Okay, looking at a general, basic view of things. And also any mention to humans references your average joe...
Also, I'm not religious
"The point of any living creature is to survive" Yes, that is true(maybe i worded my last post a bit wrong). That involves avoiding means of death(disease, being munched on,famine etc). The main way to survive, is to eat(or drink if you will
), as it is an effective way of energy consumption(the reason we are getting fatter now is we can harvest animals like we can plants, as opposed to going out and hunting them. This is giving us high Net energy consumption, as we only have to go buy some food).
We humans are omnivorous, meaning we have developed to eat meat/other animals as well as plants. So really, that should mean for optimum health a mixture of both should be necessary(whether it is or not, i dont know. its just the principle
).
And that means we should really be eating meat, which leads to... Because there are carnivores and omnivores, there needs to be animals that are to be eaten. Meaning basically, animals are meant to be eaten. The point in their lives are to survive, and continue the species, but even that is just to allow them to be eaten in the future(survival of the fittest et al)
Now, if we come back to nowadays, we are free to do what we want, because we have made almost all predators bigger and better than us (unless you wanna go for a swim...) extinct. Which completely **** up the whole system(which i'm sure you've probably heard things about, "we're ruining the world. oh noes!")
No we can basically harvest whatever we want, giving the animals no other real point(well, animals like cows, sheep, pigs) but to be eaten, 'cause we are keeping them alive for them until we need a munch.
EDIT: Sorry, taken a long time to think and write. ive probs got a few things wrong, i cant remember somethings