How can God allow men to eat animals?
Those sentences which are colored in orange are from Maharishi Dayananda Saraswati book Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth) and those which are colored in black are Jerry Thomas’s response.
"And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the maroon herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." (9: 1- 4.) C. Is not the God of the Christians destitute of mercy, since he helps some to enjoy at the expense of the lives of others? Are not the parents, who cause one of their children to be killed in order to feed the other, considered most sinful? The same is true on this case since all living creatures are like children to God. The Christian God (in their case) is more like a butcher. It is this that has made men so hare-hearted and cruel towards other sentient creatures. Why is not the Christian God sinful since he is destitute of tenderness of feelings?
Answer: While the Christians can give a valid standard for what he eats (both non vegetarian and vegetarian) and what he does not eat (human beings), Maharishi do not have a reasonable standard for what he eats (vegetarian) and what he does not eat (non vegetarian). In the same chapter Genesis 9: 6, the Holy Bible clearly says that the human beings are created in the image of God and therefore should not be killed whereas the other creatures are not created in the image of God. Now let me borrow the words of the subaltern scholar Kancha Illaiah and ask “why are the poor potatoes and tomatoes being killed? What have they done to you?” Further are they not God’s children? What is the basis of differentiation between vegetables and animals? Now, the final question- who taught this Maharishi that the Vedic people were vegetarian? Rig Veda 5: 29: 7-8 7. As friend to aid a friend, Agni dressed quickly three hundred buffaloes, even as he willed it.And Indra, from man's gift, for Vṛtra's slaughter, drank ofr at once three lakes of pressed-out Soma.
8. When thou three hundred buffaloes' flesh hadst eaten, and drunk, as Maghavan, three lakes of Soma, all the Gods raised as ’twere a shout of triumph to Indra praise because he slew the Dragon. When the God of the Bible allowed human beings to have non vegetarian, deities of Vedic times were apparently flesh eaters. Look at the ignorance and audacity of Maharishi to hide the Vedas and then to raise charges against the Holy Bible.
