Veganism as a World View

Once upon a time in a previous life I was a right-wing-conservative-christian-meat-loving kid. I grew up learning everything I could about the bible and spent every weekend going to church and many weekinghts in bible studies of various kinds.

A common topic that came up from time to time was about understanding the christian worldview and how it differed and bested other worldviews. A worldview could be defined by answering four basic questions. 1) where did we come from? 2) what went wrong? 3) how do we correct it? 4) where do we go from here?

For christians the answers are, God created us, we sinned, believe in jesus, go to heaven / live a blessed life. Most of christianity fits neatly into those answers.

Those answers turn out to be a wonderfully appealing target for post-modern deconstructionists, of whom I got tangled up with. Long story short, I found the christian answers lacking and vowed to leave my life of devotion behind.

A few years went by and I became increasingly concerned about my health. My weight was steadily increasing and the excersize to maintain it became unreasonably brutal. I worried as I saw a 30-something colleague go in for heart surgery. I knew I wasn’t too far off from that.

I went vegan and as a result, I no longer have to worry about heart disease, diabetes, most cancers, stroke, and most of the other american diseases. My weight has been steadily decreasing, whether I work out or not. And my desire to be active is at an all time high. Something is just working right for my body that wasn’t before.

I explained all this to a friend, which lead to a lively debate. I went home thinking I had said too much. The weekend passed and he wrote to me saying “your claims check out. I’m going vegan”. I helped answer a few more questions and pointed him towards some great vegan products.

An odd feeling overcame me. One that I hadn’t felt for years. It took me most of the day to place it. Then it dawned on me, I was rejoicing. Just like I used to rejoice when someone I knew became a christian, I was experiencing the same kind of feeling, albeit in a non-religious way about my friend becoming a vegan.

I couldn’t help but draw parallels back to my old religion. But did this mean that veganism was my new religion? No, the health and societal benefits of veganism are based on fact and backed up by an impressive array of studies. Religion, on the other hand, requires an unavoidable ammount of faith, no matter how much circumstantial evidence one cites. What could it be then?

The lessons on world views came rushing back to my mind. How would I answer the four questions now? Let’s see:

1) Where did we come from?

We evolved from a nothingness that noone really understands. Our species evovled and adapted perfectly to its environment. The biological evidence is clear, humans are herbivores. Though it’s possible for us to eat meat, the vast eons we spent evolving geared us to eat plants and plants alone.

2) What went wrong?

Somewhere along the line we started eating meat, probably at first for survival and now as a mass-marketed right of red-blooded Americanism. Through some well intentioned but faulty studies our scentists and doctors became convinced our bodies required animal protien. Then through some crafty and devious “studies” designed to protect the animal production industry our society stopped asking the right questions.

Governments bought into the myths big time. Literally. The United States Government, for one, sunk billions into subsidies for animal products. That’s why a hamburger costs less than a salad. That’s why you can get beef for 4 dollars a pound. It’d cost you 90 without the subsidies.

We started eating the way only aristocrats could once afford. As a result, we started getting the diseases that only aristorcats got. Even worse, we got used to pain, suffering and grief caused by those diseases. Most people think it’s normal for loved ones to die of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Just like we think it’s normal to alleviate our own diseases with advil, zantac, lipitor, paxil, viagra and anything else advertised during the nightly news.

I won’t even go into the environmental cost of all this. Suffice to say, you’re not an environmentalist if you’re not a vegan. Simple as that. I don’t care if you’ve lead your communities recycling efforts, drive a Prius or a bike, you don’t give a shit about the earth if you still eat meat.

3) How do we correct it?

Stop eating meat, dairy and eggs. Vegan food tastes better anyway.

4) Where do we go from here?

Into a world where disease is uncommon, people are vital, minds are fit and the environment slowly returns to stasis.

So there you have it. Veganism as a worldview, not a religion. So why did I have that pseudo-religious feeling of rejoicing? Well, I think it’s pretty simple. Rejoicing, like most emotions that religion co-opts, existed long before religion ever came around.