Atheism and vegetarianism

[lrh9]

Also, there are 4 great pleasures in life: eating meat, riding meat, rubbing your meat, and sticking your meat into someone's meat.

[The Omnissiunt One]

Also, there are 4 great pleasures in life: eating meat, riding meat, rubbing your meat, and sticking your meat into someone's meat.

Um... if that's what you're into, fine.

As for the connection between vegetarianism and atheism, I found this poll on a vegetarian forum:

I believe in an omniscient god/gods that created the universe & interferes in daily lives: 15.85%
I believe in a god/gods that created the universe but does not interfere in daily lives: 4.88%
I believe there might be a god: 14.63%
I believe there is most likely no god: 64.63%

Again, it's a relatively small sample size of 82, but still, the results are pretty conclusive.

[Edwardo Piet]

Agreed, but he still couldn't criticise cannibals who wanted to eat some liver with fava beans and a nice chianti.

Not so by his moral code if he is a personal ethical egoist. He can say what he likes about others if he subscribes to that, it is only he who has to pursue his self interest.

I'm a psychological egoist. I posit that people are only capable of acting in their own self interest. That makes the concept of 'should' moot.

Ok well that's cleared that up.

I agree with you. But I think that others' interests are often part of our own self interests. Our 'us' is part of our 'me'.

[Zen Badger]

Before everyone gets all soggy about the rights of the cute little animals.

Let me remind you all that everything dies and everything gets eaten, EVERYTHING.

And in the wild most animals will die in fear and pain, then be eaten.

At least in our care they will have a painless life and a painless death.(in most cases anyway)

[Tiberius]

...and they taste delicious

[The Omnissiunt One]

Before everyone gets all soggy about the rights of the cute little animals.

Let me remind you all that everything dies and everything gets eaten, EVERYTHING.

And in the wild most animals will die in fear and pain, then be eaten.

At least in our care they will have a painless life and a painless death.(in most cases anyway)

This, I'm afraid to say, is a straw man of animal rights, and factually inaccurate anyway. Animal rights are based on the idea that to confine the moral sphere solely to humans is arbitrary, for there is no morally significant feature possessed by all humans (including babies and the mentally handicapped) and no animals. It's not about the cuteness of animals.

The fact that animals die is irrelevant. Can we kill humans on this basis?

Many animals we breed don't have painless lives and deaths. Many, if not most, chickens are factory farmed. They are often transported miles in cramped conditions to the slaughterhouse, where they are hung upside down and have their throats cut when they are often not properly stunned.

Arguably some have a better life on farms than they would in the wild, but that's irrelevant. We don't rescue them from the wild, we breed them. So any pain and death we cause is additional to the pain and death in the wild. Again, I'm not saying that to painlessly kill them is wrong necessarily. But, as it stands, I believe it is.

[Ace Otana]

where they are hung upside down and have their throats cut when they are often not properly stunned.

I remember my dad telling me how him and his dad killed and prepared chickens in Australia. They owned a farm over there.
Anyway, he would hold the chicken down onto a flat log and chop the head clean off. Then the chicken's body would run around for a bit with blood shooting out of it's neck. That's where that saying came from "running around like a headless chicken".
They don't cut their throats, they chop the their heads clean off. Then they rip all the feathers off and prepare it for cooking then consumption.
Never heard of chickens being "stunned" before. It's just one good chop and the job is done.

[The Omnissiunt One]

You're right, they do cut chickens' heads off; I was thinking of animals like cows. But they do often stun them.

[Ace Otana]

You're right, they do cut chickens' heads off; I was thinking of animals like cows. But they do often stun them.

Not sure how they kill and prepare other animals.

But they do often stun them.

You're right. Having their heads cut clean off would stun them.
It really is quick and painless. They wouldn't feel any discomfort.
I really have never heard of chickens being stunned before having their heads removed. Removing the head is quick and totaly painless.

[The Omnissiunt One]

'Kill bird usually by cutting off the head. In large operations this is done with a "V" shaped electrified knife which stuns then beheads the bird'

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_are_chickens_slaughtered

Done well, I'm sure it is painless. Unfortunately, 'on reaching the slaughterhouse, broiler chickens are removed from their crates and hung upside down shackled by their feet to a moving line whilst still fully conscious. Their heads and neck are dragged through an electrically charged water bath designed to stun the birds, rendering them unconscious. The moving line then takes the birds to an automatic neck cutter. Birds are then bled before entering a scalding tank to make the plucking easier. Broilers often experience pain and struggle while hung in shackles, and they may suffer during the slaughter process.' http://www.vegsoc.org/info/broiler.html