Different religions views
Vegan as a religion-see page 7 where Plaintiff’s religious argument starts. On page 8 the Court ruled “Plaintiff could subscribe to veganism with sincerity equating that of traditional religious views.”
“Ethical veganism” recognized as a protected philosophical belief in UK. Likewise 2024 ruling in Denmark ruled child’s right to vegan food for lunch at school is a protected by European Union Human Rights law.
Many religions advocate cruelty free diets
Christian vegetarian views
“Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” Genesis 1:5-6. Paradise was vegan. It was only after the fall that God allowed killing and eating His animals. Do you want to practice paradise or enjoy the benefits of the fall?
The Bible points out the pain associated with killing animals: Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them. Ecclesiastes 9:12
Paul warned us in Philippians 3:18-For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach . . . .
Dr. Milton Mills, MD, author of RACIAL BIAS IN FEDERAL NUTRITION POLICY, stated ” To me being vegan is about . . . doing God’s will.”
One Christian’s perspective:
God created animals before us, He said they are good. He gave them the ability to feel emotions and pain. I refuse to accept that God would create good animals with the ability to feel pain and allow us to torture animals while they are on earth. That would make Him a sadistic being, and I do not believe He is.
Humans no longer kill what they eat. They, therefore, are not exposed to the horrors of today’s farming methods. Baby boy calves are not needed in milk production so they are chained in a torture cage their entire miserable life before killed as veal. Baby boy chickens are not needed for breast meat or eggs so they are ground by impellers to death or put in barrels of water and drowned to death within hours of hatching.
Female chickens unlucky enough to survive have their beaks cut off without pain medicine and are kept in cages 4 high so small they cannot turn around, with the feces from those above falling on them their entire lives. Pregnant pigs are kept in cages so small they cannot move more than 1” to the side let alone turn around or lay down while pregnant. Death cannot come soon enough for these suffering animals. And the mistreatment while alive goes beyond their conditions with monthly revelations of piglets being stomped to death, chickens being thrown against walls and left to slowly die on the floor. This treatment of God’s creatures is, in my mind, evil manifest on earth. It is the step that allows humans to next treat other humans in this manner. I do not think God condemns his feeling creatures to be mistreated by the stronger race. Were He to sanction abuse by the stronger power, we should all fear what He, the Shepherd, might do to us, His sheep.
Russell Simmons connects the dots between religion, compassion & the environment.
Alex Hershaft, Ph.D (Holocaust survivor) states in the documentary Vegan 2017: Oppression of animals is the gateway drug to oppressing humans.
Christian Vegetarian Association
German Christian church that is vegan & actively advocates veganism & peaceable farming!
Some religious views on compassion
Jewish Vegetarians of North America and Kveller
Note: Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara have decided to join the Meatless Monday initiative and reduce their meat intake.
Several Jewish vegan scholars advocate veganism as an extension of the call for compassion. Podcast interviews with
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D. & Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz.on Our Hen House, too
Some Jewish communities believe the life of flowers should not be cut short for a funeral. Maybe this compassion can be passed to the animals killed and eaten.
The Vedic Scriptures of India, which predate Buddhism, also stress nonviolence as the ethical foundation of vegetarianism.
Atheism-The oldest RECORDED vegan was an atheist poet in Syria over 1000 years ago. Abu ‘L’Ala Ahmad ibn ‘Abdallah al-Ma’arri’s famous poem can be read here!