The Unevolved Atheist

In fairness to all the anti-religious posts I write, I decided a rant at my fellow atheists is appropriate.  There do seem to be many more atheists who are vegetarian and vegan than Christians, and atheists have fewer excuses to fall back on to support their “need” for meat.  But they do use some excuses.  Here are the common excuses I have come across:

1.  “It is the way of the world.  We are predators, so I am proud to eat meat.”  Really?  You are proud?  Why is that something to take pride in; that is not a personal accomplishment.  I also have news for you if you use this excuse.  You are not much of a predator.  The hunter-gather was more of a gatherer-hunter.  The women gathered most of the meals, and the hunters occasionally came back with game – usually very small animals.  Hominids were more lumbering and just did not live up to their “Paleo” reputation.  This about this:  if you were lost in the woods, you would most likely wish you knew the difference between poisonous and nonpoisonous berries and leaves, and you would wish you knew that leeks and tubers were right under the soil waiting for someone with the intellect to dig them up!  But you would only set traps for animals if you had been taught, which most of us have been through stories and television and history lessons.   We were not born with tools in our hands.  Nuts and berries are what is natural for us.

2.  “I don’t mind if I cause an animal pain.  It is part of nature.” (Yes, this was actually said to me.  I was dumbfounded.)  Once again, nature and evolution are used as an excuse to cause an animal pain, and the only reason a modern human wants to cause an animal pain is if the animal “encroaches on the human’s territory,” if the human wants the animal’s beautiful coat for their own coat (making them look smelly and fat), or if the human wants to continue eating meat and drinking milk.  Of course, the animals had the land before humans drew property lines and cut down all the hiding places and homes of the animals, which brought animals in to neighborhoods in the first place.

3.  “My body needs the nutrition.”  No, your body has way more nutrition than it can handle and you can live off your fat for years.  Okay, that’s what I would like to say, but don’t.  Your body does not need meat and it is harmful with all the saturated fat and cholesterol.  Read articles by Dr. McDougall.  What I find interesting is that I will read articles written by quacks like the Weston A. Price Foundation which supports meat and dairy, but people who eat meat will not read articles by doctors like Dr. McDougall or Dr. Esselstyn or Dr. Campbell or Dr. Barnard.  Well, your body is not talking to you when you want meat; it is your brain talking and what you are accustomed to enjoy in the way of food.  I had a woman once tell me she HAD to have beef every single day.  She looked like roast beef and gravy.  If your body needs actual nutrients, you can get all of them so easily without the damaging ingredients in meat and dairy, and you will benefit the earth, environment and animals.  Why pick meat?  It makes no sense.  It actually makes you look less intelligent and less of a person.

4.  I eat ‘humane meat.’”  We know that no meat is humane.  I could post some slaughterhouse videos that would give you nightmares.  Always put yourself in their place.  Would you like to die in a slaughterhouse?  Many of the animals survive the long journey stuffed into a truck after having food and water withheld, the broken bones from the trip and being thrown down shoots, the electric bolt that often misses and makes blood and goo gush out of cows' noses, the blade cutting the neck, the hoist by one leg up the ramp, the dip in boiling water; and get cut up while still alive.  Do not think I am making this up; it is quite common.

These farms with organic food or grass-fed beef are not well-regulated.  The cattle are still raped, the calves taken away to become veal calves or dairy cows when they get too many for their own farms.  The females are impregnated (raped) repeatedly, and the males are castrated with no pain killers, as well as their horns cut off with no anesthesia.  Humane treatment is not possible with all the hungry human greedy mouths in our world. 

5.  “I hunt for my food.”  Most people who tell me this can afford to buy at the grocery store.  I have seen sharp shooters shoot deer (in a video) and the deer stayed alive for over five minutes.  They were not as accurate as they claim, so there is no way drunken humans with a little target practice do anything but slowly kill deer and other animals.  These people disgust me because they will see the animal they have shot, see it still moving, and try to kill it by multiple shootings or by hitting it, but they will claim they shot and killed it instantly.  They shut off their guilt.

My purpose in writing this was not to link religion or non-religion and eating, but to show where critical thinking skills and reasoning, even in very thoughtful atheists, will take a back seat to greediness when the person's own well-being or the well-being of that person's species is not affected. 

I think that takes care of the most common secular arguments I usually encounter.  On the issue of meat eating instead of religion, atheists become the apologists they most ridicule.  (Of course, religious people also use these excuses in addition to the Biblical excuses.)  And the poor animals suffer in all their hands.