Vasu Murti's blog - Latest comments on Reincarnation is the Missing Link between Eastern and Western Spirituality

Vasu Murti [Visitor] in response to: Reincarnation is the Missing Link between Eastern and Western Spirituality

Vasu Murti [Visitor] — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 19:57:35 +0000

Bhakta Mike writes:

> what if someone argued that meat-eating
> were actually more wrong on the model that
> animals have no souls because in the
> reincarnation model the jivatma simply moves
> on to the next form of life after the slaughter,
> whereas in the no-soul model, the animal loses
> everything it is forever after the slaughter?

Reverend Andrew Linzey, author of Christianity and the Rights of Animals, makes a similar argument. Linzey responds to the Christian argument that animals don't have souls by carrying it to its logical conclusion: If animals don't have souls, and they are not to be compensated in an afterlife for the sufferings we inflict upon them in this life, then there is no justification for our causing them pain.

> According to the Gita, he who thinks himself
> the slayer and he who thinks himself the slain
> are mistaken; in other words, the animal's soul
> is completely undamaged in the slaughter process.

Yes, but Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport to Bhagavad-gita 2.20: "This...does not at all encourage killing...The Vedic injunction is ma himsyat sarva bhutani: never commit violence to anyone. Nor does understanding that the living entity (soul) is not killed encourage animal slaughter. Killing the body of anyone without authority is abominable and is punishable by the law of the state as well as by the law of the Lord."

In another Gita purport, Srila Prabhupada similarly writes that one should not think that because the soul is eternal one can freely kill animals: the souls in animal bodies are also transmigrating from body to body--evolving towards the human form of life--and killing them impedes their progress.

Jan [Visitor] in response to: Reincarnation is the Missing Link between Eastern and Western Spirituality

Jan [Visitor] — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:32:46 +0000

It'd be good to have direct urls to quotes by Church Fathers.

Mike [Visitor] in response to: Reincarnation is the Missing Link between Eastern and Western Spirituality

Mike [Visitor] — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 05:49:47 +0000

Just a question, not that it's my opinion, but what if someone argued that meat-eating were actually more wrong on the model that animals have no souls because in the reincarnation model the jivatma simply moves on to the next form of life after the slaughter, whereas in the no-soul model, the animal loses everything it is forever after the slaughter? According to the Gita, he who thinks himself the slayer and he who thinks himself the slain are mistaken; in other words, the animal's soul is completely undamaged in the slaughter process. Not trying to be trouble--I have recently become vegetarian myself, if not vegan (sorry!). So, ultimately, could the atheist who disbelieves in any afterlife or future life whatsoever (or even an Abrahamic monotheist who may deny any afterlife at least to animals) have any kind of theoretical advantage in justifying vegetarianism over against a Hindu?