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Europe is in a muddle over ritual slaughter

economist.com

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Re: Europe is in a muddle over ritual slaughter

#41

Post by tremon »

brabel wrote: post #6

Why would a religion dictate how you should kill animals, and why do people believe this is a religious matter rather than an animal-rights matter? I just can't understand people sometimes.

There's a lot written about this in other places, but the gist of it: many ancient "rituals" are based around pre-medicine hygiene practices. In this specific case, live slaughter was the norm because of the health risks of eating carrion: if you haven't seen the animal alive, you don't know how long the meat has been dead before consumption.

Re: Europe is in a muddle over ritual slaughter

#42

Post by PKop »

vadfa wrote: post #17
wongarsu wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let the religious people do whatever they want or the animal rights activists?

The former obviously. The latter are the ones who want to restrict the freedoms of others.

Yes, freedom should be restricted, and it is in many ways already and for good reason.

Re: Europe is in a muddle over ritual slaughter

#43

Post by NikolaNovak »

chuckee wrote: post #7

I find the appeal to religious freedom contemptible. An animal does not suffer any less if it has to be conscious during its slaughter for religious reasons, rather than secular ones.

I've started mentally translating all instances " because of my religion" to "because I really really want it", as that is what it effectively translates to.

There's just no easy line to draw otherwise between "because religion" and any other personal desire. It's not an appeal to any logic or meaning or external truth or specialness or benefit of humankind or world etc. But it's become this magic phrase that causes us to pause and consider requests that would otherwise be automatically denied on their own ground.

Re: Europe is in a muddle over ritual slaughter

#44

Post by ramphastidae »

the-dude wrote: post #30
brabel wrote: post #6

Why would a religion dictate how you should kill animals, and why do people believe this is a religious matter rather than an animal-rights matter? I just can't understand people sometimes.

Maybe you could study religion some more, why and when it emerged as it did, etc. There is plenty of common sense in the holy books.

GP asked a fairly direct question. Can you cite any of the “common sense” you mentioned as a response instead of dismissing the question outright?

Re: Europe is in a muddle over ritual slaughter

#45

Post by evgen »

vadfa wrote: post #20
rjtavares wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: has any empire (or powerful nation) ever been homogenous without genocide?

I think we can keep out immigrants who do not want to fit in without having to resort to genocide.

I think several millennia of European history show that they actually cannot do this without resorting to genocide. This has literally happened in Europe within my lifetime so forgive me if I ignore your unfounded assertions that 'this time' Europe will get it right.

Re: Europe is in a muddle over ritual slaughter

#47

Post by FDSGSG »

the-dude wrote: post #30
brabel wrote: post #6

Why would a religion dictate how you should kill animals, and why do people believe this is a religious matter rather than an animal-rights matter? I just can't understand people sometimes.

Maybe you could study religion some more, why and when it emerged as it did, etc. There is plenty of common sense in the holy books.

Maybe you should consider that we no longer live in the period in which those books were written? How religion emerged has nothing to do with how things should be in secular societies today.

It could not matter less that the advice given in these books used to make sense at some point.

Re: Europe is in a muddle over ritual slaughter

#48

Post by the-dude »

ramphastidae wrote: post #44
the-dude wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you could study religion some more, why and when it emerged as it did, etc. There is plenty of common sense in the holy books.

GP asked a fairly direct question. Can you cite any of the “common sense” you mentioned as a response instead of dismissing the question outright?

Probably hygiene. A lot of the common sense was about keeping the community alive.

Re: Europe is in a muddle over ritual slaughter

#49

Post by bencollier49 »

brabel wrote: post #6

Why would a religion dictate how you should kill animals, and why do people believe this is a religious matter rather than an animal-rights matter? I just can't understand people sometimes.

Well this does at least demonstrate why it was so necessary for Jesus to come along and say "look, you're following these old laws slavishly, just try to love each other and you'll probably be fine".

Re: Europe is in a muddle over ritual slaughter

#50

Post by h2odragon »

If you don't see this as a conflict of faiths, you better check your privilege about what you believe.

I'm quite happy that there are few who believe animals should be sacrificed with maximal suffering and their pain displayed for the congregation to participate in.

If we're going to give full faith and credence to the religious tho, we'll have to admit there's some out there who do need to splatter some critters, and they've as much right to their interpretation as we do to our gentler notions.

Of course if we're just deciding that there should be just one set of beliefs and you can be whatever faith you like so long as you think speak and behave like everyone else, that's different.

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