How to Respond: Religion Justifies Killing Animals

Religion is often cited as a justification for eating animals.

In this blog, we’ll go over how to respond to this justification regarding the three world religions you’re most likely to encounter: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.

When conversing with someone about veganism within the context of religion, it’s important to enter their paradigm of religion.

If you challenge their religion and say that religion is stupid or shouldn’t govern our laws or shouldn’t be used as justification to kill other living beings, they’re just going to shut down.

Because if a person is using religion as a justification for killing and consuming animals, religion is obviously a huge part of this person’s identity. And if you attack their identity, they’re not focused on listening to a different point of view, they’re focused on defending their identity. Which means never becoming vegan.

Instead, put your personal beliefs about religion aside and show them how they can live more in alignment with the values of their own religion by going vegan.

It’s important to memorize key concepts or verses from each of the three big world religions and use those verses to demonstrate that veganism is permitted or even considered an ideal within that religion.

Islam

The Qur’an explicitly forbids animal cruelty, but it also specifically endorses killing animals, “He has only forbidden you to eat carrion, blood, swine, and what is slaughtered in the name of any other than Allah. But if someone is compelled by necessity—neither driven by desire nor exceeding immediate need—they will not be sinful. Surely Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” [Qur’an 2: 173]

This verse essentially says that muslims are forbidden to eat meat that still contains blood, meat that comes from pigs, or meat that is sacrificed to another God. But that killing animals out of necessity (for immediate consumption) is permitted.

Muslims even have a system of classifying meat as “halal,” which means that the meat was slaughtered “humanely” (according to their beliefs) and drained of all blood in accordance with Muslim practices and culture.

The “Halal” meat section in a supermarket

So unfortunately, you can’t argue that veganism is an “ideal” in the Islamic religion.

However, there is nothing in the Qur’an that says eating meat is mandatory.

Since the Qur’an doesn’t mandate eating meat, and only says that eating meat is allowed, you can appeal to other reasons for not eating animals.

Find out what interests this particular person, what motivates them, and tailor your approach to their personal perspective. Whether they’re motivated by animal protection, environment protection, health, etc., there’s no aspect of their religion that prevents them from becoming vegan.

Judaism and Christianity

Judaism and Christianity share certain scripture.

The sacred text of Judaism is called the “Tanakh,” which is comprised of 24 books split into three sections. The Torah is the first section of the Tanakh, and contains the first 5 books.

The Torah is referred to as the “Old Testament” by Christians. Christians accept the Old Testament as part of their scripture. Christians also include the “New Testament” in their scripture, which is the story of Jesus and his disciples. Jews do not accept the New Testament.

So basically, Judaism and Christianity overlap in the Old Testament.

In both sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity, there are several conflicting messages about eating animals. Sometimes God says eat plants only, sometimes God says eat animals. It’s very confusing!

But the good news is that there is one instance that completely supersedes all others: the creation of Eden in the book of Genesis.

The book of Genesis is the first book in the Old Testament/Torah, so it is accepted by both Jews and Christians. Genesis tells of the creation of the earth and the garden of Eden.

If you’re going to memorize any religious verse for the sake of veganism, let it be this one:

“I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” (Genesis 1:29-30)

The garden of Eden was vegan!

They may have been forbidden to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but all other trees and fruit were on the menu!

God’s creation of the perfect world was a vegan world. Before there was sin, no animals were killed for food. And humans ate plants.

Only after the fall from grace did sin enter the world. And only then did humans begin eating animals.

After the flood, God told Noah, “The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.” (Genesis 9:2-3)

All the other passages that encourage humans to eat animals occur after the fall from grace and creation of sin. Only in a sinful world do humans eat animals.

Most Jews and Christians are actively seeking to remove sin from their lives. Remind them that the garden of Eden was vegan, and that according to the book of Genesis, God intended humans to be vegan.

Present it as a positive: “I know that as a Jew (or Christian), you’re probably seeking to avoid sin in your life. Since the garden of Eden was vegan, and the garden of Eden was God’s ideal for humanity, becoming vegan could be a way to get closer to God’s intentions for humans.”

Conclusion

A religious justification for eating animals can be very frustrating, especially if you yourself are not religious. It’s tempting to launch into an attack on religion, or to insist that religious beliefs shouldn’t govern our laws. But ultimately, those arguments are futile. They will never convince a deeply religious person. If you go that route, you will lose the argument.

Instead of attacking their religion, show them how they can live more in alignment with the values of their religion by going vegan.

Enter their paradigm of religion. Confirm their beliefs. And show them how they can live those beliefs even more truly by adopting a vegan lifestyle.