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Pireh
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Joined: Thu Feb 25, 2016 12:34 am
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Hey!

Post by Pireh »

Hey everyone, I am an atheist and a vegan,
I am new to both but i never had any difficulties luckily, i hope i can meet people who share same views and may be make friends :)
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garrethdsouza
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Location: India

Re: Hey!

Post by garrethdsouza »

Hi Pireh where are you from? You're an ex Muslim?
How did you become atheist and vegan and how is being vegan/atheist where you live?
“We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.”

― Brian Cox
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Pireh
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Re: Hey!

Post by Pireh »

I am from Pakistan, yep i am an ex muslim.
Well i got into vegan-ism thanks to youtube, i educated myself 3 months back by randomly streaming about food, as i am a food lover. After a week or so i got sick and which led me to avoid certain foods for sometime. I did get okay but i understood how important it is to respect life.
And well ex muslim kinda is a long story but shortly, i was always trying to find purpose in my life and unlike my surroundings i always questioned everything. The magical answers never satisfied me even though being a fantasy sorta person. I grew up, life happened. Now i see world in a better way , understand things and its gotten more clear :)

so you are from india ;) my neighbouring country, how are you doing ^_^
What about you, how long have you been Atheist and Vegan.

I am excited to be here :)
CXC0401
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Re: Hey!

Post by CXC0401 »

Pireh wrote:Hey everyone, I am an atheist and a vegan,
I am new to both but i never had any difficulties luckily, i hope i can meet people who share same views and may be make friends :)
Welcome! ex-Catholic here, we can certainly be friends!
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Pireh
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Re: Hey!

Post by Pireh »

CXC0401 wrote: Welcome! ex-Catholic here, we can certainly be friends!
I am so glad ^_^
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garrethdsouza
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Location: India

Re: Hey!

Post by garrethdsouza »

Pireh wrote:I am from Pakistan, yep i am an ex muslim.
Well i got into vegan-ism thanks to youtube, i educated myself 3 months back by randomly streaming about food, as i am a food lover. After a week or so i got sick and which led me to avoid certain foods for sometime. I did get okay but i understood how important it is to respect life.
And well ex muslim kinda is a long story but shortly, i was always trying to find purpose in my life and unlike my surroundings i always questioned everything. The magical answers never satisfied me even though being a fantasy sorta person. I grew up, life happened. Now i see world in a better way , understand things and its gotten more clear :)

so you are from india ;) my neighbouring country, how are you doing ^_^
What about you, how long have you been Atheist and Vegan.

I am excited to be here :)
Hello neighbour.
What were you watching on YouTube? If you haven't watched earthlings it's also available on YouTube, ID say it's probably a must watch for vegans.

What's the long story? How is it like being a vegan/atheist in Pakistan, do you know any other folks? I'm assuming you're in the closet avout atheism at least, considering the dangerous apostasy laws? Do you face any family pressure etc? Regarding veganism, do you take supplements?

I'm OK, have been atheist for 7-8y and vegan for 1.5y.
“We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.”

― Brian Cox
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Pireh
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Joined: Thu Feb 25, 2016 12:34 am
Diet: Vegan

Re: Hey!

Post by Pireh »

garrethdsouza wrote:
Hello neighbour.
What were you watching on YouTube? If you haven't watched earthlings it's also available on YouTube, ID say it's probably a must watch for vegans.

What's the long story? How is it like being a vegan/atheist in Pakistan, do you know any other folks? I'm assuming you're in the closet avout atheism at least, considering the dangerous apostasy laws? Do you face any family pressure etc? Regarding veganism, do you take supplements?

I'm OK, have been atheist for 7-8y and vegan for 1.5y.
Hey!!

I just some random videos about what happens in the industry to the animals, first video was of Kalel i dont know how i got there from music but that led me to explore more what veganism is. I will surely check it out :D ^_^

Long story includes questioning myself, science and kinda everything, people around me who tried to drag me down, bad relations etc, those sorta things.

Yes i am definitely in the closet, haha i don't have a death wish, i don't know how i dared to write my country name here, i was scared someone might track me :p , but i am an open vegan though, wow i am super amazed, you have been a vegan and an atheist for a quite a long time, i just go into both of these a few months ago,

The great thing is it was easier to tell my family then my friends, my family understands and supports me in every way, because of my vegan diet my family has started to reduce meat consumption as well, but regarding Atheism my siblings and dad are completely cool with it but my mom kinda creeped out but she didnt say much to me though. so overall i would say everyone is very supportive, and my best friend. Other then that i even doubt anyone else would understand. My friends circle is short and they are all kind they wudnt kill me but they would be sad thinking i am on wrong path etc haha which i disagree with. i just don't want the good friendship to end so i don't tell them about atheism but being a vegan was easy.

Yeah i did take vit D supplements as my exposure to sun is pretty less but as i am new i didn't have any deficiencies yet but i try my best to eat variety of stuff so i don't get deficient.

I would like to know whats your side story, how is it in india , is it easy being open about both, and also what about your family, i suppose you are ex-muslim but what about your family? and do you take any supplements? Any advice for me regarding veganism as you see i have been vegan only 3 months now
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Lightningman_42
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Re: Hey!

Post by Lightningman_42 »

Hello Pireh, welcome to the forum.

It's always nice to meet more vegans from all over the world.

Sorry to hear that being an atheist is so dangerous and frowned upon in Pakistan. How dangerous is it? Is it illegal, and punishable?
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil but because of those who look on and do nothing."
-Albert Einstein
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garrethdsouza
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Joined: Mon May 11, 2015 4:47 pm
Diet: Vegan
Location: India

Re: Hey!

Post by garrethdsouza »

Pireh wrote:
I will surely check it out :D ^_^
Great! Earthlings is a must watch for vegans.

Pireh wrote: Yes i am definitely in the closet, haha i don't have a death wish, i don't know how i dared to write my country name here, i was scared someone might track me :p ,
regarding Atheism my siblings and dad are completely cool with it but my mom kinda creeped out but she didnt say much to me though. so overall i would say everyone is very supportive, and my best friend. Other then that i even doubt anyone else would understand. My friends circle is short and they are all kind they wudnt kill me but they would be sad thinking i am on wrong path etc haha which i disagree with. i just don't want the good friendship to end so i don't tell them about atheism
Yes please be safe. I hope you're using private browser on chrome/Firefox etc when viewing the site/ sewrching about atheism and maybe using vsp though I'm no expert on the latter. Pakistan has ridiculous apostasy laws and folks can be pretty barbaric generally AFAIK. The kind of ridiculous levels of often medieval mob violence that can suddenly ensue for trivial reasons is quite horrifying (like being stoned to death, which AFAIK also takes place for other "crimes" like adultery in some places in Pakistan too.) Likes this first response:

https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-t ... n-Pakistan

You could say you're somewhat agnostic which technically is true because we are all agnostic atheists (since one can't prove a negative) or that you don't know of any " scientific" proof of God etc which some of the religious will buy into anyways and respond with some sophist truism like "God is above science" or something;, but who knows, even that may get you in trouble. You would be a better judge of the situation. Do you plan on staying there forever? This Reminds me of the book Persepolis. Have you read it?
Pireh wrote: Yeah i did take vit D supplements as my exposure to sun is pretty less but as i am new i didn't have any deficiencies yet but i try my best to eat variety of stuff so i don't get deficient. ... do you take any supplements? Any advice for me regarding veganism as you see i have been vegan only 3 months now.
Regarding veganism,
- two good resources to check out by reliable qualified registered dietitians are veganhealth.org by Jack Norris and theveganrd.com by Ginny messina
- make sure you're meeting your RDAs for nutrients. You can go to www.cronometer.com and add your daily diet, see if you're meeting your RDAs. You don't need to do this all the time, just for a few days so that you get the hang of what you need to eat to meet your RDA. If you see you're lacking in any particular nutrient, you can go to nutritiondata.self.com or whfoods.com and search for that nutrient. They will tell you which foods are richest in that nutrient and you can plan to add that food to your diet accordingly. For eg, vitamin e, sunflower seeds are among the highest.
- regarding supplements, apart for vit d (are you not getting enough sun? Do you have to wear a hijab/niqab/burqa?), you also need to take a vit b12 supplement 1000mcg tablet (cyanocobalamin, not methylcobalamin) taken twice a week OR 2500mcg tablet taken once a week (mcg = microgram, not milligram). Based on this: http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/dailyrecs
- we generally tell people to list out their diet here as an exercise, folks here can give you suggestions.
Pireh wrote: I would like to know whats your side story, how is it in india , is it easy being open about both, and also what about your family, i suppose you are ex-muslim but what about your family?
It depends on your family and your location I guess. I'm an ex Christian (Roman Catholic) , they are anyways relatively among the more liberal Christian denominations and my family is also supportive so haven't faced too many issues with either veganism/atheism. In India there isnt much of an issue about atheism. Our first prime minister was atheist and the country also has some amount of politically left presence regionally including communism which is significantly godless. Also Hinduism itself doesn't have too many issues as such against atheism; there are certain interpretations where it is acceptable to an extent and though it doesn't make complete sense, at least there is some provision for it, like in some kinds of Judaism as I have read Sam Harris' mentioning. So since it is the major populace, not too much of issues about atheism. The upper castes that have a stranglehold at least to an extent on the system, are anyways predominantly pro vegetarian, though there is some amount of food fascism based on this towards the lower castes, but as a result no issues as such about veganism. But ofc the far right fundies exist trying to push hindutva extremism etc and some local rationalists have been killed occasionally. But not like the craziness that one would be terrified of just being out as an atheist. There is at least some representation of atheists in the popular media, politics etc.
“We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.”

― Brian Cox
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Pireh
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Joined: Thu Feb 25, 2016 12:34 am
Diet: Vegan

Re: Hey!

Post by Pireh »

ArmouredAbolitionist wrote:Hello Pireh, welcome to the forum.

It's always nice to meet more vegans from all over the world.

Sorry to hear that being an atheist is so dangerous and frowned upon in Pakistan. How dangerous is it? Is it illegal, and punishable?

Hi, :)

Yes, Like wise, ^_^

Yes it is punishable by death, there have been some recent cases regarding these matters and if one person wont kill you, the other will.

Where are you from ?? How is it in your country ?
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