Atheism and vegetarianism

[Eilonnwy]

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.

Polls are unscientific and don't really tell us anything. How many of the atheists are vegetarians because of a philosophy stemming from atheism? How many are vegetarians independent of their atheism? How many vegetarians were vegetarians before they were ever an atheist? Does this represent a good proportion of the forum? Does this forum have a heavy atheist population that is not representative of the vegetarian community as a whole?

My best friend is an atheist. She recently decided this like last year that she didn't really believe in god and accepted the term as a part of her identity. She has been a vegan for years. So yes, she's a vegan atheist, but her love for animals and reluctance to eat them has been her attitude ever since we met back in freshman year of high school, which was about 10 years ago. She was a vegetarian and eventually went full vegan.

I didn't address your OP in my previous post, but I will now.

There seems to me to be a clear connection between non-belief and vegetarianism. Once we get rid of the religious notion that man is a higher creation, with a soul, it's harder to justify badly treating other animals then painfully slaughtering them for our meals. Also, those who question religion are more likely to question the prevailing attitude towards our diets. It'd be interesting to see a study on whether there's a correlation. I myself am a pescetarian (I eat seafood, but no meat). Now, I'm not condemning anyone who isn't vegetarian; I'd just like to get people's thoughts on the matter.

This idea that removing our belief in a soul or us being God's special people thus makes eating animals wrong seems absurd to me. I do not believe there is anything intrinsically wrong with eating meat. Life has evolved by consuming other life. We survive through death. I still eat fish and plant life, both of which consist of living cells that I have consumed. So the idea that just because a creature is cute, or walks on land means we should eat it is an anathema. We are omnivores, while we may have originally been herbivores we evolved to eat meat and we need the Vitamin B12 and protein in meat to survive. We can get by with getting protein from other non-meat sources very well but Vitamin B12 is only in animal products and we must have it to survive. If you're a vegan, you have to have Vitamin B12 fortified foods or supplements.

So our life evolved to eat meat. All of life consumes living things, whether plant or animal. Why am I a pesceterian?

I have two reasons, health and ethical. My ethical reasons are based on the factory farming and the treatment of animals. I object to that specifically, and I also feel that in a world where humans are constantly starving, the amount of grain resources we waste on fattening up animals could do more to feed starving children all over the world. While yes, we have evolved to eat meat, we can still as a species not eat meat and allow our food to to go father and feed more people. Given my ethical objections, I put my money where my mouth is and I don't eat land animals. I eat fish because I know I still need reliable sources of protein and Vitamin B12 and fish aren't maltreated the way land animals are.

My health reasons are this. Studies show red meat has a clear link to heart disease. I don't particularly love red meat, so it's easy to give it up. Honestly the only kind of meat that I have up and love is chicken, but I can eat veggie substitutes. By eating the leanest meat protein source, which is fish, I help my heart.

Furthermore, I have bad eating habits and as such gained a lot of weight. By cutting land animals out of my diet I am able to avoid fried foods and I'm forced to make healthier veggie choices when eating out.

I also attempt to eat a Mediterranean diet which is proven to be one of the healthiest diets around.

I still eat eggs, I don't eat milk based dairy because I severely lactose intolerant though I do eat aged cheese which contains no lactose. Since I've become a pescatarian, I've lost 25 pounds. (I also started going to the gym. It's a combination of both that help me lose weight.)

Not once in all my reasoning for becoming a pescatarian did my atheism play a part.