Is Religion Bad for Animals?

[rug]

07/27/2013 8:05 pm
Andrew Linzey.
Theologian at Oxford University and director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics

Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon once recounted the view of Rowland Hill that a person "was not a true Christian if his dog or cat were not the better off for it." And commented: "That witness is true."

But is it true that Christianity -- and religion in general -- benefits animals? Are religious people and religious institutions more or less likely to be respectful to animals -- either those kept as companions or those used for other human purposes?

Religious traditions are complex, diverse and often difficult to interpret.

Nowhere is this truer than in the case of Christianity itself. Its historic teaching is so negative that it makes many animal-friendly people wince. According to St Thomas Aquinas animals are intended for human use, so "it is not wrong for man to make use of them, either by killing or in any other way whatever" (my emphases). The only qualification St Thomas would allow is if such cruelty dehumanized the perpetrator.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-linzey/is-religion-bad-for-anima_b_3664939.html

http://www.oxfordanimalethics.com/

[hlthe2b]

1. Well, there is Saint Francis....

and increasingly more liberal churches of both Catholic and Protestant denominations are celebrating with "bless the animals" ceremonies, so I'd argue that the really "ugly" attitudes parallel RW fundamentalism in this country, which likewise relegates women to chattel.

[rug]

2. Further in the article he discusses some of that.

[cbayer]

3. Sometimes the way universities choose to spend their money baffles me.

That being said, if this could be expanded into a larger question about the environment and how religious groups can/do intersect with larger global issues, then I could see some potentially significant information coming from this project.