Going veggie - Were humans meant to eat meat?

Recent concerns about carbon emissions include the massive amount of methane produced by animals, of which there are several billion more than originally intended, due to many humans’ insatiable desire for meat. This article looks at the original diet intended for both humans and animals and will no doubt be good news for vegetarians and animal lovers alike.

      I must confess, I do like bacon. Not as enthusiastically, as some, I might add, and I’m rapidly fancying that rack of spare ribs a lot less than I used to, but I've certainly eaten my pound of flesh. So the following statement is not a pious, self-righteous attack on carnivores but an honest presentation of the facts:

       Humans were not designed to eat meat.  

       If, like me, you believe in creation you also have to believe God's words to Adam in Genesis chapter 1:29*. "Here I have given to you every seed-bearing plant that is on the earth and every tree with seed-bearing fruit."

       It doesn't end there. According to Genesis 1:30, even animals were vegetarian: "Let them serve as food to you. And to every wild animal of the earth and t every flying creature of the heavens and to everything moving on the earth in which there is life, I have given all green vegetation for food."

       Of course, we all know this idyll didn't last. Adam and Eve turned away from God and were turfed out of Eden to eat bread in the sweat of their faces until they returned to the ground (Genesis 3:19). The treacherous twosome lost their wonderful privilege of filling the earth with their perfect children, caring for the animals and turning the rest of the earth into a paradise.

       Even so, meat was not on the menu until after the flood+ when God gave Noah and his descendants permission to eat flesh. (Genesis 9:3,4) No doubt in consideration of the animals, he instilled in them a fear of humans instead of the trust they had enjoyed originally. (Genesis 9:2)

      The good news for animal lovers is that meat eating may one day be abolished. Certainly, animals in the new earth will be well cared for.  When the catastrophic results of Adam's rebellion are reversed, all living things will perhaps return to their original diet of seed-bearing fruit and vegetables, in line with Isaiah chapter 11:6-9: "The cow and the bear will feed together, and their young will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the bull." 

 

* New World Translation

+ Putting life into words: Was there really a global flood? (jacybrean.blogspot.com)