How do religious people justify raising and slaughtering animals for food?

[Angrboda]

I'm an atheist and a non-vegetarian but I can clearly see that raising and slaughtering animals for food is immoral. This is partly because of the appalling conditions under which most of these animals are raised and the fact that we are killing them for our benefit.

Do religious folks agree? If not, how do they ethically defend non-vegetarianism?

Simple God gave man dominion over the animals and after the flood God told man he could eat meat. Put those two things together and you have Christians raising animals to slaughter for food.

Actually, I think you just read that in a book somewhere. Why you choose to slavishly follow the examples given in that specific book is the real moral conundrum for you. The answer to which appears to be that "you just do."

On a lighter note, the actual passage in the bible reads as follows:

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the [ak]sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the [al]sky and over every living thing that [am]moves on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the [an]surface of all the earth, and every tree [ao]which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the [ap]sky and to every thing that [aq]moves on the earth [ar]which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. 31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 1:26-31, NASB

It does indeed say that God chose man to rule over them, but that only raises the question of what rulership entails, and specifically whether or not God expects you to be good stewards of this dominion. Are factory farming techniques which induce unnecessary suffering in the animals an example of what God expects of you, or are you simply given free reign to use and abuse these resources as you see fit?