Religious reasons for becoming vegetarian

[Kolesar]

I understand that there are many religions that have a vegetarian ethic. I had a coworker who was from India. He had lived in America for most of his professional career, but by the time he was in his 30s, he felt compelled to follow his religion and become vegetarian. I believe he was Hindu. He was rather an inspiration to me to become vegetarian eventually. I have not seen him since the 1990s, unfortunately.

I also understand that the Seventh-day Adventist Christian religion is vegetarian also.

[curse10]

1. He might have been Jain

they don't even eat root vegetables (it kills the plant)

[HarrietBrown]

2. When I worked as an anti-hunger advocate in the Reagan years

I surveyed soup kitchens and food pantries for a resource book and one of the best ones I found was a 7th-day Adventist kitchen/pantry which served no meat at all and did a great job providing a variety of good, healthy meals in a very friendly and supportive atmosphere.

[goodhue]

3. Hindus, Jains, 7th Day Adventists . . .

Devout Hindus are generally lacto vegetarians. My mother-in-law is Hindu and does not eat meat or egg; dairy is okay. My father-in-law is Jain. Devout Jains do not eat any root vegetables whatsoever (no carrots, no onions), but they do dairy. Many observant Seventh Day Adventists are vegan (they avoid meat and dairy). Many mahayana buddhists are vegetarian as a means of cultivating compassion.

[RandomUser]

4. I'm agnostic

So religion wasn't a principle factor in my becoming a vegetarian. But it certainly is the reason my father and many of my relatives (Buddhist).

[RandomUser]

5. All Buddhist monks are vegetarian

as are many devout Buddhists.

Edit to add:
From my experience, the Buddhist faithful fall into a few categories with regard to vegetarianism. Some are only vegetarians during specific holidays. In addition to this, some are vegetarians on the 1st and 15th of every lunar month. Some expand this to six days of every month, with two segments of three-day periods based on the 1st and 15th of each month. Then there are those who choose to go vegetarian every day, as do the monks. The temples only serve vegetarian fare, so whenever you go to a temple, you'll partake of vegetarian fare only.

And vegetarianism is a facet of the religion in many other ways.

I have relatives in all these categories.

[Radical Activist]

6. Mormons SHOULD be vegetarian

if they still took their own scriptures literally. The same health code that says people shouldn't drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes (called the Word of Wisdom) also says to only eat meat sparingly in times of famine. For some reason that part of the Word of Wisdom is largely ignored today while other parts are still followed.

[LisaLynne]

7. Many Pagans feel that vegetarianism ...

is a part of their religion, usually because of the disrespect shown to animals in the food industry.

[Ellen Forradalom]

8. My rabbi recently mentioned

that some Jews regard vegetarianism as a more "Edenic" way of eating since the Torah makes no mention of meat for food in the Garden of Eden:

Then God said, "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 of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so. -- Genesis 1:29-30

This despite a preceding passage,

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." --Genesis 1:26

This leads to the question of what it means to rule over all creatures, but apparently it doesn't mean eating them--at least not in Paradise.

[flvegan]

9. Originally, "dominion" I believe

Was the translated text from the second passage, and not "rule." Dominion, from the Hebrew, would mean "stewardship" and not rule or control.

Of course, you could sit 5 religious lawyers (egads!) down to take up the case of any passage in the Bible and it's intent regarding diet. Did Jesus eat fish and bread, or did Jesus just eat (leaving it a mystery if he actually ate the fish)...dum dum dummmmmm.

[livinginphotographs]

10. You're right about the 7th day Adventists....

In fact, on veggiedate.com (not that I've ever been there looking, cough cough), most of the vegetarians/vegans in my city are members of that religion.

I do know a guy who is Hindu that is a vegetarian because of his religion, but I haven't talked to him extensively about it.

I think the number one reason to go vegan/vegetarian is something that could be nailed down as religious: I went vegan for moral reasons, so I guess you could call that "religious," even though I'm agnostic.

[4_Legs_Good]

11. I have a big list of quotes from Christians throughout the ages

which I happily pawn off on carnivorous Christians who claim that God created animals for us to eat.

Pffft!

My favorite is from St. Francis o' Assisi

"all creatures are created from the same paternal heartbeat of God."

I had it as a bumper sticker for a while.

There are lots of others. If I find my list (it's been a while), maybe I'll post it.

david

[Warpy]

12. This atheist's favorite vegan cookbook

over a period of 30 years has been "Ten Talents," by Hurd. Once I got over being annoyed at the priggishness, I found the recipes to be wonderful. They don't use a lot of convenience foods like the Worthington fake meat products or other prepackaged and chemical laden fakery. There are a few recipes for soy based luncheon "meats" that have had people swear they were eating the foods of their youth.

I'm not a morality vegetarian. I'm vegetarian because I've never particularly liked meat and found I felt a lot better if I avoided it.

[SOS]

13. The Rastafarian Ital diet

is also vegetarian. :)