VEGANS--What is your spiritual base, and how does it relate to your decision to avoid meat/animal products?

Question

I've heard a lot from different sources about Vegan philosophy, but the arguements seem shallow. They don't seem to get to the "heart" of the matter, no pun intended here. It seems to me there is a deeper, perhaps philosophical or religious, motive to not killing animals for any reason. Can anybody elaborate on this for me? Are there spiritual/religious reasons we should not harvest animals? In what religion do you find them?

Answer 1

i think most of them are either animal empaths.

this is the case with a friend of mine he can feel the pain of an animal that is killed without the proper respect and prayers said.

they are conscious Pagans

as am i...i eat meat and a lot of it, but most of it i kill myself and i ask the permission of the animal before i do so. (this may sound strange to some) and i preform the proper rituals and grant the proper respect to the animal afterwards. i use all of the animal that i can, i tan the hide and eat as much of the meat as i can possibly cut off of it.

please excuese my next statement bcause most Vegans really piss me off with their attitude and this is directed to them and not to all.

they are self rightous a**holes that act like they are better than everyone else, and think that they have the right to force their lifestyle on all of us.

example PETA.

somehow they think that it is not ethical to eat meat. and would force this lifestyle on all of us.

i am totaly against animal cruelty but they go overboard to the extreme. giveing my kids graphic pictures of gutted fish and telling them that if your father fishes he is a murderer...after dealing with a crying 5 year old for 2 hours anyone would be pissed. hunting and fishing is the only thing that kept my family fed when i was growing up. i have never seen a religion that did
found any problem with eating animals.

furthermore they act like they have no blood on their hands.

well let me tell you all something...if you are VEGAN and you claim to cause no harm to our furry friends. answer me this.

did you get in your car today?

did you drive it over a hard flat surface that has destroied their enviroment? spewing poisionous gasses all the way?

do you live in a house that is a perminent fixture to the land?
(this meaning that you cannot pick it up and carry it)

do you BUY your veggies from a STORE ?
the store has destroied an enviroment and your money is printed on paper that used to be trees that animals LIVED in.

Have you ever worked on a farm?

if you had tell us what happens when you plow the fields....
baby rabbits and groundhogs are turned out of the soil and crushed beneath tractor tires this is if they have not been cut in half by the plow. and on some occasion they are just wounded and left to die in the fields.

all of these commercial farms slaughter massive ammounts of deer every year trying to keep them out of their crops. these animals are shot and left to rot in the fields. and the local farmers are ever worse for this because they can not afford as much crop dammage.

you cannot tell me that you have no blood on your hands
your veggies are grown from blood soaked soil.

simply by being alive humans cause harm to something else. but in america out if sight out of mind.

Answer 2

meat is murder, simple.

any living creature that is born and can feel pain does not want to die by having it's throat slit, or being choked to death or electrocuted, or gutted.

if animals could talk, I'm sure there would be no volunteers lining up to become food for the humans.
in the wild animals eating other animals is nature, survival of the fittest.
but since humans are at the top of the food chain, and no longer have to hunt (except in places where vegetation does not grow) there is no reason to eat animals of any kind.
there are billions and billions of plant species on this planet, and lots of them are perfect for human consumption, even beneficial.
the argument that u have to have meat for the protein is nonsense these days, because there are plenty of plant sources to get protein from, and it's not just tofu.
animal proteins from dead animals causes high cholesterol, heart attacks, even dementia. you can get parasites from eating animals.
plants do not do that, they cure and prevent disease.
there aren't billions of animals left on the planet, because most are already extinct or on the endangered list or heading there.
what's going to happen when mad cow finally spreads to every country? why do u think the bird flu came? and how long before it hits America?

Answer 3

This is what finally did it for:

http://www.meat.org

That video is pretty graphic, FYI. I've been slowly going vegan for awhile now. It's not so much a spiritual thing as it is fear of what kind of garbage is in the meat (like mad cow).

Buddhists must not cause harm to any other living thing - directly or indirectly. Although vegetables and fruit are alive, but maybe it just means things with a nervous system?

Answer 4

I consider myself a Vegan but I've got no spiritual superstitions attached to my belief. I don't think the religious mumbo jumbo has anything to do with my choice of not putting American meat products in my system.

When Dutch Reagan cut the staff of the FDA during his regime, I was told by an old friend of mine that American meat would soon be unsafe to eat. I had voted for Dutch and didn't believe my friend until a couple of years ago when our beef started showing up with the Brit's "Mad Cow Disease". That's when I dropped meat.

My cholesterol count improved drastically and I've got more energy now than I did 25 years ago. I wouldn't want to impose this lifestyle on everyone (unlike our christian friends) but I would highly suggest anyone try it for awhile... shoot if you don't like it there's a McDonald's on almost every corner.

Answer 5

I'm a vegan and I'm also an atheist. The reason I went vegan is because I feel that all life has value and I choose to live my life without supporting the killing and exploitation of other lives.

Plus animals are my friends, and I don't eat my friends.

Answer 6

my husband an i would never harm any animal. we go to the grocery store for our food needs. we only buy the highest quality products of course.

Answer 7

Vegetables have feelings too. POWER TO THE PEAS!

~carrot juice constitute murder