Unpopular/Controversial Opinions #3

I really hate .gifs.

Crash Thrusts.:

I don't believe in luck.

This. I don't believe in karma either.

I don't think it's unnatural to eat meat.

Pixie Crimefighter:

I used to think that until my friends started acting like asses. My mom also tries to force me to eat meat because she believes that it's "God's will". Bitch, I'm Agnostic.

Next time she says that, you should refer her to Romans 14:20-24:
20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

I think putting diet in any kind of natural/unnatural discourse is stupid. This is radically different from what most vegetarians and vegans believe and it often drives me completely mad. We have clear proof that human beings, like all other animals, are capable of developing evolutionary adaptations to eating animal products - just look at the way Europeans have evolved to lactose tolerance while people living in warmer parts of the world who didn't have to rely on dairy for their nutrients are (mostly) lactose intolerant. The question is not whether it's "natural" to eat something, but whether you should torture animals and destroy the environment to eat that something.

dru protects herself:

I don't think it's unnatural to eat meat.

I wasn't aware that was unpopular. However, I do agree.

kafka.:

Next time she says that, you should refer her to Romans 14:20-24:
20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

I think putting diet in any kind of natural/unnatural discourse is stupid. This is radically different from what most vegetarians and vegans believe and it often drives me completely mad. We have clear proof that human beings, like all other animals, are capable of developing evolutionary adaptations to eating animal products - just look at the way Europeans have evolved to lactose tolerance while people living in warmer parts of the world who didn't have to rely on dairy for their nutrients are (mostly) lactose intolerant. The question is not whether it's "natural" to eat something, but whether you should torture animals and destroy the environment to eat that something.

I've never seen that verse before, how interesting. What I typically use to support vegetarianism are the Genesis "commissions" from God to humans. According to Gen 1:30, God talks about being fruitful, multiplying and having dominion, but this clearly DOESN'T include the right to kill, humans or animals. Only after the flood and a horrible down world spiral of human morality is a concession made, still not acceptance or encouragement, in the second "commission" to humankind in in Gen 9:6, which...scornfully tolerates, may be the best phrasing, the eating of meat because humans are so sinful and consuming blood is still prohibited.

I find it odd Christians (some, at least) are concerned with things like homosexuality, but they can't do something as simple as not eating meat to honor their God. I'm a vegetarian for completely secular reasons, if I had religious motivation, I can't imagine it being a difficult life change.

Kurtni:

I've never seen that verse before, how interesting. What I typically use to support vegetarianism are the Genesis "commissions" from God to humans. According to Gen 1:30, God talks about being fruitful, multiplying and having dominion, but this clearly DOESN'T include the right to kill, humans or animals. Only after the flood and a horrible down world spiral of human morality is a concession made, still not acceptance or encouragement, in the second "commission" to humankind in in Gen 9:6, which...scornfully tolerates, may be the best phrasing, the eating of meat because humans are so sinful and consuming blood is still prohibited.

I find it odd Christians (some, at least) are concerned with things like homosexuality, but they can't do something as simple as not eating meat to honor their God. I'm a vegetarian for completely secular reasons, if I had religious motivation, I can't imagine it being a difficult life change.

There are two other quotes to that effect in the NT, one is Romans 14:2-4 and the other one is in Acts but I can't remember exactly where. The problem that the NT writers were trying to solve, for the most part, was that of non-gentiles converting to Christianity and of Jews not accepting people who didn't follow Jewish dietary rules so they generally advice tolerance of everybody regardless of their eating habits. Anyway, you should blame the fact that so many Christian don't think vegetarianism is necessary on Protestantism. Before Protestantism, the Catholic Church imposed very strict dietary rules that pretty much made most people vegan most of the year. Then along came Luther, Calvin and Zwingli who said that fasting was not "in harmony" with the Bible and that all you need to attain salvation is to believe, the way you act doesn't matter, eat as many sausages during Lent as you want (this gave birth to the extremely disturbing doctrine of predestination which allowed people to do things which were much worst than eating meat). With the rise of Protestantism dietary rules in the Catholic Church relaxed as well. Fasting is still quite popular in Christian Orthodox countries with almost everyone who is mildly religions taking part in it to varying degrees (I remember, for example, that when I was little my mum would make vegan meals a few times a week for lunch during Nativity Fast although we were never a church going family), although not as popular as it was 50 or so years ago.

Oh and the speciesism of the early Protestant didn't translate itself just in the lack of dietary rules, it also led to big chunks of the Bible relating to food/diet being mistranslated in favour of meat-eating. In English Bibles words meaning food or sustenance in a general way are very often translated as meat or fish, people then read those verses and think the Bible condones meat-eating.

I really really dislike facebook statuses that are updated 24/7 with pointless things. That's what twitter is for
This seems unpopular with 99% of my 'friends' list on facebook.

^. I don't really think anyone likes to see other people's statuses that are updated 24/7, but it doesn't seem to stop them from doing it themselves.

---x

I don't care at all for the TV show, Big Time Rush. Seems to be an unpopular opinion on Mibba. I really dislike all of the sound-effects that are used and think they are extremely unneeded. I also don't like how they seem to stress so hard that the band members are "rock stars" or "rockers" or it's a "rock band" or whatever, when in reality they are as close to pop as you can get. I don't know. It bothers me.

^ Actually, aside from myself, I haven't come into contact with many people that like the show And as an avid watcher and as this being my main fandom, I can say that the show doesn't make them out to be "rockers" or a "rock band," with the exception of one episode where they're trying to impress a rocker girl. I mean, even their "producer" calls them a "boy band" modeled after the boybands he produced in the 90s.

I personally don't understand why the show and the actors get so much hate. It's just a cute show about teen boys getting into mischief

dru protects herself:

I don't think it's unnatural to eat meat.

I agree completely. It's only looked down upon by humans to other humans, which I find strange because our teeth and body were built to be omnivores. Humans don't look at, Lions for example, and say how disgusting it is that they've just ripped apart an Antelope. I think it's pretty ridiculous that some say it's 'unnatural' when really, it's very much part of our natural food chain.

Also, this is slightly related, but I don't understand why some vegetarians seem to think it's okay to insinuate that just because someone eats meat, they abuse animals. I eat meat (not very much, but still) and it most certainly does not instantly mean that I hit or kick my dog or any other animal. I adore animals, honestly. Anyone can abuse an animal. Even a vegetarian.

the reverend.:

I agree completely. It's only looked down upon by humans to other humans, which I find strange because our teeth and body were built to be omnivores. Humans don't look at, Lions for example, and say how disgusting it is that they've just ripped apart an Antelope. I think it's pretty ridiculous that some say it's 'unnatural' when really, it's very much part of our natural food chain.

Also, this is slightly related, but I don't understand why some vegetarians seem to think it's okay to insinuate that just because someone eats meat, they abuse animals. I eat meat (not very much, but still) and it most certainly does not instantly mean that I hit or kick my dog or any other animal. I adore animals, honestly. Anyone can abuse an animal. Even a vegetarian.

Not true, our bodies are (for the most part) made to be herbivores. Out of 32 teeth we have only 4 that are 'meat-eater like,' and it's more an evolution issue than a matter of actually needing them. Our digestive tracts are long to get nutrition out of vegetables, while carnivorous animals have short ones to get the meat through as quickly as possible. They also don't need fibre in their diet while we do, and they have more acidic stomachs. No other animal needs to cook meat to ensure it doesn't do them any harm, while for the most part, humans do. We are not built to eat meat naturally, we make meat edible in the way we prepare it. Like a lot of things, humans bend the rules to fit their wants.

And it's not disgusting that a lion rips open an antelope because that's animal instinct. That's nature. There is nothing natural about slaughter houses. If you want to eat meat, go hunt, skin, gut, and prepare it yourself. (Not directed at you directly, I'm using 'you' generally.)

For the latter, I think they probably mean you're indirectly abusing by contributing to the meat industry. If not, then that's a very strange state of mind.

the reverend.:

Also, this is slightly related, but I don't understand why some vegetarians seem to think it's okay to insinuate that just because someone eats meat, they abuse animals. I eat meat (not very much, but still) and it most certainly does not instantly mean that I hit or kick my dog or any other animal. I adore animals, honestly. Anyone can abuse an animal. Even a vegetarian.

Of course you wouldn't do that to your dog- it would make you feel guilty. You love your dog and see him on a daily basis. You just finance the torment and abuse of cows, pigs and chickens without a second thought because you never see what goes on inside a meat factory or slaughter house. You don't have to see a disabled animal twitch on the ground in a factory farm and get trampled to death to eat a burger. You don't have to see chicken's legs snap and break because they're caused to become obese rapidly. You don't have to see factory farm sows that never even stand up the rest of their lives once they reach breeding age. There is no guilt factor there, because you don't see it happen, but you're still abusing animals, albeit indirectly.

pulmonary archery.:

And it's not disgusting that a lion rips open an antelope because that's animal instinct. That's nature. There is nothing natural about slaughter houses. If you want to eat meat, go hunt it, skin, gut, and prepare it yourself. (Not directed at you directly, I'm using 'you' generally.)

If we're going to compare ourselves to wild animals, can't I just say: Snakes don't drive to different places, they slither. Humans must slither. Pandas don't get online when they're bored, they roll around (or whatever it is that they do). Humans must roll around. Wolves don't sleep on beds, they sleep on the ground. Humans must sleep on the ground.

Our forms of transportation aren't natural, should we do away with them? Away with the internet? Away with beds and blankets and couches?

If wild animals had the abilities to create like humans do, they'd create. Lions would be sitting in McZebra's eating their antelope burgers. Pandas would be making Mibba accounts and playing Angry Birds. Snakes would be driving to visit their grandmother Louise.

edit: I mean, I'm vegetarian myself and disagree wholeheartedly with slaughterhouses, but I dislike that specific argument...

coward.:

Snakes would be driving to visit their grandmother Louise.

Some snakes are cannibals though, so bye-bye Grandma.

coward.:

If we're going to compare ourselves to wild animals, can't I just say: Snakes don't drive to different places, they slither. Humans must slither. Pandas don't get online when they're bored, they roll around (or whatever it is that they do). Humans must roll around. Wolves don't sleep on beds, they sleep on the ground. Humans must sleep on the ground.

Our forms of transportation aren't natural, should we do away with them? Away with the internet? Away with beds and blankets and couches?

If wild animals had the abilities to create like humans do, they'd create. Lions would be sitting in McZebra's eating their antelope burgers. Pandas would be making Mibba accounts and playing Angry Birds. Snakes would be driving to visit their grandmother Louise.

edit: I mean, I'm vegetarian myself and disagree wholeheartedly with slaughterhouses, but I dislike that specific argument...

I don't understand entirely. I just pointed out that it isn't digusting that lions eat antelopes because that's what they do to stay alive, and I don't see a logical explanation of why you should be disgusted by that as it is natural. I think pretty much any human invention has an arugment against it, doesn't it? We're 'destroying the environment' or whatever else. But you can't argue against natural instincts. You can against slaughter houses, just as you can against cars, etc. I wasn't claiming we are/should become wild animals.

I'm a bit confused. It took me ages to work out a coherant reply. I feel like this is out of the context I intended, maybe the way I wrote it was misleading.

^I suppose I understand a bit better now, but what I got out of the original post was that how humans obtained meat wasn't natural, therefore it was wrong because it wasn't the way animals in the wild did it. It was mostly your finishing line of, "if you want meat..." that made me feel that way.

I didn't mean to confuse you, I suppose I just misunderstood what was said.

Kurtni:

Some snakes are cannibals though, so bye-bye Grandma.

Not Louise.

^ Oh, okay. Yeah, I didn't mean that was the main reason it wasn't natural, I had already pointed that out in my essay about our bodies not being made to digest meat, lol. It was just kind of a back handed comment, really, partly about being desensitised to the meat industry and relating back to the lion hunting being disgusting and stuff. I got into a bit of a rant.

I think it's better to focus on the good things than spend all your time complaining.

The Rumor:

I think it's better to focus on the good things than spend all your time complaining.

I both agree and disagree with this. I agree because focussing on the good bits of life (in general) will probably make your outlook on life a bit brighter and you'll probably feel more happy. (It's one of the basic concepts of CBT, to switch a focus from the hot thoughts to something brighter)

On the other hand, I disagree because I can't do that myself. I struggle to see the good in things and I have a tendency to think that if I can't see the bad things the I'm not looking hard-enough.

So...um...yeah. Have a critical mind where it matters but you'll probably be happier focussing on the good stuff.