Religion: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices (Merriam Webster).
The traditional view of religion is that of a group of individuals who believe in and worship some kind of a deity or supreme being, whether or not there is evidence for the existence of this being or not. Today, when someone obsesses over something in an irrational manner, they are often regarded as being “religious about it”, often in a derogatory sense.
It’s not uncommon for veganism to be regarded as a religion. Why not? Vegans remove themselves from the joy of consuming animals, something we have been doing since our emergence on the planet. How could anyone refuse to take part in something so intrinsically human? To make matters worse, vegans are sometimes seen proselytizing their beliefs. If that doesn’t sound like a religion, what is?
But a common hallmark of some of the most powerful religions (aside from the belief in some higher, magical power) is the denial of modern-day science and even disregard for the laws of physics.
I will use Christianity as an example since, to be fair, it is the religion I was born into. For centuries Christians claimed the Earth was the center of the universe, and that human beings, as was God’s intention, are the center of all that exists.
When Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei used science to prove the Earth is actually not at the center of the universe, Christians accused him of heresy, putting him under house arrest and refusing to accept his mathematically proven conclusions that went against everything they believed.
The world’s most powerful religions have been notorious for suppressing scientific facts for centuries and continue to do so today. The mere notion that humans evolved from apes, for example, is still met with fierce resistance, even in an era when nearly every modern-day luxury can be attributed to scientific discoveries, not blind faith in unfounded beliefs that are more appealing because they provide a simpler explanation of the world.
Is there some kind of blind faith involved in veganism, the simple idea that we should avoid, whenever possible and practicable, consuming products or engaging in activities that require the exploitation, abuse and/or murder of animals?
Let’s consider a few things here. A 2015 Gallup poll showed that most people in the United States are concerned about animal rights in some form. On the other side of the Atlantic, another poll found that 72% of EU citizens want animal testing to be eliminated because of animal welfare concerns.
On a personal note, I have lived on four continents for years at a time and have met many different people of different cultures, and I can attest that a significant percentage of people do not like the idea of humans harming animals, and that goes well beyond the US and Europe.
And it’s not just animal welfare people claim to be concerned about, surveys have shown that most people throughout the globe worry about environmental degradation and the ever increasing effects of climate change.
Today, most educated people are at least somewhat aware of the cruelty and environmentally damaging effects of animal agriculture. For some context, most meat today comes from factory farms, where the majority of the 70 billion land animals raised and killed to be eaten (yearly) spend their short and miserable lives.
In the beef industry, cows on many factory farms often have barely enough space to move freely, and in order to make veal, calves are prevented from moving at all, the only way of making their meat tender and ensuring a high value before their throats are slit.
In the egg industry, egg-laying hens are genetically modified to lay up to 30 times as many eggs as their wild ancestors. This frequently causes their bones to break, since the calcium in their bodies is diverted for the formation of eggshells.
Today’s livestock systems occupy approximately 45% of the Earth’s ice-free habitable land and are the leading drivers of species extinction, while also contributing between 14.5% to 18% of all human-induced global greenhouse emissions, more than the entire global transportation industry.
The meat industry consumes approximately 33% of the Earth’s freshwater reserves. In fact, the average meat burger requires 460 gallons of freshwater. That’s simply because all those crops to feed all those animals need to be irrigated on a regular basis.
With regards to health, meat consumption has been causally linked to colorectal cancer by the WHO, and nearly all legitimate health organizations agree that healthy vegan diets are not only sustainable for human wellbeing but can offer numerous benefits, like significantly reducing a person’s chances of suffering from diabetes, heart attacks, hypertension and obesity.
And yet, in the UK, considered among the most vegan-friendly nations in the world, only 5% of the population identifies as vegetarian and 2% as vegan. Results of surveys around much of the globe show similar percentages. This means over 90% of the global population, much of which is concerned about animal welfare and the environment, continues to actively and willfully pay for animal suffering and environmental degradation.
On a more anecdotal note, whenever someone brings up the notion of avoiding animal products among the majority meat-eating population, the most creatively absurd arguments are immediately brought into the conversation.
“But lions eat other animals… but bacteria… but ants… but the world isn’t perfect… but animals will always suffer…” or outright falsehoods like “we need milk for strong bones (no we don’t)” or “animals -except for dogs and cats that are cute- don’t actually suffer (yes they do).”
Indeed, lions eat other animals, they also lick their own anuses and have been known to eat their own young. Is this an invitation for us humans, who pride ourselves on our superiority over the animal kingdom, to emulate lions (or ants or bacteria?) and begin eating our own children if the situation calls for it?
Among my personal favorites is the argument that plants suffer in the same way animals do (which, even if true, these new anti-vegan plant-lives activists would have more reason to go vegan since more plants -and trees- are killed to produce animal feed for livestock animals’ land intensive diets).
The absurdity of these arguments is akin to the refusal of certain religions to accept the scientific consensus on evolution, or the notion that the Earth is not the center of the universe (the Bible is often invoked to justify our brutal treatment of other animals who “do not have souls”).
Then there’s the common objection: “why does vegan food have to mimic meat?”, as if the recent influx of plant-based meat substitutes were a form of sacrilege, an offense to the meat-gods.
This is not to say all meat-eaters are loyal adherents of religious scripture, but if we compare veganism with carnism (the belief that humans should continue to consume animal products for invalid -and outright ridiculous- reasons), the latter resembles a religion more than the former.
Veganism, on the other hand, is just another form of heresy.
If you’re a passionate reader then you may very well enjoy my fiction novel The Shadow in the Mirror, where you can find out what’s actually going on with Harold Hopkins (genre: paranormal suspense).
Harold’s only wish is to lead a normal life. Yet for reasons he can’t comprehend, he is shunned by all living things. No matter how hard he tries, he is unable to garner attention from the woman he loves, nor can he foster genuine friendships or find a decent job. Meanwhile, since childhood, he has been haunted by his own reflection in the mirror, which frequently acts as a window to another world. The person on the other side is everything Harold wishes he could be, like a clone of himself leading the fruitful life he was destined to lead. He finally sets off in search of answers, where he learns about the unearthly events that took place when he was born, and discovers the tantalizing truth about his own existence…
Available on Amazon both in paperback and Kindle here.
