To get back to the original question, I'm an Atheist vegan! Been vegan for 2 years, and veggie for about 12. It always surprises me that more athiests aren't also vegans or vegetarians. Both have to challenge social norms, and both are not able to appeal to god to justify their actions.
From my reading of this thread, it appears that this is the main reason meat eaters put up for eating meat, interrupted by La Ban insulting people (seriously what is wrong with you?) is to appeal to nature. This can be in the form of "animals kill others to eat so why cant I?" or "Humans have always killed animals". After getting rid of the whole God argument for eating meat though (ie eating meat is wrong cause god told me so) you would have thought the nature argument would also follow suit in being disregarded as nonsense. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature
Why? Firstly because all behaviours are natural. Think about it, natural selection enabled humans to think, hold values and change our behaviour as we desire. This enabled us to survive in new environments, create tools to capture food, wear clothes to stay warm, and build shelter. We developed empathy and values, helping us to live in groups and eventually develop civilisation. It stands to reason therefore that if using these natural abilities is natural, ANYTHING we could possibly conceive of doing is therefore also natural. Meat eaters pick and choose those aspects of nature that agree with their desires to eat meat, substituting God for nature.
But the fact is natural selection it is not directed by values, and the behaviour it selects for can be against the values we choose to hold. Consider for example males fighting to mate with a female, which can often lead to death of one of the males. Most animals do this, characteristics are selected for this. But that does not justify this in humans, because we have the ability to reason and hold values. Natural selection has given us these abilities, which means, unlike other animals which are amoral (because they cannot reason or hold values), our actions have ethical value.
Now, if you value suffering, then one should not eat meat. Its pretty simple. What happened in the past is irrelevant. The fact that we might always cause some harm is irrelevant. The ethical principle is the same, if you value suffering then one should do ones best to stop causing suffering. Eating meat is cruel, and atheists completely undermine their philosophical integrity with these nonsensical appeals to nature.
From my reading of this thread, it appears that this is the main reason meat eaters put up for eating meat, interrupted by La Ban insulting people (seriously what is wrong with you?) is to appeal to nature. This can be in the form of "animals kill others to eat so why cant I?" or "Humans have always killed animals". After getting rid of the whole God argument for eating meat though (ie eating meat is wrong cause god told me so) you would have thought the nature argument would also follow suit in being disregarded as nonsense. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature
Why? Firstly because all behaviours are natural. Think about it, natural selection enabled humans to think, hold values and change our behaviour as we desire. This enabled us to survive in new environments, create tools to capture food, wear clothes to stay warm, and build shelter. We developed empathy and values, helping us to live in groups and eventually develop civilisation. It stands to reason therefore that if using these natural abilities is natural, ANYTHING we could possibly conceive of doing is therefore also natural. Meat eaters pick and choose those aspects of nature that agree with their desires to eat meat, substituting God for nature.
But the fact is natural selection it is not directed by values, and the behaviour it selects for can be against the values we choose to hold. Consider for example males fighting to mate with a female, which can often lead to death of one of the males. Most animals do this, characteristics are selected for this. But that does not justify this in humans, because we have the ability to reason and hold values. Natural selection has given us these abilities, which means, unlike other animals which are amoral (because they cannot reason or hold values), our actions have ethical value.
Now, if you value suffering, then one should not eat meat. Its pretty simple. What happened in the past is irrelevant. The fact that we might always cause some harm is irrelevant. The ethical principle is the same, if you value suffering then one should do ones best to stop causing suffering. Eating meat is cruel, and atheists completely undermine their philosophical integrity with these nonsensical appeals to nature.
