I'm not sure I'd view my comment as an argument, nor silly, at least no sillier than your comment about cannibalismMy point about religion was that it was circumvented to justify how we treat animals...how we house/abuse/use/ and eat them. If something tells us that we're the superior being, which religion does, then what we do with or treat those inferior to us is in some minds, justifiable, because God says so.
To your point about wanting everyone to live as they choose, do as they choose and eat what they choose. That's a nice dream, a utopian dream...Which will never happen, unless you remove religion, laws, traditions and other things that dictate how we live. and what we eat And in some cases, regarding what we eat, for health reasons, our doctors too will dictate what we can or should eat. So your "utopian" way of life has never existed. And forget about me wanting animals to have the same rights as humans, it would be nice if all humans had the same rights, that would be a start. Yet we can't even get that right, lol. So my hopes for equality, or I prefer to say respect, towards others species, isn't even perceivable.
Specially it is Abrahamic religions that sanctify human dominance over other life forms (dominion over the world). Other religions do no do that. Jainist in fact avoid eating all living organisms with senses (e.g., basically anything from an onion on up)... but seeds, fruits, leaves (as long as the plant is not killed), and yogurt are acceptable. Seventh day Adventist which are a Christian sect avoid meat. Native American religions view meat as a necessity and the spirit of the animal must be respected and thanked for offering itself up as food.
Anyway, meat eating likely started long before religion. Our ancient ancestors (lemurs) were insectivores... later primates (monkeys) generalized to fruit and small animals and eggs, and then apes such as chimps added larger animals.
Later, religion tried to sanctify our dominance over the planet, but it is in the nature of animals to dominate; we're just very good at it.
