Religious dietary restrictions come in many forms and are sometimes compatible with the secular terminology. A majority of the world's vegetarians follow the practice for religious reasons. Many religions, including Buddhism, Taoism and especially Jainism, teach that ideally life should always be valued and not willfully destroyed for unnecessary human gratification.
Jews, Christians and Muslims are all left with the biblical ideal of the "Garden of Eden" diet, which from all appearances is strictly vegan. However, only minorities within these populations actually practice and advocate such strict diets, since the same book of the Bible, Genesis, later gives permission to Noah's descendants to consume animal flesh, but not without great suffering simultaneously administered to all creatures: "The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea" (Genesis 9:2). Suffice to say, the Judeo-Christian God's permission for humankind to eat meat was not an unmixed or otherwise "unqualified" blessing. It was a concession, with penalties-not the least of which was, most probably, a dramatically decreased life expectancy (see Genesis 6:3). Noah's great-grandfather, Methuselah, is famously reported as having lived an amazing 969 years, prior to the dawn of God-authorized human meat-eating. In the Bible, the Book of Genesis teaches that human beings were originally vegetarian, but that later, following the Deluge, God permitted people to eat meat as well. Many Judeo-Christian vegetarians interpret this to mean that God originally intended human beings to be vegetarians, and that people would do well to be vegetarians, even though meat-eating is permitted.
Additionally, some Biblical prophecy suggests that in the Messianic age, there will be universal vegetarianism, even among normally carnivorous animals. For example, Isaiah 11:7 says, "The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox." Judaism Rabbinical Judaism discourages ascetic practices in general. With respect to food, this teaching may be summarized by the Talmudic statement, "Man will have to account for everything he saw but did not eat." To Jewish vegetarians wishing to remain consistent with this teaching, vegetarianism is not a form of self-deprivation, because the vegetarian does not desire to eat meat and believes it is healthier not to eat meat. On the other hand, the Talmud discourages indulgence and states that it is preferable that one's diet consist mostly of non-meat products. There are several arguments from Judaism used by Jewish vegetarians. One is that, since Adam and Eve were not allowed to eat meat and that, according to some opinions, in the Messianic era, the whole world will be vegetarian, not eating meat is something that brings the world closer to that ideal. A second one is that the laws of "shechita" are meant to prevent the suffering of animals and today, with factory farming, even kosher slaughterhouses are considered by some authorities not to fulfill enough of the requirements to render the meat kosher. A third one is that the Sages only mandated eating an olive's bulk of meat during festivals, but even then, this was because in Talmudic times, meat was considered essential for one's diet, whereas a vegetarian will probably be of the opinion that current science has shown otherwise.
