Hello! Happy to join you!

[Cassiopeia]

Hi, I'm a 16 years old vegan atheist from Poland. I've came here through TheVeganAtheist videos (which I love). I went vegetarian about 2 years ago and vegan about a year ago. Lastly I also realised that I can call myself an atheist. I was raised in catholic, meat eating family so that was a quite difficult process to became who I am now.
I would love to meet here some people who think in a similar way to me.

[Kyron]

Hey! Welcome to the forum.

So, why did you choose to become vegan? (: And you mentioned it's hard for your family, what was their reaction?

[Cirion Spellbinder]

Welcome Cassiopeia! How did you become an atheist? Is your family tolerant of your stance on these issues?

[Cassiopeia]

Hey! Welcome to the forum.

So, why did you choose to become vegan? (: And you mentioned it's hard for your family, what was their reaction?

Since I was a child I didn't want to believe that meat comes from dead animals and when I've learned more about it I decided that I don't want to eat it. My parents didn't let me go vegetarian because they were worried about my health (protein etc ). When I grew up a little I just skipped it, then I met my English cousin who is vegan, she explained her reasons to me, I've done some research and that was it. My family, luckily, is not a very conservative one when it comes to church, but they are aware about health on vegan diet. Anyway, it's getting better.

Welcome Cassiopeia! How did you become an atheist? Is your family tolerant of your stance on these issues?

I've always had some problems with understanding and agreeing with many points in catholic church but I was considering it to be my fault. I didn't like mostly the things it says about women, animals, human's sexuality and how it simplifies everything. Priests and teachers didn't want to answer my questions about the cases that were disturbing to me. This year I was supposed to take my confirmation and I decided that I don't want to relate to this religion anymore and I said that I won't do it. That's not really the unusal story, you know (: My parents let me do what I think is good to me and I'm really happy about that. The bigger problem is the society in the place where I live which is unfortunately very conservative... But now I feel better a lot, physically and mentally and that is important to me.

[Lightningman_42]

Hello Cassiopeia, welcome to the forum! Are you interested in astronomy (hence your username)? Always a pleasure to meet another vegan. Don't hesitate to ask us for help; we're more than willing. If your parents express objections to you being vegan, it's likely because they care about your health, and mistakenly believe that animal-derived foods are necessary.

If think that your parents would accept well-established scientific consensus, then you can show them this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12778049

If your parents are concerned about you getting adequate protein then I'd recommend showing them this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m4p8s7xskQ

It's great to hear that you made such a rational and compassionate choice when you were 16. I wish I had gone vegan at a younger age. Anyways I look forward to seeing your input in future discussions.

[Cassiopeia]

Hello Cassiopeia, welcome to the forum! Are you interested in astronomy (hence your username)?

Yes, I actually love astronomy, physics and this sort of things.
And it's not bad with my parents now, I think they maybe even start to agree with veganism but it's hard for them to take it as natural and safe. But we're working on it .

[brimstoneSalad]

Hi Cassio, welcome to the forum! I hope you like it here.

It's great to see you reasoning so young. I think you beat a lot of us to it. And in such a religious environment too; it's very brave.

[garrethdsouza]

Welcome Cassie!
How is it like being an atheist where you live? Are there any atheist communities/meetups around?

[SkepticalGorilla1985]

Hello! Just wanted to agree with others and say it is refreshing to see such rationality in a younger person! welcome

[boyjenius]

yay! welcome to the forum