Blog Intro

Hello! As most people reading this will know, I am @veganbyuatheist on Twitter. And (consequently) as most people know, I am a vegan atheist studying Philosophy at BYU. I graduate after Fall 2021. Maybe at some point I'll share my deconversion story, but it isn't all that interesting. I'd much prefer talking philosophy. It is sufficient for now to simply state that it was upon learning there are reasonable objections to Christianity that I fell to agnosticism, and that my class on the Problem of Evil pushed me towards atheism. 

In a lecture, one of my professors stated he found the problem of "human suffering" in relation to the problem of evil "much more interesting" than the problem of animal suffering. While I can respect this, I can also respectfully differ. I will say I have plenty of interest in the problem of human suffering as well. For instance, I do have a significant interest in how well soul-building theodicies and free-will defenses fair in defending human suffering. However as a vegan I have always taken somewhat more interest in animal suffering. Obviously, as a vegan, I see animal suffering as a problem. The role of factory farms in producing suffering is absolutely horrendous. This form of animal suffering is often simply put under the category of the free-will defense or soul-building theodicies, and consequently hasn't been explored in great detail (as far as I'm aware). That is one thing I look forward to working on with this blog. However, I also am looking forward to working on the problem of natural animal suffering: animal suffering with no intervention. 

Essentially what you can expect to see from this blog is my thoughts on various readings discussing the issue, responses to various theistic responses/theodicies, attempted steelmanning of said theodicies, and hopefully some original arguments once I am far enough into the process. I hope to expose more people to the issue of animal suffering in the Philosophy of Religion, especially since it has been a historical backburner. 

If you took the time to read all of that, I greatly appreciate it! Next week (or two weeks from now?) I'll share my thoughts on Cosmic Skeptic's recent video on the problem of animal suffering, and you'll see what (if anything) I'd initially like to add. 


That Vegan Atheist 

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