The Noose Tightens

This blog continues on the heels of...

So. We're four blogs posts in, and I still haven't gotten to the reason I'm going to give vegetarianism a try. I'll do so here.

In the prior blogs I covered a number of good reasons to give up meat. I've had all of these thoughts run through my head before, however, and I ignored them all for a decade or two. What changed?

This. As I was strolling along on that sunny Sunday morning a week ago, a jumble of thoughts came together in my mind in a new formation, and for me the game was suddenly over. I was beat.

A bit of background info... I'd been watching some nature shows with my young daughter in recent weeks, and they really got me thinking.

One special was on elephants. Elephants are so advanced in their thinking that they stop to investigate (with keen interest!) the bones of elephants that they discover.

Elephants will ignore a large hippo skull, but when researchers placed elephant tusks and skulls in their path, they examine them carefully.

Elephants care about their dead. Even elephants they never knew.

Wow.

Another special covered dolphins. These critters are bloody smart too. One with a fishing hook stuck on its fin was caught on camera in Kona, Hawaii. It approached a human diver seeking help. The diver helpfully removed the hook, and the dolphin took off free.

Wow.

Then there was the special we saw on wolves, which were recently reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park.

It's not a pretty sight to watch wolves hunt, but after the wolves were eradicated from Yellowstone, the mega-fauna at Yellowstone were eating everything down to scrub. With nothing to stop them.

So they brought the wolves back to Yellowstone. The wolves proceeded to save the park by eating their way through a lot of meat.

Wolves are an important part of the Yellowstone ecology. But that doesn't make it any easier to watch them do their work. Thankfully, the camera pans back (a lot) right after their prey hits the ground.

So as I strolled through the park that Sunday morning, recent images and questions ran through my head in a jumbled mess.

What separates us from the animals? And what's the difference between wolves eating elk and me eating a steak?

The more I noodled these questions, the more I felt I was being crowded into a tighter and tighter corral. What makes us different?

Well, one of the major differences between us and the animals is that we take care of them. In lots of ways. We have screwed up this planet plenty, to be sure — but it's also true that we are unlike any other animal on it in that we're aware of our role here. We're in charge, and it's up to us to destroy this planet. Or restore it.

Elephants and dolphins don't face this dilemma.

That's a sobering thought. But then another idea sidled up to the first.

We're also the only animal on the planet that can and does willfully change diet for the sake of other animals and plants.

Yes. The wolf lives or dies on meat. So far as I know, wolves don't go vegetarian. Certainly not voluntarily, at any rate. But we can. We don't have to. But we can.

What's more, we won't screw up the environment if we abstain from meat. In fact, as noted earlier the environment would greatly improve if we did.

Compare that to what happened in Yellowstone when we got rid of the wolves. This broken world runs more smoothly if the predators eat meat.

Except for us predators.

Yes, we're the only animal on earth that faces this dilemma.

And then the scripture verses started to pile on.

Genesis 1:26-31 (Plan A)
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

    So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

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 in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

So in the beginning we humans had a specific job and a specific diet. We were to care for the earth. Rule over all animals. And eat greens.

Now this is, of course, hardly earth-shattering news to anyone who reads their Bible carefully.

But as well all know, things went downhill pretty quickly. It got so bad that God felt it necessary, in the days of Noah, to wipe the slate clean. Begin again. That's when the rules changed.

Genesis 9:1-3 (Plan B)
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

So the game changed after the flood waters receded. God himself changed the rules! And the new rules are? Animals will now fear humans. And we're free now to eat them.

So God said it's OK to eat meat. Isn't that the final word? All good? Well, yes. We have permission to eat meat. This much is true.

But then a question hit me like a huge sledgehammer.

When the Earth is fully restored, Pilgrim, what will it be like?

The answer is certainly not the days of Noah.

It will be a lot more like the Garden of Eden.

To be continued...