Why I am not a vegan

[Monica]

I said it was the epitome of arrogance to judge my family and consider myself more spiritually evolved than them because they were eating flesh and I was not. If you are taking that personally, well that is your catalyst (and Monica's apparently, blah blah blah) not mine.

The way it was worded by you and others, it seemed very clear that you thought that's what we were doing, despite us going out of our way to reiterate that we don't consider ourselves superior.

As far as murder, look it up in the dictionary. It is clearly defined there.

noun
1.
Law. the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder) and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder)
2.
Slang. something extremely difficult or perilous:
That final exam was murder!
3.
a group or flock of crows.
verb (used with object)
4.
Law. to kill by an act constituting murder.
5.
to kill or slaughter inhumanly or barbarously.

#5 doesn't specify humans, but common usage implies that it refers to humans only. For this reason, I have avoided using that term. However, again I ask the question: Why does it apply to humans only? Not talking about legality here, but of spiritual principles.

So do you want people to be imprisoned for eating meat? That is basically what this line of reasoning leads to, eventually , laws would be made that prohibited the killing of animals if the killing of an animal is considered murder.

We are so far away from that, that it's a completely moot point.

If you think my perception of fundamentalist thinking/ self-righteousness regarding Monica's posts is wrong; it's just my opinion based on how she responded to me and especially Unbound in this thread.

So anyone who has any convictions or ideals is fundamentalist and rigid? If I think human slavery is wrong, does that make me fundamentalist and rigid?

Do you have any convictions about anything?

How about rape? or human murder? Is someone opposed to those things also 'fundamentalist and rigid'? Are those working to save children from predators 'self-righteous'?

Why does my opinion matter? It's not an insult, it's my perception of the strict, rigid adherence to veganism that I perceive from mostly Monica's responses in this thread. I felt that strict ,rigid adherence to a vegan viewpoint earlier in the thread when I brought up something new to discuss.

So what's wrong with that? Would you feel the same way about someone who had 'strict, rigid adherence' to the idea that murder or rape was wrong?

I am very familiar with fundamentalist thinking, many of the people I know are religious fundamentalists and I have always had a problem with that kind of thinking.

Even when it's applied to, say, murder or rape? Do you have a problem with that?

However, I would have to totally agree with the spirit of the discussion in that we have to change, as a society, to a food system that is sustainable, nourishing , holistic and based on love which includes nonviolence.

That is impossible to do without addressing the meat industry. It's the elephant in the room.