My cat is 16, she's recently got unwell, and I'm afraid she won't recover. I will do all I can for her, but sometimes even all that you can do is not enough. There's a limit to how much even the best veterinarian can do for an old animal.
It feels like a sharp knife in my heart to see her shutting down, but I'm not sure I can pray for her. In Hinduism, you're not supposed to have animals at home, but I had gotten this cat before I learned about this.
Do you think there's anything I can do to make her last days easier? Would it be considered an offense to pray for an ill cat to, for example, Krishna?
To be clear, I'm not that deep into philosophy, but I have decided that since animals can feel pleasure and pain, it's probably best to avoid pain in animals. This leads me to Veganism. But at the same time, I think that human life is still more valuable than any amount of animal life due to the fact that we can experience feelings that we (so far) can't detect in other animals.
So that leads me to ask: if human life is more valuable than animal life, how much should humans be willing to sacrifice for animals. This is especially troubling for cases like insects, where you can cause a lot of harm by a small act. For example, I was cleaning leaves out of the yard with my dad one time, and I asked him why we needed to do so, and he said that we do this to keep the grass from dying. But it made me think, if doing this could harm or even kill bugs (while raking leaves, putting the leaves into bags, and then having the bags (and possibly bugs that crawl inside) be sent to where-ever they're sent), is it worth it just to have the grass not die?
Also, I live with my parents, who aren't Vegan, and they usually leave leftover meat. While I sometimes eat that meat, I'm unsure if that's the right thing to do, since I'm worried that it might cause a chain reaction where they buy more meat because I took some, and that might lead to a few more animal deaths. I tell myself that it's unreasonable for me to micromanage everyone else (especially since we don't have lot of easy vegan stuff here), but it still gets me worried.
Another example: I don't have many sources of Vitamin B12 besides oat milk, but the stuff we have right now might be bad, so I'm unsure if I should just wait until we get more (potentially harmful, but I've been feeling fine despite never really caring about vitamins), drink regular milk for now (possibly causing animal suffering), or beg to go to the store as soon as possible (too much of an inconvenience for something that I just might be overthinking?)
Thanks for any advice. I probably rushed this together because I wanted a response ASAP, so I might need to clarify in the comments.
I can think of one scene from any kind of fantasy media that contains an animal sacrifice, and that is Bhallaladeva killing a bull in preparation for war in Baahubali 1. Which is portrayed as somewhat villainous, and also produced in a decidedly "non-western" area.
For most of human history, most people have engaged in animal sacrifice as a religious rite. Even today you find Animal sacrifices all over the world, from Shaktists in India to the goats sacrificed in an Islamic Hajj to the Kourbania of the Greek Orthodox church. In the past, animal sacrifice was an extremely important rite in Germanic and Greco-Roman religious practices. Not to mention being possibly the most important Jewish rite in pre-Hadrian Judaism.
But Fantasy just doesn't have any of that. In darker fantasies, there are usually bad guys who sacrifice humans, in cheerier fantasies the subject of religion is usually just not broached.
You could try to look at this through a "cruelty to animals" lens, but every work of fantasy I am aware of shows the characters enjoying meat at some point. And despite what some people may think, most ritual sacrifices end with people eating the sacrificed animal. And maybe it is more of a "we are fine with meat but any reference to slaughter is horrific" thing that modern city people seem to have, but even then hunting is pretty uncontroversial if portrayed in a fantasy novel.
This whole idea really got me thinking when I read the L Sprague De Camp quote
>When I later learned of Tolkienβs earnest Catholicism, much became clear. When a devout monotheist writes a prehistoric or other-world fantasy, he cannot make its people good Christians, Muslims, or Jews back in the Pleistocene or in a parallel world. But if they worship βpagan godsβ he must make it plain that these beings are either evil demons or non-existent, although benign supernatural beings are a major element in fantasy. Tolkien side-stepped this issue by keeping his religious references few and subdued.
And that makes sense. I guess certain Christian points of view have seeped into the outlooks of any American or European, even if they are themselves secular. Still, when I think of series that seem to want to lambast religion, it is certainly strange how animal sacrifice just doesn't come up.
And even fewer think it as good. Itβs not that they make excuses for their deityβs actions (like animal sacrifice). Itβs simply the fact that people donβt actually read their Bibles, at least not here in America.
Personally, Iβve never met a single soul on the planet who defended the Bible Godβs call for animal sacrifice. Though Iβm sure these apologists exist, they are a huge minority of Christians.
Recently I've taken an interest in religions again. I had studied different ones in the past but ultimately decided that atheism/agnostism was the best choice for me. When I was little, I was raised completely nonreligious but in my teen years joined Seventh Day Adventist and Pentacostal churches with friends. Needless to say it did not go well.
Lately I've been reading up on paganism and specifically Wicca since it has a lot to do with nature. My main beliefs are that we need to save the Earth/help the environment and animals. So Wicca seems pretty cool actually as from what I understand it is a semi-worship of the natural world.
But the most enlightening thing I learned recently was how so much of Hinduism worships animals as they are connected to the Divine. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems followers of Hindu believe greatly in not causing harm to animals or to the Earth which is definitely something I can get down with.
My question is how big of a part of Hinduism is animal worship? And is there any sort of environmentalism involved?
So I woke up from a nap where I dreamt I was scrolling r/exmormon, and I kept seeing these pictures of dead bunnies because blood sacrifice was back and all these fucking people were killing bunnies. It was obviously an awful dream (especially since my sweet bun is everything to me) but anyway, when I woke up immediately I was like, "Wow. Animal sacrifices are FUCKED." I realized that it was yet another thing that had been on my shelf years and years ago that I hadn't paid any attention to. Here's a few reasons why I think it's so fucked
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If Jesus' atonement was infinite, why were people required to do animal sacrifices before the Garden of Gethsemane? I remember having this thought and never getting a real answer, but I shoved the question deep down inside. Seriously though, they always talk about the "infinite atonement" and how it permeates to all timelines, but in that case, there was NO. REASON. I think the Mormon gymnastic answer I got was "they needed to learn about how the atonement worked." Really though? Couldn't they have read about it in a book like us and done just as good as we were doing with repentance? Because that logic makes zero sense.
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Why should you take a life to prove that you're sorry? To me that proves that the person still cares about themselves and how worthy they feel than others. I know animals aren't human, but their lives are still sacred. I just hate the idea of God requiring unnecessary murder to be forgiven, it's disgusting to me.
This is just one part of a game, not the full game
In Christianity, the animal sacrifices the Israelites offered to God were a symbol, foreshadowing Jesus' sacrifice, that's because you need the innocent dying for the guilty, and Jesus' death was accepted because he obeyed God perfectly.
The thing is that animals don't have anything to do with it, they don't understand what the divine law is, they're neither innocent nor guilty, they're just "mindless" creatures that know nothing about humanity's codes of laws, so the explanation that "Jesus obeyed the law perfectly" doesn't fit with animals because they never obeyed any laws to begin with.
Sacrificing animals and sacrificing plants are pretty much the same thing (aside from the cruelty factor of course), an animal knows just as much about the 10 commandments as a plant does, why not burn trees to God then? (Cain actually did that, God didn't like it)
So again as im listening to audio bible book of Ezekiel I realized this. I realized where the Christian phobia and accusation of "satanists" sacrificing animals and "ritual abuse" comes from.
It comes from their own fucking practices and mythology.
The bible is full of descriptions of animal sacrifice and yes, ritual human torture and sacrifice (see: Jesus, Jephthahs daughter, a failed attempt with Abraham and Isaac, and of course perpetual torment in hell). These fantasies don't just come out of nowhere. Animal sacrifice and human torture and murder are central to christian mythology. All this, and I haven't even brushed the topic of modern church abuses of children.
Of course despite their conscious effort to accept these realities as ok in their religion, their underlying human subconscious that naturally recognizes these as "wrong" will seek to discard them in some way. How predictable they would project them onto others they don't like and cry "satanic ritual abuse!" Christians made their own boogeyman from their own reflections.
So... I read the book like 6+ years ago, and where I live it received a 16+ or 18+ rating, not sure. (If that helps at all.) The book is quite thick in my memories, so not a short story either.
As I wrote in the title, the main character/s is/are some kind of deer, or similar animals. The story has some magic in it, but mostly quite subtle as far as I remember.
The main conflict revolves around another species invading the living space of the MC's tribe I believe - predators against preys. After some back and forth I can't recall, MC tricks his tribe and goes to confront the invaders alone, sacrificing himself.
After his death, the invaders break their promise and still advance, but MC resurrects like some kind of God of the Forest or something, I can't clearly remember, but he manages to defeat the invaders afterwards.
Would you take it? And if so, how would you lead your life afterwards?
This article was posted in a Facebook group i wasn't going to post it untill i saw the article come up AGAIN as an advertisement on a local news page with all sorts of negative comments
Just want to post to let everyone know that even though it is legal to practice animal sacrifice and nothing in our religion is illegal. There are cases that happen like this, the admin of the group said that they looked up the city ordinates and it does state that having barn yard animals on ones property is illegal, but you can apply to practice animal sacrifice on a case by case basis.
Also i would like some priests thoughts on this , someone else mentioned if the Ebo Entrada was performed accurately and the proper sacrifices were given during that time, it should of showed issues with neighbors and the police via divination and this wouldn't/ shouldn't of happened at all.
Self explanatory, but holy crap. If this is the case, and if Yahweh is real, wouldnβt he have to judge every animal and every human that has ever lived that has committed gay sex because they broke the 10 commandments?
