You know, I don’t think I ever tried to answer this question. I was vegetarian for a year, trying to find reasons to believe in, but nothing seemed that compelling. So I slipped back into the pattern of my upbringing, giving the canned “Oh, I do it for health reasons,” if anyone asked (no one ever does).

My friend grilled me this morning. In Hindu and Buddhist culture, the main argument for vegetarianism is ahimsa, non-violence: to do the least amount of harm. While killing plants and microbes is still “harm,” so the argument goes, it’s less harmful than killing a conscious creature. And, nowadays, you can make environmental claims, that eating meat increases your carbon footprint (i.e. more harm).

On the spot, the best retort I could come up with was “Well, animals eat each other. Bears eat fishes. And we are animals…” His response was that you cannot compare us to bears, that we have an awareness of our Selves, of the consequences of our actions, etc etc etc. Basically saying that we have a responsibility to other creatures and the environment not to destroy it. There’s a saying that goes “You don’t fully own something until you have the power to destroy it.” So, based on that, yea, we own the environment and the life within it. We can destroy it, and so we have a responsibility in wielding that power.

I dunno. He was raised a vegeterian and I an omnivore. We slip into the behaviors we’re most comfortable with and justify them ex post facto.

I’m going to have to think about this some more…. and see if I have a reason for eating meat besides saying, “I just do.”