More Biblically Inspired Violence

As if to prove my theory, first posited in the previous post, that religion gives some people the moral justification to submit animals to all forms of suffering, an old friend whom I hadn't seen in a few years popped back into my life.

This old friend, lets call him Ahab, called me up a couple of days ago saying that he was in my neck of the woods and we should go for a coffee. Great, I say. And so we do. There's a funky little cafe near my apartment that has super tasty vegan (and some raw vegan) treats, so I took him there.

Now, six years ago, if I had looked up a friend I hadn't seen in a while who had surprisingly become a raw vegan since we had last seen each other over a barbecue at my place, I'm sure I would have been as confused as Ahab was. Six years ago, like Ahab a few days ago, I had no concept of what a raw vegan was. It hadn't entered my consciousness. So I'll have to cut him some slack for being a little befuddled. My defense of veganism was largely falling on deaf ears, but I must have broken through the fog a bit because he eventually felt compelled to defend himself. Just as we were parting ways he said "Even fish? But why else did god put them here?"

I guess he forgot that I'm an atheist as well.

To be fair to Ahab, he had conceded earlier that eating more veggies and fruit was good for you and admitted to eating healthier than he did a year ago. "I'm eating way less red meat than I did before. Mostly fish and chicken," he told me, admitting without saying so that meat is unhealthy. But the thought of not consuming animals in any form was completely foreign. After all, god put animals here for us to eat. According to god we must consume animals. The concept of animal rights, or the right of an animal to a self determined life had never entered his mind.

Maybe I snuck it in.