The soldiers killed and ate the young girl. The film showed gory scenes of the process of cooking and eating the girl.
I was so disgusted at the sight that I vomited and did not eat any food that day. The gory scene kept on coming to my mind again and again. Even now when I think of it I become sick.
Yes, we cannot conceive of humans eating humans. Can we think of eating our neighbours or friends or even our enemies? No. It is beyond our imaginations.
Now let us think of a cow. It gives us milk -- something that only our mothers gave us when we were children. It is almost like a mother to humans. And what do humans do in return, for the poor, gentle, loving animal? They cut its throat and eat it.
Suppose you had a cow of your own as a pet in the house and it also fed you with its milk -- would you think of killing it and eating it? Probably not, because you would be attached to it and maybe even love it. However you would not hesitate to kill your neighbour's cow and eat it -- or would you? Would your neigbour let you? Never.
And yet there are thousands of cows that are killed daily all over the world and eaten by humans.
We refer to animals that attack and eat human beings as "carnivorous beasts" but then are we not "carnivorous humans" who kill and eat animals?
In what way have they wronged us?
Would you kill your pet dog and eat it, or your pet cat or parrot or bird? And yet millions of birds are killed and eaten by the human race-- be they chickens, hens or turkeys. In what way had they harmed us to be so wronged by us?
Whatever we see around us is God's creation, since obviously we didnt create the world and the creatures in it. God is Love. He loves all of his creation, the humans and the creatures in it included.
Kill a chicken and eat it. Then try to put life back into it and see whether you can do it. Try to put the bones and feathers together and to resurrect the chicken -- you cant do it. You cant create what God created and which you destroyed, therefore you have no right to destroy it. Ask yourself -- will God be truly happy seeing you kill and eat His creatures upon earth? Would God like to see the strong kill and eat the weak?
Man is strong, animals are weak -- and so man kills them and eats them. What a horrible word is the word "kill", and yet that is what is being down by millions the world over who "enjoy" eating meat.
God placed enough vegetables and grains and fruits upon the planet earth so that man could go on feeding himself. The earth is so fertile that it delivers up all the food that we need. Yet we prefer blood and gore. Have you ever seen a slaughter house and the manner in which the animals scream and shriek and plead before they are mercilessly butchered?
Look at the lamb, the kindliest and gentlest of animals who would not harm anyone. And what does man do with it? How does he reward the gentleness of the lamb-- by killing it and eating it. There are even slaughter houses where these killings are done with blunted knives and axes so that greater pain can be inflicted upon these poor animals, even as they cry shrilly with the pain.
People who believe in the theory of reincarnation know in some subtle way that if they kill animals and eat them in this birth, then they will be born as animals in their next birth and the animals will be born as humans and will slaughter them in return as retribution.
Even those who do not believe in reincarnation believe in right and wrong, and they know in their heart of hearts that brutality is wrong, that killing and torturing is wrong. They know they would not kill or eat their own dogs or cats because they love them. They know that the reason so many animals are killed is because people dont love them. If they did, they would not kill them.
Look at the result of this wanton cruelty in the name of eating meat-- horrible diseases have spread in the world. Today more and more people are avoiding animal fats and proteins and taking to vegetables and fruits. Everyone agrees that the best way to health is through vegetarianism. Heart disease and cancer are living examples of such diseases which may have a relationship with eating meat.
The core of the discussion is this -- if you are religious then ask yourself whether you are justified in taking life which you cannot create yourself? Ask yourself whether God will be happy on seeing you eat the weak and the helpless creatures of his creation? Ask yourself whether God has a concern for them?
If you are not religious -- then ask yourself how you would like it if people came to kill and eat your family pets. If the very thought is revolting then how can you kill the families of other animals? Isnt that what you are doing when you eat animals the world over? Arent these animals the mothers and fathers and children of other animals?
Every time you have a hankering for meat, ask yourselves these questions. Instead of proudly announcing to your friends and relatives that you like "non-veg" food, use your pride to announce to them that you are strict vegetarians for whom life is sacred and who wish to see it preserved.
There are many who argue that animals dont have a soul, so killing them is justified.How do they know? Are they experts on souls? Have they seen souls moving around themselves? Maybe we can argue that people who are cruel to others, whether humans or animals, dont have any souls themselves.
If we say we have the right to exist because we are superior beings and animals dont have the right to exist because they are inferior creatures, then we must ask ourselves how we would feel if one day Martians from outer space landed on earth and took over the earth-- and they began to slaughter and eat humans because they considered them inferior creatures who have no right to exist.
This is indeed very dangerous thinking. The horrors of the Nazi holocausts in the 20th century are not too far behind us yet. The Nazis looked upon themselves as a superior race and the Jews as inferior beings who had no right to exist-- and they began to kill them by the hundreds and thousands.
Recently the History Channel on Television gave the history of the Nazi Gas Chambers in which hundreds and thousands of Jews were gassed to death. The episode showed excerpts from the personal diaries of a perplexed Nazi German officer, who could not sleep in the nights because he could not find an efficient way of murdering the Jews en masse. However one day when the "inspiration" came upon him that he could eliminate thousands of Jews efficiently and quietly by sending them to gas chambers, his mind became at rest. For the first time in days he went home and played with his children and had a good night's sleep.
When we build efficient and clean methods of slaughtering animals are we not treating them in the same way as the Nazis treated the Jews?
Are we a civilised society when we engage in killing? And is that not what we are we are doing with respect to animals?
The ultimate in civilization will be when wars cease to exist and people cease to kill and murder each other and when they cease to annihilate creatures they consider inferior to them, like animals and fowls of the air, and even denizens of the sea.
The ultimate in civilisation will be when people realise that God has already provided for man by giving him all the food that he needs from the fertile earth, and that he need not eat his fellow creatures to satiate the primal need for food within him.
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