To believe or not to believe?

       I have never tried to hide that I do not believe in God. It comes up very often with different people I meet, some old friends, some total strangers. Most of them, of course, are firm believers in an existence of a higher power. It is really funny, I think, how many different reactions I get when I tell someone I'm a non believer. "So, are you spiritual?", "Where do you get your morals from?", "What do you think is controlling all of 'this'?" and this is the most weirdest one, "Of course you believe, Christ is going to help you, He knows". I really felt like laughing my ass off to that last one. I replied, "You're a fucking idiot!", although just under my breath. Now I wish I had actually said it out loud.
     
       I did not grow up in a obsessively religious family. In India, at least in the region I come from, people in our neighborhood, my relatives had various ceremonies celebrating different Gods (depending on the season/occasion) throughout the year. But I do not remember, my parents holding any of these at our house. I won't go as far as to say my parents do not believe in God, my father certainly did (and maybe does now, I don't know after his paralysis and memory loss) and my mother believes in a higher source driving all the things in the universe. I was never forced to go to temples, or read the religious books. I guess, it was left up to me to figure stuff out. So, when I bought a copy of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, I did not get a lot of flak.
     
        All that was, of course, quite a few years ago and all those years in between then and now, have made my non-belief nothing but a lot stronger. When some one asks me, "Where do you get your moral compass from?", they are assuming that religion and belief in God are the only things that can tell us whether a thing is good or bad. There is a quote from one of Ricky Gervais' new series 'Derek', by the main character Derek Noakes, that I like "I don't think it matters if there is a god or not. I've met people who believe in god that are good and that are bad. And I've met people who don't believe in god that are good and that are bad. So just be good. I'm good. Not because I think I'll go to heaven but because when I do something bad, I feel bad. And when I do something good, I feel good." I just feel there is a lot of meaning conveyed in that simple statement. And if some people think that a belief in God is the only thing that can keep someone in line, then just a little more thought would tell you they are simply wrong. Humans are a social species and our evolution over millions of years have developed a support and care system towards other humans. Moral values can arise out of working together for common good. There is simply no need of an idea of a divine being to explain it. It becomes unnecessary, and what do we do about unnecessary ideas? Yes, that's right, we discard them.
     
        Another thing I've started hearing is the word 'spiritual' in a lot of conversations these days. A lot of my friends throw it around quite a bit. "I don't believe in God as such, but I'm spiritual. I believe in an energy that is driving the universe", was something that my friend said to me. A lot of people ask me about spirituality too. In fact, after "Do you believe in God?" and "Where do you get your morality from?", that is the common third question. Yeah, now-a-days I can totally predict these questions once the conversation starts going down this path. For me, a spiritual moment is that instant when something brings out a sense of awe and wonder about the grand scheme of things. And I experience such moments every single time I look up at the night sky, every time I look at Saturn through a telescope or look at the faint smudge in the sky that is the majestic Andromeda Galaxy. That is an entire galaxy of hundreds of millions of suns, whose light has travelled millions of light years and hit my eye. I get a lump in my throat every single time I look at it. The fact that I am made up of star dust, is spiritual to me. And the best part is, it is all real and true.

        We question stuff, we search for answers, we figure things out. That is what makes us who we are. That is why I love science and the scientific method. It is so much better than saying, "We can't explain it, that means there is God". So, I think we should be excited to be living in this age where we are learning so much about the universe we live in. There is always something new to be discovered around every corner. That is what has got us this far and I'm sure it'll take us further a long way into the future.
     
        

Getting 'Vegucated'

        I have been on a documentary watching marathon during the holidays and it has carried over into the following weekend. And with the bitter cold and snow storms outside, there is nothing better to do either, right! There are quite a few good ones on Netflix and a one of them is particularly very interesting and brilliantly made. So much so that I decided to write a blog post about it! What's more, it is related to something we all love and do everyday - food consumption and manufacturing (well, not so much the manufacturing that we love or do, but definitely consumption). The documentary is called Vegucated, and browsing through Netflix's list of documentaries, this one had a witty poster and the top of it was decorated with all these award wins and accolades (Get Vegucated). So I decided to go ahead and watch it.

The documentary starts with a little story by the writer/director Marisa Miller Wolfson, about how and why she turned a vegan. The focus of the documentary then goes on to following  around three people (Tesla, Brian and Ellen) she selected and followed around for six weeks as they took a stab at the vegan lifestyle. The interesting part about the three people is that all of them are regular meat eaters. And along the way the film gives some interesting facts, figures, footages and comments by researchers and scientists. Some of the clips shown of treatment of animals in the big meat production facilities are almost unwatchable. So after six weeks of going Vegan, talking to people in the food industry and seeing the conditions in the 'food factories' the three people selected for the experiment end up turning completely vegan or at least vegetarian (There is a subtle difference, read more about it here).

What got me most intrigued are some of the topics that the documentary talks about - the treatment of animals at the food production facilities, the relation of meat production to global warming (or to be politically correct, Climate Change) and of course meat consumption and health effects.

We all are, (at least I hope) by now aware that the conditions in which animals in the meat factories are 'stored' are almost bordering with cruelty (There are quite a few clips of animal cruelty in the film. I found a couple of them on YouTube - Farm to Fridge & Dairy Industry in 60 seconds). I know, the images are so disturbing, I could barely watch them. So now, when we go and try buy our eggs or chicken, we look for the terms 'cage-free' or 'free-range' on the packaging. Well it turns out, those are just terms for putting on the labels in nice colors. Here is a short film on PBS showing what they really mean in the commercial food production industry. (Hint: they really don't mean much). Same is true for milk, with the cows being housed in appalling conditions and 'over-milked' for higher milk production to cope with the ever increasing demand. 

Moving on. What would your reaction be if I told you that livestock farming contributes more to greenhouse gases than all the transportation vehicles combined? Completely shocked, right? That's what I call a mind-blowing fact. But there have been several studies and publications about this and this article summarizes them pretty well. A brilliantly made documentary (yes, yet another documentary I ended up watching as I was writing this) Meat the Truth, available free here, goes into more details about the hows and the whys. If you're too bored to read an article with numbers and figures, that film is something you should definitely watch. There are some other interesting facts related to this - switching to a vegan lifestyle for a year reduces more carbon dioxide emissions than switching to a hybrid car for a year! Munch on that for a while. 

And its not only the environment that is adversely affected by the meat and dairy, it takes a toll on our bodies too. Now I am not a total vegetarian, I love me some meat, but after reading about some of the ill-effects of meat consumption, I think I need to cut down on the already little meat that I consume. Heart disease, brain health, cancer, diabetes, strokes have all been intensively studied and found to have a link to meat consumption. There are quite a few other studies showing lesser risk to all the above conditions in people with vegetarian or low meat diets. One of many such examples (link) from the Journal of American Medical Association. And the common belief that vegetarian diet lacks in essential nutrients is not true either. Generally, a carefully selected vegetarian meal can be extremely nutritious and without the added risk of life threatening illnesses (it, of course, also depends quite a bit on individual lifestyle, exercising etc). 

Now after watching Vegucated (and other related films) will I wake up tomorrow and start being a complete vegan or even vegetarian? Probably not. I know myself, hence I also know doing that would probably be extremely difficult. But it has definitely set in motion a thought process about this whole business of meat and dairy. Like I previously mentioned I don't eat large amounts of meat anyway, but I am definitely thinking about cutting down on that too. How long can that be sustained and will I be able to completely give it up, are questions that will be answered in due course. Buying from local farmer's market and co-ops is a good option. But imagine about how much all of us can help with the situation if we decide to not eat meat just for a week! And heck, if you are not concerned with the treatment of animals or environment, next time you order that short stack of ribs or buy that slab of stake, just think about how often, how much and what exactly it is that you are putting into your belly.