A parable: There was once a young woman, Marlene, that did not enjoy the taste of meat. She had eaten it in several forms and never once was it a pleasant experience. In fact, no animal products at all appealed to her, including eggs or dairy. This young lady found that her nutritional needs were met sufficiently and she was happy with the diet. One day, whilst shopping at the local farmers market, Marlene met a group that was passing out meatless recipes and using the term vegetarian to describe themselves. This young lady had never heard that term before, but it described her perfectly because her diet consisted 100% of vegetation in all of its various forms. As Marlene began using this label, she found others that did the same, and together they would swap recipes and gardening tips (which she happened to be into as well). She learned that Steve, another local vegetarian, was very reluctant to live the vegetarian lifestyle but did so because he was restricted to a strictly vegetation diet due to medical reasons. She and Steve began a romantic relationship, were married, and they had children that were raised as de facto vegetarians since their parents ate only vegetation. As the children aged, they were given no rules against meat consumption nor were they instructed on the ethical issues related to the consumption of animal products. Some years later, while attending a get-together at a friends house, one of Marlenes children came to her sobbing - he had been scolded for offering a bite of his beef jerky to another child whose mother was APPALLED by fact that he was eating the flesh of an animal. This woman was Hindu and cows were especially sacred to her. When Marlene went to confront this other mother on her intrusion, a third person was attracted by the conflict. He commented on the irony that both of these women were wearing clothing made with animal products. He called both women hypocrites for their inconsistent application of the principals of vegetarianism. He said that the only TRUE vegetarian was a vegan, and that these women were both the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the world. A neighbor happened to be in attendance that had never been exposed to any vegetarians in the past, was not a vegetarian himself, and had done no study into the history or variety of individuals identifying with the term. His only experience with vegetarians came from that spectacle and from various mainstream media sources. He decided that vegetarians were a conflicted and self-contradictory lot and he wanted nothing to do with them. ************************************ Here are my questions to you: 1) What is the one common factor to all of the people using the label vegetarian? 2) What are the values that lead to vegetarianism? 3) Which one person described above was a real vegetarian? 4) How did you make that decision? If you could answer question 1 but had a hard time with 2-4, you have experienced what the atheist experiences when they are told that atheists must follow common values or ascribe to a certain ethical framework by virtue of their atheism. We get to this position through many routes and we have vastly different experiences along that way. The one thing that defines us, the standard of classification, is that we do not believe the claims that there are any gods. Any person, atheist or theist, telling you differently is attempting to manipulate the circumstances to fit an agenda, and that is something I cannot abide.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 16:40:00 +0000
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