Agnostic Vegan from South America

[vegan81vzla]

So, hello everyone, a Little bit about myself. I am a 34yo guy from Venezuela, 4yo vegan this september. I consider myself an agnostic, though I was raised within the catholic Christian values. I was formed at the university and have a degree in the area of science, though I currently do not practice my career. I joined this group to discuss different topics regarding veganism, as I do believe there are some skewed views about it, even inside the vegan comunity, and those trying to promote veganism, that I think are detrimental to the movement itself and its goals.

[Jebus]

Welcome! Great to have a South American forum member. Now all we need is a member from Antarctica and we have all the continents represented.

I think of Venezuela as a very Catholic country. Are there many atheists/agnostics such as yourself? Are you able to speak openly of your lack of belief?

[Lightningman_42]

Welcome to the forum, vegan81vzla. I'm glad to hear that you are carefully srutinizing aspects of the vegan movement which may be irrational. I for one am troubled by the abundance of deontological-style veganism within the vegan movement. I recommend reading the forum discussion thread: "The Issue with Gary Francione and Deontological Veganism?"

[brimstoneSalad]

Welcome! I'm glad you found the forum.

You're very right about the pseudoscience, and I agree it's harmful. Veganism is the more rational position, but when people go around advocating it with irrational and sometimes simply false arguments, it gives people the opposite notion.

I hope you enjoy it here.

[bobo0100]

Welcome to the forum.
Hate to start the points of contention so early but, (a)gnosticism are categories of knowledge in epistemology, they do not fit on the scale between theism and atheism which are category of belief in a god claim, this is why agnostic does not appear on the list of religions.

apart from that, enjoy the forum

[vegan81vzla]

Jebus: Honoured then, to be the first South American in this forum. I'll try not to raise much polemic on any topic, although my views about veganism are not what people might consider canon. As you would imagine, me being born and raised in Venezuela, English is not my mother language, so, although I consider my english dominion to be high in regard to this country standards, there might come a time when expressing an idea might not come as fluid as expected. That's correct. Venezuela is considered a country with strong catholic traditions, though we are also very open to other religions. We are considered a laic state. There are jews, muslims, buddists, rastafaris, sactery, and many other manifestations of religion. So we actually do not discuss these matters in public.

ArmouredAbolitionist: As I said, I was mastered in the area of science, not on humanistic areas. So there, for example, I had to look that word up "deontology". Completely unrecognizable for me. "The study of moral obligation". My view on this matter is that no, veganism has nothing to do with morality nor ethics. It is a philosophy as rightfully stated in the definition. We saw the truth of this current system of belief and understood it as something that should just stop. It is detrimental to everything, humans, animals and the environment. And it is completely unnecessary, unnatural, and it should be considered abnormal.

bobo100: So there is just another big word for me, "epistemology: the study of a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge". Well, I always understood being an agnostic of someone just unsure of the existance of God, and that just does not care on discussing this matter, as there might be more important issues to discuss. I am not really on a quest to prove whether there is one or not. Perhaps then I am an atheist then. There is no God in the sense biblical or theological sense. Again, I just do not care to discuss that matter much. But I do consider that veganism has nothing to do with religion, moral or ethics.

Glad to share my views guys...

[garrethdsouza]

Deontology is a school of ethics wherein morality of an action is determined by whether or not it is in accordance with previously laid down rules. Unless previously specified, No other exceptions are acceptable. period.

Eg: the rule: Do not kill; surely there should be exceptions, for instance if in self defense or to save others from a terrorist. To a deontologist abiding by this rule, killing the terrorist would be wrong regardless of the consequences.

The rational alternative is consequentialism. Wherein the action's morality depends on the consequences and the context rather than such rigid adherence to dogma.

Also discussed here:
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=RJr ... &q&f=false