Ask Lemmy

It's not that they don't like animals. It's that they don't view animals as equal to humans. They believe that god made them superior to animals, so what happens to animals doesn't really matter.

Oh I'd say this is definitely just anecdotal to you personally. Lots of animal shelters are owned, operated and funded by religious organizations.

According to one religious person I've talked to, animals don't have "souls" so they're not worth anything. I argued there's no difference, many animals have emotions and awareness, just like us. His reply was they we are smarter than animals.

I asked what about dumb people then, because there's considerable overlap between the dumbest people and the smartest animals. Like at what "IQ" do you obtain a soul? That's about when he tried changing the subject.

You know how the after church crowd is the meanest to service workers? They're famous for it. This is like that.

Of course. The Bible taught people that this planet is ours, and that animals are under us.

As a vegan, the most annoying people are religious people (specially abrahamic believers) and their unbreakable logic: 'If God didn't want us to eat meat, why did he give them to us' Imo that reflects their attitude towards animals: they don't see them as a living beings, but rather as things to be used.

It depends on what religion you look at you have religions with literal sacred animals, religions where all life is sacred, religions where the prophet didn’t like dogs so dogs are explicitly shunned, religions where just cloven hooves animals are forbidden etc. it’s kind of all over the place, my church is dog friendly and I’ve brought him with me before.

I do think there is a subset of Christianity that believes that 1) animals exist to serve man 2) animals don’t have souls so that would mean animal welfare isn’t really a priority. It’s also important to maintain that animals don’t have souls explicitly to justify caring less about them, if they had eternal souls it would be a lot harder to feel ok exploiting them.

So yes, I do think some religions do have an undercurrent of denying animal welfare for the benefit of animal exploitation because they believe that is the god given purpose of animals, to be exploited by man.

Yeah actually. I think I've observed this as well. It's not surprising, religions are super anthropocentric. Humans are god's chosen creatures etc. So much for love

I think this is because many religions convince their followers that they are the center of the uni, and that the sun, mountains, animals, and birds were all created to serve them. In contrast, non-religious people are much more likely to see the bigger picture, that they are simply part of nature.

​Also, some religions like Islam for example, treat dogs as something to be avoided. For example, there's a Hadith that says: "Angels do not enter a house in which there is a dog or a picture"! So that is the case with Islam, since I come from a Muslim background.

My VERY religious stepdaughter somehow sends out a ‘bite me now’ signal to cats.

She was also just going to essentially dump her cat on the street when she left the country a couple years.

So yeah, she sucks.

EDIT: to clarify, I took in that cat who is a bit of a butthead, but doesn’t deserve to die for it.

I know a fair number of religious people, They don’t seem to be any more or less cruel than non-religious people.

I think it depends on what you mean by “animal friendly”. If you mean own a pet and treat it well. I don’t think there is a correlation. At least in the southern US I would be willing to bet a majority of religious families have owned a pet.

If you mean “they care more for animals than humans” then I would agree. The world is big and I am not an expert on religions, but most of the ones around here do think animals are less than humans. But I think you can believe that while being animal friendly. Becusse I believe that and my dogs are spoiled as shit.

There are entire religions on the well being of animals. Jainist hardliners i think it is where the monks even cover their mouth and noses to not breath in the smalles of bacteria since those are animals too

Guess I'm going against the grain here, but in my experiences, no not really.

At least here in Aus I've never noticed any correlation between animal friendliness and religion. My family for example is very religious (I'm not), and quite conservative (I'm definitely not lol), but they care for animals better than they care for other people.

What I have noticed is more fear from other cultures. For example, I have an Indian neighbour who never grew up around dogs, especially big dogs. When I first picked up my German Shepherd as an 8 week old pup, they were scared shitless of him! Scared of a cute little fur ball, with paws too big for his body just flailing around bumping into things, literally one of the cutest things I've ever seen!

Not dismissing the question on religion being linked to animal friendliness, but maybe region and cultural factors are also playing a role here?

The really religious types

What country/culture/religion are you asking about?

St Francis of Assisi was an animal lover, by all accounts 😂

I think you found a weird outlier and your data set is small. Like, most of the world is religious in some way shape or form, your sample size is too small to make any realistic judgement call

I can't speak to other religions, but I'm pretty sure there's a passage in the bible that says that (paraphrasing) mankind has dominion over animals. Some clearly interpret this to mean "God says I can be as shitty as I want to animals".

Many are told that they are above animals and that they are there to be used by us.

they are also likely to neglect them, and see them as commodities, as the current thing to have, once the honeymoon phase wears off they neglect them, anecdotes of course. consider how religious people dont really adopt people for the right reasons and railing on abortion rights.

Probably not. At least I can't think of a single reason that would explain this. I can however come up with reasons why one might be tempted to think that even if it wasn't true.

Interestingly, I don't know a single religious person so I have zero anecdotal evidence to reference to.

I was taught as a young conservative xtian that only humans have souls and that animals were put here for our use and amusement. I was taught that animal pain could not be real because they don't have a soul. They are effectively just toys or food for humans, according to conservative christians.

Conservatism is a fkn disease that needs to be eradicated.

Speaking from experience, whether you are religious or not, being kind to animals are a separate thing. What I can say though, devout Muslims that I knew are either animal lovers, or animal avoiders because they are scared by furry things.

But being cruel to animals? I'm quite sure thats against our teaching though. Although we do slaughter animals for food, for example.

Yes

Yes. Omish people treat animals like fucking garbage.

Genesis 1:28 (KJV): "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

A lack of empathy extends to all things.