For the vegan, the fact that he has to supplement his lack of animal product proves him omnivorous.
His recognition of this fact makes him an intelligent being.
His exercising of it makes him a compassionate one.
=========================
A few weeks ago, I watched "Food, Inc." It had an immediate effect on me, but traditionally this sensation is short-lived and doesn't really make much of a difference to me in the long run. I did, for a few weeks, focus more on eating healthy food; avoiding the heavily processed stuff, junk food, and fast food. I ate a lot less meat in that time even though my vegetarian wife has been out of town working on her internship, which you'd think would provide me an opportunity to indulge my hamburger or steak cravings.
In any case, last week I finally did cave. I hadn't eaten any junk food in a long while, and I hadn't drunk any soda. While sitting and playing video games one evening (the opportune time - when I'm sitting on my ass), I decided a can of Dr. Pepper and a quarter of a bag of Cooler Ranch Doritos was a good idea. That sat surprisingly well with me for the rest of the evening. However, morning came, and things were not quite the same.
My mouth was dry but oily. My stomach was churning. I had a pounding headache and felt like I'd become the guy from "Supersize Me" two weeks into the project. I almost didn't go to work.
Later that day, I strongly considered fasting for a while, just to totally cleanse myself of toxins. I wanted to start exercising, too, but realized after very brief thinking that I'd be putting way too many eggs in one basket.
After reading Michael Pollan's book, Food Rules, I decided a vegan diet seemed reasonable. I've been trying it out for almost a week now, and I actually feel pretty awesome. I've been eating veggie stir fry mixed with lotsa nuts, drinking some Naked Juice and soy milk every day, and eating a bunch of raw produce. I'm also drinking a glass of red wine every day (though I mix it with some juice to sangria it up a bit, since I really don't like wine alone).
Although I'm going with the vegan diet, I can't say I totally lived the lifestyle. I still wear my Italian leather jacket, and I was taking a fish oil supplement capsule daily for the healthy benefits. The jacket I've had for years - I don't see my continued use of it as any harm; the fish oil supplement I just don't see as being necessary, and I don't think it's harvested as harmlessly as something like overproduced honey from bees.
All in all, I'm happy with how this is going. I am only 5-6 days in; we'll see how it goes over the next few weeks.
~A
2009/12/11
Hey - please don't judge. Just read, and respond if you wish.
http://www.alternet.org/belief/144354/hey_religious_believers,_where's_your_evidence_/?page=1
Just a quick note - when I said "don't judge," I wasn't referring to me - I was asking that people didn't judge the *article* simply by its title and choose not to read it. But thanks for the reassurance that you're not judging me, either. :)
Anyway - thanks to you guys (my Facebook homies) for commenting on this. In fact, in my experience, *most* theistic people who I know will value that everyone is entitled to their opinion; we accept that we can disagree and still lead lives of empathy and compassion for one another.
This article simply puts many of my slightly more militant feelings into words. These are real questions - they're not rhetorical. I really want legitimate answers to these questions because, let's face it - being an atheist leaves me without something that supposedly enhances the lives of billions of people around the world. If there's a real reason for me to join someone in their beliefs without being dishonest with myself, I want empirical evidence as to why I should do it.
The only somewhat compelling reason I've heard for people having their beliefs is from personal experience. But, this is not evidence; it's very subjective - every individual has a threshold to which they'll attribute an experience to the natural laws of our universe. Earlier in my life, I'd experienced things that convinced me that a God existed; however, as I grew, I started to understand that I could explain those things as fully natural events.
I have yet to hear of any legitimate event that could not be explained without the involvement of supernatural phenomena. Even so, I'm not trying to argue that people should change how they feel about those personal experiences; I'm referring to just about everything else.
On the other hand, I do see the appeal in exploring things like quantum physics, string theory, higher dimensions, etc. However, those are all speculation - entire complex ideas are based off of premises that are flimsy at best.
Just to add to what Andrea said - yes, mono- and poly-theistic religions are based on a faith principle, meaning that you believe something without empirical evidence. One may say they have "faith" that their car will start today or that the sun will come up tomorrow, but this is a semantic error. You're not talking about faith in these cases because you've routinely seen these things happen in the past, so you have a logical and evidential reason to believe they will happen again.
My issue is when people decide to make decisions based solely on their faith-based principles, that will affect other people. Of course, some of those decisions do good things for humanity, but I'd give those things up in a heartbeat if it meant we'd stop religious-based war and discrimination. I'd rather just see people do good things for one another based on compassion rather than sycophantism.
Again, thanks for the kind words. You guys are also awesome. If I'm attacking anything, it's ideas - not people.
~A
Just a quick note - when I said "don't judge," I wasn't referring to me - I was asking that people didn't judge the *article* simply by its title and choose not to read it. But thanks for the reassurance that you're not judging me, either. :)
Anyway - thanks to you guys (my Facebook homies) for commenting on this. In fact, in my experience, *most* theistic people who I know will value that everyone is entitled to their opinion; we accept that we can disagree and still lead lives of empathy and compassion for one another.
This article simply puts many of my slightly more militant feelings into words. These are real questions - they're not rhetorical. I really want legitimate answers to these questions because, let's face it - being an atheist leaves me without something that supposedly enhances the lives of billions of people around the world. If there's a real reason for me to join someone in their beliefs without being dishonest with myself, I want empirical evidence as to why I should do it.
The only somewhat compelling reason I've heard for people having their beliefs is from personal experience. But, this is not evidence; it's very subjective - every individual has a threshold to which they'll attribute an experience to the natural laws of our universe. Earlier in my life, I'd experienced things that convinced me that a God existed; however, as I grew, I started to understand that I could explain those things as fully natural events.
I have yet to hear of any legitimate event that could not be explained without the involvement of supernatural phenomena. Even so, I'm not trying to argue that people should change how they feel about those personal experiences; I'm referring to just about everything else.
On the other hand, I do see the appeal in exploring things like quantum physics, string theory, higher dimensions, etc. However, those are all speculation - entire complex ideas are based off of premises that are flimsy at best.
Just to add to what Andrea said - yes, mono- and poly-theistic religions are based on a faith principle, meaning that you believe something without empirical evidence. One may say they have "faith" that their car will start today or that the sun will come up tomorrow, but this is a semantic error. You're not talking about faith in these cases because you've routinely seen these things happen in the past, so you have a logical and evidential reason to believe they will happen again.
My issue is when people decide to make decisions based solely on their faith-based principles, that will affect other people. Of course, some of those decisions do good things for humanity, but I'd give those things up in a heartbeat if it meant we'd stop religious-based war and discrimination. I'd rather just see people do good things for one another based on compassion rather than sycophantism.
Again, thanks for the kind words. You guys are also awesome. If I'm attacking anything, it's ideas - not people.
~A
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)