"I'm not saying you should eat meat. There are plenty of reasons to pass on the beef. But you haven't yet convinced me that this is one of those reasons. Keep working on it!"

So I thought maybe I should think of some other reasons why you should be a vegetarian, reasons that haven't been discussed yet. I am not for eating meat, I am against it -- either way, whether you're a big meat eater or not, I hope you read this.

I'll start by copying out part of an interview I read in Higher Taste: A Guide to Gourmet Vegetarian Cooking and a Karma-Free Diet by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. (Yes, long name, I know.)

"DO ANIMALS HAVE SOULS?"

Srila Prabhupada: Some people might say, "We believe that animals have no soul." That is not correct. They believe animals have no soul because they want to eat the animals, but actually animals do have a soul.

Reporter: How do you know that the animal has a soul?
Srila Prabhupada: You can know, also. Here is the scientific proof: the animals is eating, you are eating; the animal is sleeping, you are sleeping; the animal is defending, you are defending; the animal is having sex, you are having sex; the animals have children, you have children; they have a living place, you have a living place. If the animal's body is cut, there is blood; if your body is cut, there is blood. So, all these similarities are there. Now, why do you deny this one similarity, the presence of the soul? That is not logical. You have studied logic? In logic there is something called analogy. Analogy means drawing a conclusion by finding many points of similarity. If there are so many points of similarity between human beings and animals, why deny one similarity? That is not logic. That is not science.

I hope you thought that was interesting; at least, I hope you read it and thought on what they said. My next article, Why Being a Vegetarian is a Good Idea, Part 2, will be published here in the Times soon.

-Madz