dietI have noticed a strong trend in my personal circle of friends that the vegetarians among us are all atheist, while my Christian friends don’t think twice about eating animals. In fact I have met other vegetarians through work across the US and we always end up talking about being atheist. I don’t expect a large number of atheists to be vegetarian/vegan, but I would like to know if there is a strong trend.
EDIT: I’m sure I’m addressing the wrong subset, <assumption> vegetarians are more likely to be atheist, but atheists are not more likely to vegetarian</assumption>. But that lead to an interesting situation where we have a significant number of vegetarians among us, unless they are still a minority in a minority.
EDIT2: I didn’t mean for this to turn into a poll, but I do appreciate all the responses. I suppose any statistics for this particular issue are hard to come by. Also, aside from India, I’m surprised so many people are more familiar with religious vegetarians.
I don’t think this is true outside of America/Europe. India, for example, is both strongly religious and vegetarian. More details here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism_and_religion
I would say there is no correlation. In the Netherlands we have for example the political Animal Party, who are against eating animals and they are run by a couple of fundamentalist Christians. In my circle of friends there are also quite a few Christians that tend to extend the “be good to your neighbor” to animals and they won’t eat meat for that reason.
I can only answer for myself and for some of the meat-eating atheists I know, but I think the answer is no. Which makes me wonder though if the trend is not the other way around, i.e. that vegetarians tend to be atheists more often. I suspect though that the answer to that question would be no as well, since I can imagine there are a lot of newage types into vegetarianism.
I think the person who comes in with the hard data wins the prize! :D
I think it would be a loose correlation. I could see how being a free thinker could lead to a stronger understanding of animal conditions, and a lack of strict acceptance that our current consumption is a good path to go down… but I think that’s probably a step farther than just atheism.
My wife and I are atheist and we are meet eaters. I don’t know any atheist personally that are vegetarians. But I have always equated vegetarianism as a gateway to fascism since hitler was a vegetarian:D)
I would say that it probably just has to do with it being more socially acceptable to be an atheist amongst liberal circles. I don’t know any vegetarian atheists. All the vegetarians I’ve known are Christian.
I think you’d find a stronger correlation to a hippy religion like Wicca than to Atheism. Your belief or lack of belief in a higher power is irrelevant to your craving for tasty flesh.
I’m a godless vegan, but I can only speak for myself!
I feel as though you're grasping for straws.
There may be certain moral connections between some eating habits and some beliefs, but in reality, some of these things are just as hypocritical, for instance, being vegan.
Move on I think, I know lots of Atheists without mustaches.
I doubt there is a strong correlation, but I’m unaware of any study that supports or refutes the position. I am an atheist carnivore.
Nope! I don’t have a mustache or drive a Volkswagen either!
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