Talk:Christianity and animal rights

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Disagreement on what are "animal rights"
As I read the article in its present form, it strikes me that those who have written much of it understand "animal rights" to be deep and broad, and preclude the eating of meat. Others see "animal rights" much more narrowly, as precluding beating & overworking animals. The Wikipedia article animal rights has been written by those who hold the first point of view. I fear that the present article is bound to be difficult as long as editors work from very different points of view about "animal rights". An underlying issue is clear: some think of "non-human" animals and an ethical continuum, but others differentiate an absolute ethical divide between "humans" and "animals".

Is there a way to address this explicitly?Pete unseth (talk) 21:36, 10 February 2019 (UTC)


 * I fear that this article is so editorialized by those against meat consumption that it entirely misses the point which is Christian canon and history. For instance the Catechism of the Catholic Church through paragraphs 2415 to 2418 presents a short and clear doctrine that is in my opinion closer to the mainstream Christian consensus on the topic. I think most of what is in the article is cherry-picking of irrelevant information. It bothers me that minor views like those of Andrew Linzey and Peter Singer have much more weight than Christian history and the official doctrines of the mainstream denominations. That said, I agree that editors should be specific on what "animal rights" entails. Besides animal abuse and veganism, there's animal welfare (do humans have positive duties of any kind to animals?). Daniel Souza (talk) 00:07, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

What did Peter Singer assume about Europe?
At this point, the article says that Peter Singer "argued that Christianity brought some of the negative attitudes towards animals that were found in Greek thought and Judaism to the West, establishing them as a cultural norm." What did he believe were prior "attitudes toward animals" in Europe? There is ample evidence of animals used for food and as beasts of burden in Europe before Christianity. Whoever has access to Singer, if indeed Singer presented evidence of different attitudes in Europe before Christianity, please quote it. Otherwise this looks very dubious, indeed. Pete unseth (talk) 21:44, 10 February 2019 (UTC)
 * I assume he was making a more subtle point about whether animals were denigrated in addition to being exploited, and I don't think he was talking about Europe so much as the Western philosophical tradition generally. Singer is obviously not so stupid as to think that pre-Christian Europeans were all vegetarians.
 * It's none of our business whether he was right or not though, only that he's an important figure who has advanced an argument about Christianity and animal rights. FourViolas (talk) 23:37, 16 March 2019 (UTC)

Use of Biblical quotation "very good"
The article currently says, "Moreover, in the Genesis account, each stage of creation is pronounced 'good' by God, with the whole being pronounced 'very good'. This suggests that God values everything he has made, including all of its creatures." By exactly the same logic, God values the plants and celestial bodies he made, not just the animals. This quotation does not support the unique place of animals in God's value. I leave the quotation in place for now, allowing those who want to salvage it to find suportive material. Pete unseth (talk) 22:32, 10 April 2020 (UTC)

Gerasene demoniac
The article on the Gerasene demoniac says that Jesus casting the demons into the pigs leading to their death has been used as an argument about animal rights. You could add a summary here. --Error (talk) 06:48, 23 January 2021 (UTC)