalled. The animals continued to drink, unaware of the two hunters in the bushes.
Then, one of the does pricked her ears and looked straight at my friend. The two looked each other dead in the eye for about 30 seconds. At that point, the doe stepped away from the others and turned sideways to my friend and his son with her head and tail straight up.
My friend tapped his son on the shoulder, pointed to the doe and said, "Her. She's offering." The son took careful aim and dropped the doe in a single shot with tears in his eyes, honoring the sacrifice of that animal.
That is respect. That is how we should live - not by some "holier-than-thou-'cause-I-don't-eat-meat" mentality. And for those who don't hunt their own food, simply acknowledging the animal and its sacrifice is a step closer to integrity. My 10 year old daughter has taken to asking me at every meal where we serve meat what animal it came from so that she can thank it properly. I find this far more respectful than someone who uses the label of "vegatarian" as some kind of status symbol or clique inclusion.