Philosophical Vegan Forum

ArmouredAbolitionist wrote:If I understand this correctly, isn't Jainism an atheistic religion, advocating that the universe is eternal and therefore has no need for a creator? If so, then isn't this a moral argument against a lack of religion, rather than a lack of theism?

That is correct. It's more an argument against naturalism, which pretty much requires atheism, and not against atheism which doesn't require naturalism.
You would have to contrive something like a theistic form of Jainism (which isn't inconceivable), and demonstrate that the theistic component is useful to enforcement.
The notion of a judge casting people into hell seems to be a motivator for some.

It's hard to find real world examples of theistic religions that are not profoundly evil. Is this inherent to theism, where non-theistic religions are inherently more inclined to be good? That's not so clear.

Vedic religion advocates vegetarianism, although not very strongly. The Seventh Day Adventists have a large (but not close to exclusively) vegetarian population as advocated by the founder.

I just learned that communism is socialism in practice in my English class... I find this very strange and hard to believe for some reason.

Cirion Spellbinder wrote:I just learned that communism is socialism in practice in my English class... I find this very strange and hard to believe for some reason.

You mean that socialism is like a practical form of communism, or communism lite?

I wouldn't take anything your English teacher says about government very seriously though.

brimstoneSalad wrote: You mean that socialism is like a practical form of communism, or communism lite?

No, she suggested that socialism is the term that refers to the doctrine or theory of communism.

I wouldn't take anything your English teacher says about government very seriously though.

I'll keep that in mind.

I was debating about giving his its own topic but I'll just put it here. What do you guys think about dueling and honor? The reason I ask this is because recently in American history my teacher went over Alexander's Hamiltons duel with someone else(I can't remember his name for the life of me.) This started a joke in the class about the way of handling your problems like a gentleman, which is to blow someones brain out.
But someone that I know kind of defended the custom of dueling, explaining that you have to defend your honor, or your family name would be ruined, and everyone that you loved would suffer for it. That may have been true for that time, but does that make it any less idiotic? Anyway, what do you guys think about it?

Insert name here wrote:What do you guys think about dueling and honor?

Honor has and always will be a childish idea. In a sense, it is like small scale nationalism. Both are variations of pride that should be avoided as they can lead to an unhealthy ego and ignorant closed mindedness. The notion of fighting to preserve your honor, especially when your life is at stake, is even more so childish and unreasonable.

Cirion Spellbinder wrote:Honor has and always will be a childish idea. In a sense, it is like small scale nationalism. Both are variations of pride that should be avoided as they can lead to an unhealthy ego and ignorant closed mindedness. The notion of fighting to preserve your honor, especially when your life is at stake, is even more so childish and unreasonable.

Glad to know that we agree, it is also idiotic to assume that since one person in a family did something that is perceived as bad or dishonorable, the entire family must be the exact same. The very idea is ridiculous.

I baked 6 vegan apple pies for my brother to sell for a Dutch charity (War Child) this weekend, they were sold out and nobody had a clue.

We'll win one day.

miniboes wrote:I baked 6 vegan apple pies for my brother to sell for a Dutch charity (War Child) this weekend, they were sold out and nobody had a clue.

We'll win one day.

I agree that honor killing is ridiculous, and about the whole family thing. It's like national pride.

Interesting video about Zipf's law:
https://youtu.be/fCn8zs912OE