GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Considered a major holiday by many people in Michigan, Nov. 15 is the state's opening day of gun season for deer hunters.

But is there something unholy about hunting deer?

Rabbi David Krishef and his panel of clergy consider whether it's OK to kill animals in this week's Ethics and Religion Talk.

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Ethics and Religion Talk, by Rabbi David Krishef

Genesis 1 and 2 describe a world in which both human beings and animals are vegan, permitted to eat no animal products at all. One can easily argue that this is the ideal diet of the human being, and therefore the eating of any animal product requires extraordinary justification.

That justification, though, comes very quickly. God tells Noah that both vegetation and animals are his for food, as long as he doesn't eat the life-blood of the animal. A different set of Biblical verses speaks about letting animals rest on the Sabbath, not yoking a weaker animal with a stronger animal and not killing baby animals in front of their mother. In other words, it is acceptable to kill animals, but it is not acceptable to be callous toward animal life.

Here are perspectives from other panelists:

Dr. Aly Mageed, Shura member of the Islamic Mosque and Religious Institute of Grand Rapids

The Rev. David Christian, associate pastor of Resurrection Life Church in Grandville

The Rev. Fred Wooden, senior minister of Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids

Judaism and Islam share the assumption that the permission to kill animals for food is limited, both in the types of animals which may be consumed and in the method of slaughter. David Christian suggests that "Love thy neighbor as thyself" directs us to protect human life even at the expense of the lives of other creatures. Fred Wooden articulates a faith-based vegetarian mandate, saying that it is morally wrong and not morally necessary to kill animals for food.

Even though most of us have argued that we are permitted to kill animals, do you agree with Wooden that we should be moving towards a lifestyle and diet in which we kill as few animals as possible?

Aly Mageed argues that the animals will die anyway and their death by human hands causes no more or less suffering than by other means. Do we distinguish between methods of slaughter? Is the flesh of an animal raised in inhumane conditions acceptable? Is hunting for sport - if one does not eat the animal - ethical? What if one does not eat the animal but uses the fur to keep warm? What do you say?

The Ethics and Religion Talk panel would love to hear your thoughts and respond to your questions. Please send questions to EthicsandReligionTalk@gmail.com.

Ethics and Religion Talk is compiled and written by David Krishef, rabbi at Congregation Ahavas Israel in Grand Rapids. Krishef takes questions from readers and shares them with a panel of clergy, then provides the responses in collaboration with MLive.com reporter Matt Vande Bunte. Please submit questions from your own day-to-day encounters to EthicsAndReligionTalk@gmail.com.