PirateMichael wrote:I am a vegetarian, I would be a vegan, because dairy is tech-ni-cal-lyyyy part of the veal industry indirectly, which is bad, but yeah maybe when I move out.
Yeah my reason for being a Pastafarian is that in the I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts the FSM said he wants us to live with love and compassion or something.
In my opinion the way animals are killed isn't loving or compassionate and anybody who has ever owned a cat or dog knows that animals are much like people (yes even chickens, my mum used to own one), and they are all deserving of proper treatment.
Dude, my wife would reeeeeeeeeeeeally like you. We were active cat rescuers for years (along with the occasional dog, chicken, pig, mouse, etc.), but now we just care for the ones we kept as "unadoptable" (diabetic, blind, heart problems, eye problems, megacolon, FIV, kidney failure -- we've got them all and then some). There's 35 of them left at this point, though I can only see 16 of them without moving from my seat right now. Mrs. T. is what I call a pity vegetarian, similar to the compassionate idea you put out above. She doesn't have any problem eating fish, eggs, cheese, and the like, but nothing with fur or feathers. I don't personally have a problem with eating meat, but I don't do it often because she objects to having it in the house, and it's not like we don't eat well (burritos of doom again tonight - oy). I don't think there's anything wrong with the way most food animals are killed, it's how they are (usually) forced to live that's the problem. In the wild, a deer has three or four years, maybe a couple more, before it gets injured or sick or something, and then it gets chased in panic until it's exhausted, and ripped apart as it's dying from numerous bite wounds. A beef cow is (theoretically) slaughtered with one quick shot to the brain - blam and done. I'll take the blam and done if I get a choice. But I don't get too worked up over it generally.
PirateMichael wrote:While we're on the topic though when I tell some in-my-face Xtian that I believe in a FSM but I don't eat meat and they mock me for it, what should be my response?
I'm not sure what they're mocking you for. Is it that they can't reconcile FSMism and vegetarianism because the FSM has meatballs? Just tell them that the FSM is not anywhere near as demanding and jealous as their god, and that He really doesn't care what you do as long as you're nice to others. If they're mocking you for being a vegetarian in general, ask them how their cholesterol and blood pressure are. If they're mocking you for being a Pastafarian, ask them how that jibes with loving their neighbor, and forgiving you for being different (23rd psalm stuff). If they're mocking you just to be dickheads, tell them about freedom of religion.