The discussing about atheism and theism in relation to animal rights has restarted. Maybe now they will stay in reality and use facts instead misleading other vegans and therefore protecting their influence in the movement. But don’t get your hopes up. Abolitionist movement, religious one is becoming more and more entrenched in fantasy.
I unlike some atheists (yes, the rumors are true, we, atheist don’t hold the same views) hold the view that atheism, taken as simple rejection of belief in any deity has no links to animal rights. We cannot know what that deity or deities if they exist think or wants us to do. If you extend atheism to be a rejection of certain deity that’s based on religious texts of one religion then atheism can have links to animal rights. I don’t extend atheism like that and believe it or not, I don’t like writing about religion vs. atheism when comes to animal rights, I would rather write about difference between two abolitionist movements and weflarist movement or moral imperative of veganism, but continual attacks on atheist vegans for maybe getting religious/spiritual non-vegans to be more open to idea of veganism, compels me to write about this. When majority of vegans are atheists it’s not good idea to alienate your base.
You have to be extremely arrogant, ignorant or both to claim that atheist who are abolitionists too are the ones who discriminate against religious abolitionist vegans when in fact religious abolitionist vegans who bash atheism and discriminate against abolitionist atheist vegans by banning atheist’s posts on their pages, posts that don’t insult anyone, only challenge their ideas. Francione and his followers can repeat their mantra that you don’t have to be religious or spiritual to have moral concern about other animals as much as they want, but yet his or his fateful followers bashing of one side, atheism has shown that they have picked their side.
I don’t know anyone who has said that you have to be atheist to be abolitionists. They confuse being critical of religion, in other words not liming critical thinking with saying you have to be atheist to be abolitionist. And they are making stuff up in albescence of evidence. That’s sad, really. Religious abolitionist vegans who bash atheism are the problem, not us. They are the ones who make me and others write about this topic instead of educating people about veganism. They are hindering the progression of the movement by suppressing critical thought. If someone writes critically about religion that doesn’t mean you should start the inquisition towards atheists.
In the discussing about atheism and animal rights there were no atheists as far as I know supporting the right wing ideas. Present the evidence, the posts where atheist abolitionist vegan supported war or other forms of violence. And religious vegans see atheism and religion as same thing because they apply characteristics of religion to atheism, relicense on dogmas and leadership. There is no dogmas or leadership in atheism. Atheism is not organized system of beliefs. So they take position of one atheist who they despise the most, Hitchens to be a position of all atheists. Now you have a problem. You have taken ideas of one atheist to be accepted by all atheists. Hitchens' writings are not dogmas. He is not a pope of atheists. Atheists don’t accept ideas on basis of authority or influence. Everything must go throw rigors filter of critical thought.
If we are confused group, what makes you, a people who claim to reject all forms of discrimination, but discriminate against atheists, by not allowing us to be heard and misleading people by fabricating positions that majority of us don’t hold.
For the end, yes, I am militant atheist who by the way don’t like that term and use freethinker instead, who rejects violence and I think that violence can only be used to defend yourself and others when other avenues of defense are exhausted.
