Philosophical Vegan Forum

I don't know if this topic is in the appropriate section, because it is about both veganism and religion. It's not off topic, so I didn't put it there. I went with the Vegan Support Forum over the Atheist Support Forum because the poll I am discussing is from a vegan website.

Anyway, I came across an interesting poll on The Vegan Forum about religious belief:
http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showth ... light=poll religion

It's really interesting to me that 36.95% of vegans who voted were atheists. Also, 75.14% did not identify with a specific religion.

Reflection Questions:

Why do you guys think that so many vegans are non-religious compared to the entire population? In other words, why is the percentage of non-theists in the vegan community so much larger than the percentage in the full population?

Do you think that being a vegan/being non-religious opens up the door to new ideas/beliefs? I do.

It wouldn't surprise me if most vegans are also atheists. The reason many Christians see eating the flesh of other species not as a bad thing, is because they think God created animals to be eaten. I would be very strange to find out about a Christian that was serious about his faith and yet rejects speciesism, since it would conflict with the idea that humans are made in the image of God and thereby special.

I think that many people can't think clearly about the issue because they are still—although probably not being aware of it—constrained by Christian thinking that still shapes western society. A lot of the laws of our societies are based on Christian morals. It's slowly and gradually moving towards secular morals (equality of gender and sexual position for example). It seems that it's mostly atheists that are aware of this fact, and feel the need to move away from old baseless moral reasoning. Peter Singer is a perfect example of someone who noticed this and has delivered fantastic works because he was able to see through this constrains.

One factor that may have impacted on this is weather or not the study was done online, Altho I do not have a study to back this up I would state that the internet is where religion comes to die, if this is true than an internet study would naturally produce more atheist/non-religious people. If this study was done at a vegan convention I would not be surprised if the figures came out differently.

On the other hand I can personally vouch for what Volenta has said, I live with theists mainly of the catholic persuasion, I also go to a catholic school, and the argument from religion has come up many times.

On yet another hand, I have found a higher than usual concentration of vegetarians in the catholic community such as bishop Eugene and a random catholic who claimed he "wished he could be vegan". The reason I put it down to would be that the catholic community definitely highly values morals, or at least that's what they say they value. This then leads to thought about your actions and there impact on those around you. This in tern leads to at leads to vegetarianism.

Other spiritual community's that have a high consent ration of vegans/vegetarians is the one I still health way consider myself a part of. The community I talking about it the new aged community. Although I first started to identify myself as an atheist Because of the new aged community. A likely reason for a high concentration of vegans in the na community is because of the theory of source consciousness. The theory states that we are all a "reflection" of source, ie we are all source. This leads to quotes like [probably not the most accurate quote nor can I remember its source] "to fire a weapon brought your enemy is to do twice that to yourself". Most new agers reject anything that supports the idea do separateness, this includes labels, such as the one it have used multiple times, new aged. This leads to most na identifying as "spiritual" or "non religious".

Any way that's my two cents.

bobo0100 wrote:One factor that may have impacted on this is weather or not the study was done online, Altho I do not have a study to back this up I would state that the internet is where religion comes to die, if this is true than an internet study would naturally produce more atheist/non-religious people. If this study was done at a vegan convention I would not be surprised if the figures came out differently.

I wouldn't trust that internet poll as a valid source. It's not a real study being conducted.

bobo0100 wrote:On yet another hand, I have found a higher than usual concentration of vegetarians in the catholic community such as bishop Eugene and a random catholic who claimed he "wished he could be vegan". The reason I put it down to would be that the catholic community definitely highly values morals, or at least that's what they say they value. This then leads to thought about your actions and there impact on those around you. This in tern leads to at leads to vegetarianism.

Well, I think that Christians aren't always basing there moral reasoning on verses out of the bible—although they sometimes try to match it with the bible. When seeing the conditions in which animals are being raised, they can feel bad about it. Since the intensive farming practices are relatively recent, they can feel that God didn't meant it that way. But I'm really just guessing here, so don't take my word for it. But like I said, I don't think Christians reject speciesism that easy.

Religion is just another way to try and morally justify animal slaughtering.
Those who don't eat slaughtered animals typically will not believe in something that try's to moralize & advocate the slaughtering of animals.

To kill an animal eat it in the name of a 'God'
Is actually Paganistic ritual lol...

PrincessPeach wrote:To kill an animal eat it in the name of a 'God'
Is actually Paganistic ritual lol...

So is health the things in the catholic religion, for example Easter, Christmas, and all saints day.

Volenta wrote:Well, I think that Christians aren't always basing there moral reasoning on verses out of the bible—although they sometimes try to match it with the bible. When seeing the conditions in which animals are being raised, they can feel bad about it. Since the intensive farming practices are relatively recent, they can feel that God didn't meant it that way. But I'm really just guessing here, so don't take my word for it. But like I said, I don't think Christians reject speciesism that easy.

I agree with you. What I'm trying to say is christions give more waight to moral arguments. I previously stated what the bible said about speciesism, it's well known and arguably one of huge most harmful bible quotes of the modern era. I was not arguing that there are biblical reasons to go vegan, I am however stating that certin interpretations of the bible leave you in a place in witch you highly value morals. Leading to moral arguments carrying more waight than the normally would.

bobo0100 wrote:I agree with you. What I'm trying to say is christions give more waight to moral arguments. I previously stated what the bible said about speciesism, it's well known and arguably one of huge most harmful bible quotes of the modern era. I was not arguing that there are biblical reasons to go vegan, I am however stating that certin interpretations of the bible leave you in a place in witch you highly value morals. Leading to moral arguments carrying more waight than the normally would.

I wasn't trying to argue against what you said.

I'm not sure though that Christians give more weight to moral arguments. Some Christians really want to be good people and fit your description, but some think they are good because they are Christian. Likewise there are atheists that take morality more seriously than others. But there's no doubt that there are verses in the bible that can lead to good things.

Some vegans do try using the bible to get people to go vegan by the way. Before the fall of man everyone was vegan, so why don't try to go back to that 'perfect' situation.

Even in this survey they found the same thing: http://thevegantruth.blogspot.in/2013/0 ... 3.html?m=1
Vegan atheist/agnostic at about 43% far outnumbered all religions combined at 11%
That said spiritual not religious also was around 43%. This despite religions having a lions share of the world populace.
I guess if one is critical of one majoritarian socioculturally indoctrinated worldview one is more likely to be skeptical of other ones too.

IMO a vegan census on similar lines to the atheist census would be pretty informative. I wish some leading in the movement like the vegan society would undertake this.