Is Veganism a Religion?

"The word 'veganism' denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to end the idea of animals as property and exclude all forms of intentional exploitation of, use of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing, research or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, including people and the environment.

In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals."

Religion:

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values.

So to answer your question no. You can be spiritual and be vegan, you can be religious and be vegan but the two are exclusive. However veganism is a belief system just like carnism or vegetarianism or communism they are all belief systems but not religious in any way. There are things that almost all groups do in different ways for different reasons but there are some very general and basic similarities but that of course does not make the belief system religious.

Veganism is a simple lifestyle and philosophy. Some people usually carnists and some vegetarians try and paint veganism as a religion because they have failed to look at themselves first and what they are doing usually in a much worse vein.

I don't worship anyone or anything, I don't have a bible or text that I read regularly (though I try and read on the subject regularly so I can be well informed) I don't go to a specific meeting for any sort of worshiping or spirituality regularly. Generally I am not religious at all, I am too lazy for atheism but I rather like my science and proof and facts.

Edit:

We have also been raping people for the same amount of time...does that mean those who stand against rape are a religion? Also does it make rape ok because it seems like that is your argument is, if someone does something for a long time it is always ok because we have done it for a long time. It is not nature it is something we learned and something we can unlearn eating meat is natural for carnivores but humyns are not carnivores we are omnivores but we lack many of the important features of carnivores and actual meat eaters (talking scientifically not the choice you have made).

Veganism is not about me not it is about stopping animal exploitation in all forms.

I guess if veganism is a religion in your eyes than so is your carnism:

http://carnism.com/

Also if you believe the movie Star Wars was a good movie or a bad movie that is a religion in fact everyone is a member of probably a billion different religions according to your backasswords logic

Rrrgh! Another person saying 'our ancestors have been eating meat for thousands of years'! Yes, they have been eating meat, but they haven't been mass-producing it, genetically modifying it, injecting it with hormones, keeping it in cramped conditions... The list goes on! That's the reason I'm vegetarian - hunting for your own meat is fine with me.

'If i asked you if Veganism was a religion, what would you tell me to make me believe that its not. You are acting based on faith that what your are doing is good for you.' HA. Sorry - that's just ridiculous. Vegans don't have a 'vegan god' of some sort - religion means 'the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power' by definition. Veganism is defined as a 'moral philosophical practice', which means it doesn't have anything spiritual about it, and it doesn't have anything to do with the meaning of life or other deep, big questions like that.

I hope that answers your question.

It would be, if "a lifestyle choice based heavily on specific beliefs and morals"

was the DEFINITION of religion,

as opposed to organized worship of theistic deities...

EDIT: I told you why it's not a religion:

BECAUSE "RELIGION" HAS A DEFINITION, AND VEGANISM DOESN'T MEET IT. Herrrrp!

No part of the FACT that veganism is good for you involves "faith" which by definition is belief without evidence. I consider the Canadian and American DIETETIC Associations, every study ever done about the causal relationship between consumption of animal products and dietary-related disease, and the overwhelming consensus of the entire nutritional field to be sufficient evidence.

Although,

since you seem to be slow in getting this part,

veganism is an ethics-based philosophy- vegans are "acting based on" OBJECTION TO ANIMAL COMMODIFICATION.

And no, the ancestors of meat have NOT been "eating meat for millions of years".

Australopithecus Afaraensis was not dentally-adapted to eat meat, for instance. Moreover, what do the extremely-recent evolutions in human digestive ability have to do with nutrition, ethics, or the environment, exactly? Answer: NUFFIN. NOTHING about eating meat is "natural" to me. The stuff makes me nauseates, as it does anyone who's never consumed it, or who has given it up for any period of time. Telling, no?

that actually not true it is just based on beliefs and morals

The book by Jean Carper based on 10,000 medical studies done at major universities breaks down into chapters a host of diseases and says what foods studies have shown either help or hurt the person with this disease or what foods can prevent that specific disease and in almost every disease fruits and veggies of varying types are good and animal fats are bad..this is based on scientific studies.

Also Dr Esselstyn of Cincinnati did a study he discusses in the film forks over knives where rats were divided into two groups and fed 5% dairy casein (dairy protein) in one group and 20% dairy casein in the other..

Those fed 5 % had no cancer and the graph was a straight line while those fed 20% went steadily up on the graph and had increasing cancer.

Then he put all the e rats into one big group..for two weeks they got 5% dairy casein then the following 2 weeks, they were switched to 20%-- this was repeated several times back and forth every 2 weeks and. the graph showed the cancer going up and down --up with 20% and falling back down with 5% showing the dairy protein turned cancer on and off

This percentile fits in with the findings of the china study which was the largest study ever done on the link between food and health.

It found those who ate zero to 10% animal foods had little heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis and other modern ills.

We see that the 5% limit that did not turn on cancer in the rats was within the zero to 10% animal products that the china study showed were ok.

Prior to that, studies were done on the 7th day Adventists who tend to be vegetarians due to their faith and it was found they lived a lot longer and had better health than the control groups who ate meat and animal products so these are all scientific studies not just morals and beliefs

So though some people may act as if it is a religion perhaps, others like myself based it on scientific studies as well as the vast amount of anecdotal healings found in every diseases when people ate vegan and especially raw foods.

Dr Esselystein also has xray pictures in his book on the changes that took place in the arteries of coronary heart diseases patients and those who had heart attacks when they switched to a plant based (vegan) diet.

So you see it isn;t just faith that it is good for you but increasing studies are showing it is good in double blibnd studies. In the past when the majority of the people ate meat, they may not have have the ability or foresight to do testing on diet like nowadays.

they also did not have the internet that bring knowledge to one's fingertips where one can do research and also read of the anecdotal healings of others.

Just cause something has been done for eons does not necessarily make it good for people. In the past we burned people at the stake as "witches", did child sacrifice and other things that wee now have learned are not appropriate. With knowledge, people change and this trend towards healthier food in every form is increasing as we as a people see our national health declining and are trying tio take responsibility for our health with lifestyle changes. This is different form religion and blind faith as those who research find many health benefits to eating less or no meat.

the person detailing his views on why it is similar to a religion is generalizing the behavior of some vegans (mainly vocal ones on here) to that being the behavior of all vegans and this is not true.

and Issac covered well my other point that the food the ancestors ate is not generally the food we are now eating. Our food has changed more in the past 100 years than all through history

Of course not. Veganism is a philosophy and lifestyle; no theistic tenets need be invoked for moralistic tenets to apply. Atheists can, and do, have morals. Similarly, vegans are generally morally opposed to the 'commodification' of animals. No religious feelings are needed.

Not beliefs - science

Not morals - ethics.

The cave-men went extinct. We're not desended from them.

Not ALL humans ate meat for millions of years; only the ones that migrated to cold climates. They are the ones that went against their nature (frugivores). They had to eat meat; not enough fruit up north.

Veganism is simply a diet excluding animal flesh.

If you mean ethical Veganism (and of course veganism), then no-

ethical systems are not by definition religious, unless they're part of deity worship.

Whether one is religious or not has nothing to do with objective versus subjective morality-

there are religious subjectivists, and atheist objectivists.

Non-religions don't have beliefs, at least no unifying ones.

I do believe killing animals is wrong. It's subjective by definition, because there's nothing empirical I might point to that says it is. But then, I'm a subjectivist.

No it is not a religion, but there are some similarities:

- like many religions, veg*nism is based largely on fantasy beliefs

- like many religions, veg*ns often try to convert non-followers

- like many religions, veg*ns usually hold a great deal of contempt for non-followers

- like many religions, veg*ns are passionate in their beliefs, sometimes to the point of anger and violence

- like many religions, veg*ns believe that their beliefs are superior to all others

- like many religions, when their beliefs are disproven, veg*ns typically respond by exaggerating their position, no matter how illogical or irrational they may be

- like many religions, veg*ns frequently see all non-believers as "evil" and deserving of their ultimate fate in hell (cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hunting accidents)

- like many religions, veg*ns must abide by certain "rules" in order to remain a member

- like many religions, the veg*ns that are most fanatical are also often the most judgmental and hypocritical

- like many religions, veg*ns often try keep non-followers away from their place of worship (the vegetarian section of yahoo answers, referred to by many as "our section")

Good answers, Daisy and Dion J. And a M said, it IS like a cult! What else can I say!

No, it's not a religion. Many vegans would like for it to be a religion. They seem to think society is required to provide vegan food to people in jail, like they do for people who keep Kosher. But it's not.