HUNTING AS A RELIGION

"Hunting may lead people to have peak experiences. All the
elements are there, from spectacular environmental settings to
intense emotional excitement, to encounters with the deepest
issues of life and death. Many hunters I know feel that
ultimately hunting is their religion, but often do not admit this
because of criticism from those who do not understand the
hunter's soul.

And what about the poor animals? the critics of hunting
scream. Anyone can declare an animal to be special, even
sacred. But a thing can become truly sacred only if a person
knows in his or her heart that the object or creature can somehow
serve as a conduit to a realm of existence that transcends the
temporal. If hunting can be a path to spirit, unhindered by
guilt, then nature has a way of making sure hunters feel
compassion. "For those who have a religious experience all nature
is capable of revealing itself as cosmic sacrality", concludes
religion historian Mircea Eliade in his monumental review of
spirituality, The Sacred and the Profane. It is precisely for
this reason the Theodore Roosevelt, one of the greatest hunters
and friends of wildlife in the twentieth century, often
proclaimed that "all hunters should be nature lovers". [p. 35]

"Nature hunters - 17 percent of the hunters Dr. Kellert
interviewed said that they enjoy being outside and have a deep
"affection, respect, and reverence" for nature. When asked, most
will admit that hunting is much more than a sport. To them,
ultimately it is a sacred act with as much as or more meaning
than participation in organized religion.

The first two types of hunters [meat hunters and recreational
hunters] are understandable to most people. Their hunting motives
are up-front and pragmatic. But nature hunters are a paradoxical
mystery to many people. The nature hunter is someone whose deep,
reverential feelings for nature are best described, ultimately,
as love, and then they turn around and kill what they love. Many
people interpret such behaviour as sadistic or even
pyschopathological. Dr. Karl Menninger, the noted humanistic
psychologist, once declared hunters to be sadists. As a hunter
and pychologist, I think he was dead wrong. In his later years
Menninger came to agree with me, as we will learn later. In these
times, when nature suffers from our indifference to it, and when
countless humans suffer alienation from self and from nature, we
need to better understand anyone who claims a deep, abiding love
for nature and is willing to commit time, money and energy to
conservation. Even if you are not a hunter, if you can read this
book with an open mind you will come to know why nature hunters
can say that for them, hunting is a spiritual act of love."
[p. 19]

"In modern times, invariably those fortunate hunters who come to
know their animal kin are the ones who go on to found
organizations to support the preservation of the species they
hunt. In the final analysis, the emotion that drives these people
is not guilt, as some might like you to believe, but love. At the
root of any true feelings of sacredness there must be love, for
it is the core emotion of self-value, which is the ultimate
survival motivation of our species."  [pp. 38-39]

"The modern hunter, on the other hand, is challenged not so much
by fear as by overcoming guilt. Most animals killed by hunters
are not taken for protection or self-defense, but for food, and
perhaps a trophy. There is a special fondness in our hearts for
wild things, and a hunter must work through guilt feelings to be
successful. The more one learns about wild animals, the more one
develops a fondness for them. Hunters also enjoy the overall act
of hunting; being out in nature itself is a pleasure. When they
are not successful; it is customary for hunters to share their
kill with others, whether a tribal society or modern big-game
dinner. And when the season is over, hunters often spend many
hours helping to preserve habitats and restore species. The
emotions that good hunters need to cultivate are love and service
more than courage. The sentiments of the hunt then become
translated into art, as much or more than trophies. Even the
trophies of the hunter are art, for good taxidermy requires
extraordinary artistic skill." [p. 29]

----
James A. Swan. 1995. "In Defense of Hunting". HarperCollins 
Publishers, New York. ISBN 0-06-251237-4