Thanks for sharing your views. My follow up question then would be, since you are vegan (for the reasons you stated): Are you then also pro-life and an avid defender of the life of unborn human persons?
kind of a loaded question and I know you're going to go down the whole "well how can you be against one form of killing but not another?" but I'll bite...
Before I do though, I'd like to go back to the dictionary definition of the term just so that we're clear on where I'm coming from:
Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose
in short, it seeks to reduce
unnecessary harm and suffering but is not able to eliminate harm and suffering altogether
(as that is pretty much impossible to do while we all still exist here on earth)
Now, am I against abortion? At a base level I think I probably am and I do think it's pretty irresponsible to use as it as say, a method of birth control (so why not just encourage actual birth control then?). Having said that, I also think it is fine in certain instances (rape, incest etc.). Guess what though, I can also justify the killing of animals in some instances too (like if I was camping and a bear attacked me and my family) so I don't think I'm being overly hypocritical here; me killing the bear would cause less suffering than all 3 of us dying.
Where we start to get into grey areas though is a) telling women what they can/ can't do with their bodies and b) the idea of sentience and when it actually comes into play.
In the case of a) I will defend a woman's right to do whatever the fuck she wants to do with her body end of story! If you are against this concept then you truly are living in the dark ages and I honestly don't think you are ready to deal with the current state of our world in 2017, nor will you be able to convince any members of the opposite sex that christianity is a religion that loves, worships and respects women.
Forcing a woman to have an unwanted child is equally as evil in my mind as impregnating a female calf (against her will), stealing her baby and then strapping her to machine while pumping her with hormones just so you can profit from her secretions. Thus you can see that my stance in animal rights also ties in with feminism in this respect. If you are in the whole telling-women-what-they-can/can't-do-with-their-bodies-because-"religion" camp, do you also support concepts such as female circumcision? I'm guessing no...
As for b), the main reason why vegans don't defend the rights of plants, rocks or any other objects basically comes down to the question of sentience and whether or not animals are able to experience emotions, suffering and pain similar to that of humans. Intelligence vs. sentience, as you should be well aware, are two different concepts so please don't even try to bring plants and/ or insects into this argument to try and "disprove" veganism here.
Now the jury is pretty much out when it comes to animals in regard to their sentience and this is why I choose not to cause unnecessary harm to them when I don't need to (i.e. I can survive and be healthy as a human without having to ingest them/ wear their hides as clothing). In the case of fetuses, science has also concluded that they are unable to feel pain until around the third trimester (27 - 28 weeks) and the majority of abortions are conducted well before that time (91% occur at around week 13 or less) so this is consistent with the rock/ plant/ insect argument(s) on my side.
Well now you're going to ask "well what about abortions after 27 weeks, surely you are violently opposed to them no?" and the simple answer is... there is no simple answer. Sure I don't think you should just be aborting fetuses willy-nilly but there also about a million other factors that come into play (health of the mother, rape/ incest that I mentioned about, whether or not the child will be severely disabled, quality of life for said child etc. etc.) before making that decision. What I can say though is making abortion more accessible and/ or cheaper can, and will, help avoid abortions later in the game as women often cite that they waited longer simply because they didn't have the money and/ or access to such services.
Again, I'm seeking to reduce suffering as much as possible, if having a unwanted child would cause suffering to the mother and and give the child a poor quality of life (i.e. more suffering) due to poverty or whatever then I feel that terminating said fetus would reduce the amount of suffering in the world. This is consistent with my beliefs in the same way I would also be pro-aborting a cow's fetus if I knew it was just going to be sold to the veal industry anyway.
Now I know you intentionally set out to "prove" that I'm hypocritical with my ideals, but I actually believe that the burden of hypocrisy needs to put be on the pro-lifers -
how can you care so much about an unborn fetus with a barely developed CNS and yet be fine with the death of 60 billion sentient being annually? Cows and pigs have the same mental capacity as 2 -3 year old children, are you saying you're pro-infanticide? I honestly doubt that...
Simon, as a skater you were someone who was able to think outside the box and this is why I think you were so respected, I know that is why I liked you so much in those old 411s/ sonic/ big brother vids.
If you are really down to debate on here then I think you can still do as a christian BUT you also need to know how to think outside of your religious box because there are aspects of your religion that are outdated and need to be changed/ revised in 2017 (see those comments you made towards user: GAY). Vegan christians do exist and they are probably the only group of christians that I have any respect for as they can see that causing the unnecessary pain and suffering to billions upon billions of god's creatures is in no way consistent with the teachings of Christ, nor is it a path towards any sort of peace in the world.
Topic: Evidence for God (Read 51584 times)