Philosophical Vegan Forum

A little bit about me:

I'm a senior in high school. I've been an atheist for most of my life, probably since I was first able to question whether God exists. I've never seen any convincing reason to believe in such a being, and I've found most religious people have simply been brought up to believe a certain thing and never thought critically about it.

I've also been a vegetarian most of my life, but I wasn't particularly passionate about the ethics behind it until quite recently when my dad, a philosophy professor, introduced me to Peter Singer in order to help me with a school project. Singer's writings on animals made me realize there was a very sound rational basis for abstaining from all animal projects, not just meat. So for the past few months I've been gradually reducing my consumption of animal products, feeling guiltier and guiltier each time I consumed something containing dairy or eggs. Now after I've done a bit of research I've resolved to completely eliminate animal products from my life, and to label myself a vegan.

I found out about this forum from TheVeganAtheist's videos, some of which I've found pretty entertaining, particularly the Stupid Meat-Eater Comments videos.

Welcome to the forums!

Where do you live and how is veganism generally regarded there?

Do you take b12 supplements?

What are you studying?

PS. there's a lot of spammer bots atm, don't mind them.

miniboes wrote:Welcome to the forums!

Where do you live and how is veganism generally regarded there?

Do you take b12 supplements?

What are you studying?

PS. there's a lot of spammer bots atm, don't mind them.

Thanks!

I live in a town of about 60,000 people somewhere in the Midwestern United States. There are some vegans here and there's one exclusively vegan restaurant, although it's a bit pricey. There are several other restaurants with tasty and affordable vegan options, however. Most of the community is of course non-vegan, and I only know of a few vegetarians at my school, and only one vegan besides myself. My parents are omnivores but are pretty respectful of my choice.

Yes, and I also take vitamin D supplements for much of the year as it's hard to get enough sunlight during the winter here.

I'm in high school so I'm still taking the core curriculum classes (English, Math, Physics, etc) I'm also taking a psychology class which is pretty interesting and perhaps a philosophy class later this year.

Welcome Ajay, nice to meet you.

Ajay wrote:I've also been a vegetarian most of my life

With your parents being omnivores, how did that come about?

Do your parents object to your atheism?.

Hi Ajay, and welcome.

Glad you've joined, and congrats on going vegan. It's really great that your parents are supportive, that means a lot.

preet wrote:Welcome Ajay, nice to meet you.

Ajay wrote:I've also been a vegetarian most of my life

With your parents being omnivores, how did that come about?

Do your parents object to your atheism?.

Well, I loved meat when I was a little kid. Then for whatever reason I stopped enjoying the taste of it. My parent's weren't huge meat-eaters and made mostly vegetarian meals anyway, so that was helpful. Also, at the time, a few of my close friends were vegetarian so there was a period of a few years where I was under very little social pressure to eat meat. I started to identify as a vegetarian and it became somewhat of a habit for much of my life, until recently when I decided to go vegan.

My dad is a theist but he holds more of a philosophical view on it than a religious one, and he doesn't believe in hell or anything like that so he sees my atheism as more of a philosophical or intellectual position. My mom believes in some weird New Agey stuff, but she doesn't care that I'm an atheist either. She gets kinda mad when I try to argue against her beliefs, though

Welcome to the forum Ajay! happy to have another vegan atheist in the community.

Welcome. I wish I had become a vegan as early as you. It took me over 30 years.