Science and Spirituality

Eating Meat Has Nothing to Do with Ethics or Spirituality

Can we label predatory plants that eat animals as cruel, unethical, or non-spiritual, as nature creates herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores for various reasons?

Responses of a Carnivorous Writer to Five Arguments of an Herbivorous Reader

As nature created herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores, my fervent yearning is to unite them for harmony. I see carnivores and omnivores as ethical and spiritual as herbivores.

Discerning readers inspire me to look at controversial issues from unique angles. While analytical readers might look like antagonists for writers from the outside, they serve as an inspiration source to generate more fresh perspectives for other readers.

I initially struggled to conceptualize the well-intentioned arguments of a vegan reader. Yet, she gave me the inspiration and opportunity to express my viewpoints on why eating animal products was not unethical and non-spiritual.

As mentioned in my previous articles on health and well-being, diet is not a matter of ethics from my perspective. Instead, I see diet as a health matter and lifestyle choice for individuals. As a result, I respect all diets and see them as virtuous. I have no concern for diets as long as they suit the needs and desires of dieters.

I sincerely support the diverse diets of people around me in customizing them to suit their bodily needs, lifestyles, and health goals. I enjoy harmoniously interacting with family members and friends who are herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores.

However, when someone argues about diets bringing them to a point making me feel guilty with the notions of unethical and non-spiritual, I feel obliged to share my opinions with courtesy and politeness to add clarity.

I feel no guilt about my values, culture, diet, and lifestyle. They are human rights and individual choices.

This article does not reflect the judgment of a diet or people criticizing them. Instead, it serves the purpose of inviting all types of dieters to unity, whether they are herbivores, omnivores, or carnivores.

Using a scholarly approach helps me highlight logical, intellectual, emotional, and social flaws in thinking patterns.

Furthermore, adding personal perspectives allow me to connect with various types of readers, even if they disagree with my perspectives and choices.

This story does not also imply my thoughts and opinions are correct. I show humility to change my views if compelling arguments are made against them. My humble desire is to shed light on dark areas that might allow us to see the truth.

I have been on both ends of the extreme diet spectrum as a sole plant or animal product consumer. Thus, I have empathy and compassion for all types of dieters. I do not favor any of them based on my preferences.

Inspiration Source for This Story

A discerning reader has kindly praised my health, science, and spirituality articles which meant a lot to me. Interestingly, this valued subscriber showed disapproval of my stories related to the keto-carnivore diet privately.

She believes that I shouldn’t consume animal products as a spiritual person. Spirituality is important to me, yet I don’t characterize myself as particularly spiritual. I believe every human being is spiritual as they have connections beyond their identity.

Experiencing veganism, vegetarianism, and fruitarianism in my younger years, I had empathy and compassion with this valuable subscriber of my content, allowing her to share her concerns with me openly.

I adore listening to the apprehensions of people around me, wishing to add compassion and kindness to their lives.

Fortunately, I had no issues with this reader’s professional approach. On the contrary, I admired her polite online manner.

However, unfortunately, her arguments sounded confusing to me. I got concerned about the ethical reasons behind plant-based diets based on her arguments.

As people in my circles use plant-based diets for health reasons and as lifestyle choices, I don’t have ethical issues with those friends and family members. We live in harmony, acknowledging some people love animals, some plants, and some both.

Plants are also living beings like animals. For example, an old neighbor produces impressive vegetables and herbs in her garden but cannot eat them, perceiving them as her babies. Instead, she communicates with them affectionately. Moreover, she cries in autumn when they start dying.

As ethics is a touchy topic and elastic, ethical points can be quickly taken out of context, causing unnecessary dilemmas among human beings. Admirably, animals and plants don’t have contrived ethics like humans.

Based on my academic studies, my understanding of the purpose of ethics is distinguishing the good and bad for the benefit of humans and other living beings. Nevertheless, the definition of virtuous and evil may vary from person to person.

Interestingly, while the part of my doctoral thesis on cognitive science interviewing people to understand their thinking patterns got delayed six months to pass the ethics committee approval, my friends in biology and neuroscience classes killed mice, frogs, rabbits, and cats in their ethical labs.

A holistic view of diets and healthy lifestyles leveraging the inspiration from a vegan reader

I summarize the arguments of the subscriber with my responses under five headings to make the content digestible for generic readers. My goal in this section is to provide a holistic view of diets and lifestyle choices from my perspective.

Argument 1: Plants don’t have consciousness.

Reader’s first striking argument was animals have consciousness and a nervous system. Thus, she asserted that using them as food was unethical.

I pointed out some plants are as conscious as animals as they survive by eating them. She couldn’t believe it when I mentioned 630 species of carnivorous plants known to science. Carnivorous plants attract, trap, and digest animals for the nutrients they contain.

Even though “most meat-eating plants consume insects, larger plants are capable of digesting reptiles and small mammals.”

I wouldn’t characterize a plant consuming an innocent reptile as unconscious or unethical. It simply expresses its nature.

Researching consciousness topics for many years with passion, I got surprised by the assertion that plants have no consciousness. In my opinion, every living being hosts consciousness. However, I take every assertion as a request for more information.

I believe that even objects are part of collective consciousness. I also envision that one day, humans will make artificial superintelligence robots conscious. I had a lucid dream about it.

Like humans and animals, plants are born, live, and die. They produce and protect themselves with their capability. Every plant holds life energy.

Even though plants cannot move, they have a unique defense system creating potent chemicals that can poison their predators. We know that some esoteric people even can communicate and interact with plants.

So plants seem to have as much intelligence as animals. Their nervous system might function from a different biological setting.

Plants can be friendly to some people, but they might also be hostile to others.

For example, even the most domesticated plants like kale, spinach, parsley, and celery have harmful materials like oxalates, glucosinolates, phytates, saponins, tannins, and lectins for the human body if consumed excessively.

I suffered from the adverse effects of plants in my younger years. My immune system said enough of plants, their fiber, and some harmful oils of seeds, giving me arthritic pain, chronic inflammation, bloating, and a leaky gut.

Besides, I couldn’t have essential nutrients from plants, and only after eating egg yolks and beef liver did I address detrimental deficiencies.

Argument 2: It is cruel for humans to eat animals.

The next argument of the subscriber was about the cruelty of humans to animals. Like this reader, I am fervently against cruelty to any living being, even to objects. I use the things at home carefully with blessings.

If eating is considered cruelty, my initial thought was the cruelty of animals and humans to plants considering plants are living beings too.

My second thought reflects that most plants cause cruelty to microorganisms if eating is perceived as cruelty.

How about the carnivorous plants causing cruelty to reptiles and mammals?

So, according to this assertion, plants seem to be as cruel as humans to animals and living organisms.

Nature is full of perceived cruelty when we observe wildness.

Lions eat deers and elephants to survive. Big fish eat small fish. Requesting lions, tigers, wolves, or fish to eat plants will not change their behavior. Nature determined their survival mechanism.

The cruelty claim further concerns me as some vegan friends don’t eat meat but feed their pets like dogs and cats with meat. There is, of course, nothing wrong with feeding animals with animals. It is the plan of nature.

I respect their dietary choices and adore their support for their pets. However, when people belittle and attack meat-eating people as cruel, it is difficult to conceptualize the reasons behind the logic and rationale.

Argument 3: Eating meat is not spiritual.

Reading my stories about linking science and spirituality, the subscriber said spiritual people don’t eat meat. Therefore, she implied doubts about my spiritual approach to life. I respect her thoughts but politely disagree with the irrationality of perspective.

Like ethics, spirituality is another domain people can interpret notions and norms differently and cause dilemmas. Unfortunately, some spiritual groups do not reach a consensus on various issues and even fight to dominate their perspectives on issues.

I got confused when the reader mentioned Buddhism and Hinduism. I respect these religions and spiritual practices and use their philosophical aspect to improve my perspectives.

People following these religions don’t eat animal products and usually choose vegan, vegetarian, or fruitarian diets. There is nothing wrong with it from my perspective. I have many friends from these religions.

Considering this reader looks at the issue from a religious perspective, I point out that three major religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, have no restriction on eating animal products.

For example, Muslims celebrate the month of Dhul Hijjah by sacrificing animals like cows, goats, sheep, or camels. People following the Santería religion also sacrifice animals.

So my question to the reader is if we see Buddhists and Hindus as spiritual since they don’t eat animals, then can we say Christians, Jews, or Muslims who eat animals are not spiritual? There are millions of spiritual people following these religions.

Argument 4: Eating meat is unsustainable for the environment.

This issue is a highly complex topic. It is not possible to reach a consensus. Plant eaters blame animal products, and animal eaters blame plant products for sustainability issues.

There is no clear answer to who is right or wrong. However, they all have valid points that are yet to be explored and determined.

I partially agreed with the reader on her comment as I also believe that many people do not accept highly industrialized meat products causing animal cruelty.

But, in my understanding, “higher-welfare” meat products produced in organic environments do not seem to harm climate or other sustainability concerns. I follow the studies on them and plan to articulate them in my future posts.

Our ancestors did not have environmental problems when they consumed animal products by hunting and later grew them on their farms organically.

Believing in the importance of sustainability, I mainly choose grass-fed and organic meat as my preferred supply. However, it might not be possible to find organic products in every country. Thus, I agreed with the reader on the validity of the sustainability issue.

As my personal contribution to sustainability, I refrain from overeating and wasting our resources, unnecessarily consuming only one meal a day for decades.

I firmly believe that if governments support organic farms producing animal products and regulate industrial meat production by adding rules to prevent animal cruelty, we may create a more sustainable environment.

Here’s an informative perspective from nutritionist Rob Hourmont about environmental factors.

Argument 5: Plant products are healthy, but animal products are not.

The argument that animal products are unhealthy is overgeneralization. This anecdote was created as a competitive narrative by biased and non-rigorous scientists in my observations.

I know that processed animal products and burned meat is harmful to health. However, fresh and properly cooked animal products can be very healthy for some people. Like millions of people, I benefit from them.

The health benefits of meat and animal fats helped our ancestors to survive and thrive. They had the chance to pass their genes to us by getting their nutrition from animal products.

Anthropological studies highlighted the importance of eating meat for the survival of generations and evolution.

Recent epidemiological studies imply red meat is risky for human health. But when I reviewed those papers with a rigorous approach, they were poorly written, sounding like comparing apples to oranges.

Moreover, some of those studies are so messy that they even mixed-up causation and correlation.

I have not come across a single clinical study proving fresh red meat caused severe health issues for humans. If I see such a credible study, I will have no problem stopping to eat meat.

Regarding the health benefits of meats, I was sick, obese, and depressed on plant-based diets in my younger years. However, when I switched to keto-carnivore in my older years, all my health issues disappeared.

My achievement does not mean animal products are suitable for everyone. But we know that millions of people thrive on animal-based diets and millions of them on plant-based diets based on their genetic makeup.

Conclusions and Takeaways

I attempted to touch on interesting points providing my thoughts and opinions to the best of my knowledge.

However, my views and opinions on these points are not set in stone. Instead, they evolve as I learn more.

We can learn from each other by communicating decently without belittling or finger-pointing.

No one has the liberty to make other people guilty due to their diets, values, beliefs, cultures, or lifestyle choices.

Learning from the knowledge and experiences of other people delights me. As long as readers approach me courteously, I am willing to pour my heart and soul.

Discussing people’s choice of religions, spirituality, ethics, or philosophies is not of particular interest to me. I see them as a matter of taste and preference. However, I enjoy discussing these topics as they relate to society and our evolution.

Regarding topics like dietary or lifestyle choices, there appear to be no right or wrong answers. Various diets and lifestyle choices work for some people and do not work for others.

Thus, asserting the best diet or lifestyle for everyone does not make sense.

Discussing healthy lifestyle choices and the benefits of various diets based on experience and credible scientific studies on health matters might be helpful.

I enjoy reading those informing and engaging stories on food, diets, and lifestyle choices from writers covering both plant and animal-based diets.

Nature created herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores on this paradoxical planet. Humans don’t have the capability to change the choices of nature yet.

Thus, eating plants and animals is ethical and spiritual under these constraints.

My sincere wish is to unite all beings for harmony, removing unnecessary conflicts, as reflected in my lucid dream covering a glimpse of the 33rd century.

My current focus is to reduce the risks of major diseases with healthy lifestyle habits to eliminate unnecessary suffering in the lives of innocent people.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

Sample Health Improvement Articles for New Readers

Besides aiming to increase the hormonal intelligence of my readers and writing about neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, acetylcholine, and norepinephrine, one of my goals as a writer is to raise awareness about the causes and risk factors of prevalent diseases that can lead to suffering and death for a large portion of the population.

I aim to educate, create awareness, and empower my readers to take control of their health and well-being.

To raise awareness about health issues, I have written several articles that present my holistic health findings from research, personal observations, and unique experiences. Below are links to these articles for easy access.

Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, and Major Diseases.

I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:

Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients to improve metabolism and mental health.

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