Is Eating Meat Moral, Essay Example

Morality is defined as “principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior”. Throughout history, there have been many debates concerning what morality means for civilized people. Ultimately, society defines the difference between what is right and wrong, and it is expected that most people should follow this framework in order to be considered righteous. As such, morality is closely tied in to human nature. Our rights and needs should be considered moral because they define who we are. According to sociologists and anthropologists, early man adopted a hunter-gather lifestyle in which their diet consisted only of meat retrieved from animals and the berries and plants that grew naturally. Thus, we cannot argue that eating meat is immoral because it has been a requirement for human survival and life since early times.

Many people who claim that eating meat is immoral believe this is true because in the modern world, people could not eat meat and survive. However, they fail to account for the fact that it provides essential nutrition that only artificial supplements could provide otherwise. In addition, no modern religions completely contradict the belief that meat could be eaten. For example, Islam dictates that pork should not be eaten, Christians believe that meat should not be consumed during lent, and Jewish people believe that animals that will be eaten must be sacrificed a certain way. However, they all permit meat to be eaten in one way or another. Since these three religions encompass a majority of modern human philosophy and law, the belief that eating meat is permissible by these three groups of people indicate the belief of the majority that eating meat should be ethically and morally allowed.