Why have I created a reality in which animals kill and eat other animals?

[Flim]

As someone who is trying to become a full-time vegan but still eats meat now and then, this is a question that I think about often

I would like to know what you guys have to say.

[fridjonk]

Do you not see the problem that would occur if not every possibility were allowed to happen? 

God would become a devil. The most amazing thing about god is that he allows total freedom because he loves it all equally. 

It's so selfless it doesn't care if it lives or dies. 

[Tanz]

Meat and animal fats contain a lot of information, energy, and nutrients.  3D Reality would not exist without condensed information.  Eating meat was necessary for human survival for at least 4.4 million years but now with technology, there are ways of supplementing through other means.
Its very hard to break that 4 million year of programming and if you include life before humanoids, the same rules apply so we are talking about 100s of millions of years at least... it's not so easy to break that which is why the craving is so hard to break.  The only thing that might be more difficult is sexual drive.    

Lets say you live off the land, killing an old animal can be considered an act of compassion.  Otherwise the animal would be subjected to being eaten alive by an apex predator or starving to death.  

[RendHeaven]

1 hour ago, fridjonk said:

Do you not see the problem that would occur if not every possibility were allowed to happen? 

God would become a devil. The most amazing thing about god is that he allows total freedom because he loves it all equally. 

It's so selfless it doesn't care if it lives or dies. 

This reminds me of the very ending of Thoreau's Walden:

"We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander. We are cheered when we observe the vulture feeding on the carrion which disgusts and disheartens us and deriving health and strength from the repast. There was a dead horse in the hollow by the path to my house, which compelled me sometimes to go out of my way, especially in the night when the air was heavy, but the assurance it gave me of the strong appetite and inviolable health of Nature was my compensation for this. I love to see that Nature is so rife with life that myriads can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to prey on one another; that tender organizations can be so serenely squashed out of existence like pulp, - tadpoles which herons gobble up, and tortoises and toads run over in the road; and that sometimes it has rained flesh and blood! With liability to accident, we must see how little account is to be made of it. The impression made on a wise man is that of universal innocence. Poison is not poisonous after all, nor are any wounds fatal. Compassion is a very untenable ground. It must be expeditious. Its pleadings will not bear to be stereotyped."

What a perfect account of the necessity & wholistic beauty of survival's brutality!

The little bit at the end about compassion always stumped me a little. I think he is speaking of compassion with a little "c."

Your "compassion" for any finite form (say, an animal or a human) is necessarily temporary and eventually overwhelmed by life going through its motions. Your insistence on one thing surviving at the cost of the whole system's fluidity is a myopic request. In demanding that this or that animal/human ought not to die, you are requesting that reality make itself less beautiful to suit your personal preferences.

Somehow, I think this very realization IS the foundation of capital-C Compassion.

Keep in mind though, this is a very advanced insight. It's oh-so-easy to usurp this insight to justify personal selfishness and such. I wouldn't recommend transcending lowercase-c compassion until you first have a healthy egoic respect for "other beings."

Edited March 14, 2021 by RendHeaven

[Nahm]

To experience through and as human beings. 

[WaveInTheOcean]

From a higher perspective, all that is going on is Reality/God/Love/Consciousness/Universe eating itself :->

[Seraphim]

You haven't because you are just a human, a small part of the big Self, incapable of creating worlds

[Carl-Richard]

It could've been way worse.

[Hello from Russia]

You also created tofu

[RendHeaven]

Just now, Hello from Russia said:

You also created tofu

thank heavens for that

[Hello from Russia]

2 minutes ago, RendHeaven said:

thank heavens for that

Yea, tofu so good, I have 4 packages in my fridge right now

[Flim]

@fridjonk Okay, but the brutality of life is still there. That suffering is there. It's happening.

[Hello from Russia]

1 hour ago, Flim said:

As someone who is trying to become a full-time vegan but still eats meat now and then, this is a question that I think about often

I would like to know what you guys have to say.

Just eat tofu, bro

[fridjonk]

6 minutes ago, Flim said:

Okay, but the brutality of life is still there. That suffering is there. It's happening.

Infinity must include ALL. This suffering you speak of is only suffering because you're attached to your life. You don't want to die. Yet for god, he has no problem spawning infinite creatures only so they can experience reality, yet that has to come with total freedom and that includes suffering (from your limited selfish perspective). 

[Flim]

@RendHeaven I will need to read this a few times to try to fully understand it, but wow very insighful reply. 

[Rilles]

To ask why it means youre assuming there something outside reality which can answer that but there isnt. It just is what it is. There is probably a sub-reality where you dont need food to survive but it is not this one. 

The simple answer is "You need it." But why do you need it? Because youre human. But why are you human?" Ad infinitum.

Edited March 14, 2021 by Rilles

[Flim]

@fridjonk So, what I think you're saying is that what I percieve as suffering isn't actually suffering, but the ego not letting go and accepting... accepting what?

Edited March 14, 2021 by Flim

[Flim]

@Seraphim Meant "I" as God, not the human me.

[fridjonk]

2 minutes ago, Flim said:

So, what I think you're saying is that what I percieve as suffering isn't actually suffering, but the ego not letting go and excepting... excepting what?

That's for you to contemplate; giving out answers won't give you any better understanding in this work. You must do the manual labor yourself.  

[Forestluv]

“Why have I created a reality in which animals kill and eat other animals?”

Why did you create a reality in which your human cells kill and eat other cells? Cells in your immune system kill and eat bacterial cells everyday. Your immune cells also kill and eat your own cells.