What does Vegetarianism mean to you and why do people relate it to faith , religion and self-identity?

Question

To me it is just a matter of personal preference ,mood and liking. Nothing else.

Answer 1

I think it is spiritual because it can be a form of denial for a worthy reason.
I haven't eaten meat for 19 years because I feel that cruelty is unacceptable and I believe to some degree in karma. I have stopped eating meat for those reasons, the karma reason being a religious/spiritual ideal.
There are many reasons people don't eat meat....maybe they just dont like the taste or maybe they are allergic - in those cases it's not religious.

Answer 2

For me personally, vegetarianism is something I choose to do most of the time for a number of reasons. To some extent it's an ethical issue; meat and other animal products take at least ten times the energy to produce compared to a vegetarian menu of equal nutritional quality. As a human being, I can get my daily needs met with a vegetarian, or ovo-lacto vegetarian diet, and it not only saves energy, it saves me money as well. Both are important to me; I also like the way most vegetable or dairy protein sources taste, so I don't feel I am missing anything by keeping my diet meat-light or entirely vegetarian.

As for the religion and self-identity, meat has always been a very satisfying and high-status food; again, it's relatively hard to obtain in most of the world, and so abstaining from it when it's available is usually done as an act of sacrifice to God or other higher power. In Western society, it not only is a sacrificial act, it's an unusual one that marks a person apart from his/her fellows and so it affects the self-identity.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

People have many differing reasons for changing their diet.
In some cases, it is required or encouraged by their religion. This also relates to spirituality and self-image because eating the flesh of another animal is sort of a way of taking life. Whether that is natural or not is a point of debate.

I myself am vegetarian both because I am not particularly fond of meat and because I have certain beliefs about the eating thereof. It's not that I find it unnatural, seeing as most of our fellow animals eat at least some other animal, I just figure the way we go about it is kind of twisted. Think about it: we breed and raise animals specifically for the purpose of eating them, without any thought about how that affects the ecosystem. Also, if you look at just the economics of it, it's ridiculous how much of what we have comes from COWS.

Anyway, I'm not saying this to convert anyone. I'm hard-line straightedge, and that essencially outlines my personal policies.

(Truth be told, I used to be a happy little carnivore. My sister made a high-stakes bet with me as to whether I could go six months without meat, cold turkey (Punny, no?). Needless to say, I made my point, collected my winnings, and the habit stuck.)

Answer 4

In all honesty, that's partly true for me too.

I made the decision to be vegetarian after one too many days in the operating theatre. Many surgeons use diathermy to cut through human tissue. It burns its way through (sealing blood vessels and reducing bleeding) and produces a smell like barbecuing meat. This changed my aesthetics of taste.

On a moral level, though, it's about recognising that our choices have consequences, including the suffering of sentient beings. If you feel that your choice to eat meat justifies the suffering involved in its production, that's fine by me. Or you might have decided that animals are not sentient beings. This is probably a decision based on faith.

I'm not comfortable with it, though, especially when you realise what is actually involved in the factory farming of chicken and pig products.

Your choices are your choices.

Answer 5

the Dalia lama once was speaking of eating less meat so save an animal or two! I don't eat a lot of meat because it isn't very good for me! some times I eat chicken or turkey! but religion has nothing to do with it!

Answer 6

I am a vegetarian because I do not like to harm animals because I feel they are living things just like human.

Answer 7

I think it's a form of self masochism

Answer 8

I relate it to not eatting meat. Wrong?

Answer 9

Because of Daniel in the bible