Animal Use and Treatment in Hinduism and Christianity
Good afternoon/morning Miss Farrell and Class,
As you may or may not know the use and treatment of animals is a very controversial topic right across the world at the moment. Cultures, religions and races all have their own opinions on the topic.
Nature of the Issue
Animals for food… To eat them… Or not to eat them… It has become a huge ethical issue as Hinduism challenges the norm and believes that it is wrong to harm animals, even if it is done humanly and the animal is to be eaten. Christianity however, teaches that all animals were put on earth by God for us to use and eat.
Relevance to Australian Society
This has blown out into a huge issue. A lack of meat – in particularly beef –
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In particular Hindus see cows as sacred animals. By all Hindu’s across the world, “animals are respected and worshipped” and it is believed that animals play a large role in the cycle of reincarnation. As previously stated the law of karma is followed faithfully in the Hindu religion. It is believed that how you act in this life and the sort of karma you bring yourself will determine your status in the next life. Harming animals or any form of life is seen as a terrible thing and tends to attract bad karma. An example of their concern is how Monks sweep the floor: the sweeping, it is done very slowly and gently as to not hurt or kill any ants or other insects. In Hinduism factory farming is seen as cruel and disrespectful and therefore “butchery and related jobs are restricted to people of low caste”. In particular cows feature a main part in the Hindu religion. It is said that the “white cow is the symbol of the soul”. The reason for the cows having such a high value in the religion is due to the fact that “cows where used to work a long time ago, their usefulness turned into sacredness in the early centuries CE, when they began to be